Biting. OMG.

[whitepicketfence]

So, DD1 bit DD2 today :-|

Biting has never been an issue with her until this weekend. We were out at a restaurant on Friday night when, for no apparant reason, DD1 bit DH on the arm. He promptly took her outside and reprimanded her while explaining that biting hurts and we never bite anyone ever, etc. She apologized and we thought it was over.

Then today, I was in the kitchen getting ready for a get together we were having at our house when I saw her bite DD2 on the hand. She bit HARD. She didn't break the skin, but she left teeth marks and now DD2 had red marks where she was bit.

I'm so furious about this and can't understand where this is coming from. DD2 wasn't even paying any attention to her at the time of the biting so it wasn't that DD1 was provoked or anything (not that it would be acceptable then either ). Is this just a stage? How do you stop this kinds of behavior? We used time out today (she had to stay in her room and miss playing with her cousins for awhile at our party), but I'm not sure if this is a good enough deterrent in this case.

[slug*bug]

DS bit/tried to bite me a few times in the months after DD was born. I was reassured by my SIL (and several other friends) that it was a phase and it was for us.

Most people that I talked to seemed to think it had to do with the older child being unable to verbalize their frustration effectively...and thus it came out via biting. This was probably true in our case. As DS got older (and better at expressing things, especially verbally) we had fewer and fewer problems. He eventually just stopped and I chalked it up to him gradually getting more verbal, getting older and getting better at avoiding the consequences (time out, etc.)

We did what you did: time out, frequent reminders when we could tell he was getting frustrated and just basically riding it out while protecting DD (he never did try to bite her, but I think it was a possibility.) The good news was that time out starting getting more effective about the time this started happening, so it helped in minimizing the biting in large part b/c of the physical separation from us, DD during time out.

Hang in there...I think a lot of us have been there.

[GailGoldie]

Griffin was 2yo when the twins were born. he never minded them at all - until they turned 1 and started walking... suddenly it was like they were a true threat - "real people" and could get to hs stuff, etc. He'd push them over, etc... all after a year of being nothing but sweet to them...

so justk now it's not that odd for this type of thing to happen.

just keep up with it - don't ever leave them alone, etc.

[whitepicketfence]

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I'm still a bit freaked out by the whole thing. I just feel so bad for DD2

For clarification, we took her right to her room for a time-out after it happened. Our family just happened to get there at the same time. I realize that she wouldn't "get it" if we tried to punish her after the fact when some time had elapsed.

[bunch]

Sept 2, 2012 17:45:48 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

When she was younger (1 - 1.5 years old) Kirklette went through a biting phase. I was terrified we were going to get kicked out of daycare.

Eventually, we taught her that,"We don't bite, we hug instead". For some reason, this worked well for her. It allowed her to course correct in the moment.

I like this. Dd is a terrible biter. She has been since six mos. today she broke my skin. I usually shriek (accidentally) "no! We don't bite!" but that obviously does nothing.