How to get 12-15 month old to stop biting?

[biscoffcookies]

According to daycare, our 12 month old DD has been biting the other kids in her room. She also has been biting DH and I lately -- she will grab our fingers and try to put them in her mouth (and if she succeeds, will bite down) and sometimes she'll just bite our arms or hands randomly. She only has 2 teeth each on top and bottom and has never bitten hard enough to break the skin, but it does hurt.

We've been trying to redirect and tell her no when she bites/attempts to bite, as has daycare. So far, there's been no real effect. Right now she is in the infant room, but she is slated to move up to the toddler room sometime in the next couple months (could be as soon as January or as late as March -- it depends on when a slot becomes available). Her teacher told us today that, once she gets to the toddler room, if she bites three times she'll be expelled from daycare.

Now I am freaking out. Daycare spots in this city are so hard to come by (waitlists are routinely 12+ months long) and a nanny is out of our budget, so if DD gets expelled I don't know what we'll do. Plus, we love our current daycare.

Is there anything else we can do besides redirection and saying no (hoping it sinks in) at this age?

[Deleted]

Biting at this age is typical, their teeth hurt and your skin or anything soft/rubbery feels good on their gums. Does she have a lot of chew toys to play with?

The difference between this age and when they are older, closer to 2 and beyond is that they bite out of aggression and right now your child is not doing that -- they are just exploring. I think it's shameful that your day care person would be scaring you like this and making you worry. I would do one of two things -- bring no attention to what your baby is doing and as she gets closer to 16 mo if that continues I would then bring big attention, "OUCH!", cry, etc to when they bite you.

My first DD went thru a short-lived biting phase at 16 mo and it was out of aggression/lack of being able to communicate and we did the loud reaction and she eventually stopped -- took about 3 weeks.

Some kids are just more oral than others, but at 12 mo old, this is normal, think of all the teeth your kid still needs to have come in -- she is in a lot of pain/discomfort right now.

[froggy76]

I don't have a biter (yet), but I was thinking teething toys might help. If she tries to bite your finger, offer her a teething toy instead. DD LOVES the banana teething toothbrush- she has one at home and one at DC.

[everam01]

Teething toys and redirection. I think expelling kids for biting is ridiculous because it's a normal toddler phase. We were told that you just say, "Ouch. No biting." or "Ouch. Biting hurts." and then move them to a different location and give them a new activity. It took a while for E to grow out of his biting phase. He starting biting for teething then bit when someone was trying to grab something from him.