My child bites!

[MadMadamMimz]

Greetings Mumsnetters!

My ds is 11 months old and he bites people. At the moment, it tends to be me that he bites however he has on occasion also bitten family members...and it hurts! He can bite when holding him but also if you are just sat with him and he is playing. It is usually more likely to happen when he is due a nap or it is getting close to a meal time.

I have been following advice from the internet and telling him firmly "no biting" when he does this but he will usually laugh thinking it is a game. My worry is that I will be going back to work next month and he will be starting nursery so I would really appreciate any advice of how to try and nip this in the bud before he starts nursery. Thanks x

Thanks x

I used to give a firm 'no!' and then immediately place DC on the floor or away from me, stop playing etc. The point being to associate biting with stopping play or cuddles so it is boring rather than fun. Stop engaging for a moment straight after biting so it's not fun.

You need to be able to say a firm 'no' but show no other response because getting upset or angry etc can be interesting for DC and make them want to see if they can provoke the response again.

You could also get chew toys and say 'bite this is if you want to bite something.'

It's quite a common thing for young children and your nursery will have strategies to help - but ultimately if he does it a lot at nursery you could be asked to remove him as other parents don't want their kids coming home with bite marks, and the staff can't watch him all the time.

I think there's a book called 'teeth are not for biting' that might help, though he's a bit young for that.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

This is my fear is that he will start nursery and no one will want to play with "the child that bites". He is a lovely boy the rest of the time but I have to admit that I have avoided play dates as I worry he might do this to another child.

I will take your advice on board.

Try not to worry, they all go through biting/hitting phases etc. Our daughter currently has a great right hook on her 🤦‍♀️ Agree with pp re encouraging him to bite something else after you've said 'no biting people' or similar. It's an urge he needs to indulge but he needs to know what he can and can't bite. There are various teether options, matchstick monkey went down well here and she still occasionally runs off saying 'I want my monkey' when she feels the need to chomp on something (but has now stopped biting us)!

Thank you for the suggestion. He used to have a Sophie Girafe chew that he got in well with until a friend had a horrible experience with the toy so I threw it out. I will give the matchstick monkeys a try.

We had this experience too and I don’t really have any advice other than to say it is much less frequent now at 16 months than it was at 12 months and she never bit anyone at nursery. I tried all the usual suggestions given above but nothing really worked except for time. I mostly put it down to teething but unfortunately my DD lost interest in all her usual teething toys after about 12 months.

Thank you. Gosh I'm not sure I could cope with this until 16 months! It actually really hurts when he bites and I have bruises down my arm. I shall persevere and hope for the best.