Two Year Old Bitting

OMG!! My son did this so much!! We went round and round trying all the different stuff. i was talking to my mom and she told me my brother did the same thing...i asked her how she got him to stop...she bit him back. Oh how horrible! I would never do that! A couple of days later he bit his baby sister and drew blood...that did it I bit him back. He did it one other time and I asked if he wanted me to bite him back?? Never did it again. I know of other parents who have used this too worked for them too.

Hi –
There are 4 reasons why a behavior occurs:
1) attention seeking
2) avoiding/escaping
3) access to a tangible object
4) to fulfill a sensory need

That being said in order to eliminate an unwanted behavior there are several things you need to keep in mind. First, you MUST replace that behavior with another more appropriate behavior (otherwise you may get a worse behavior). Next think about the ABC’S
A (antecedent) – condition that occurs before the behavior which trigger the behavior (? Does the other child have a toy your child wants? Are they grabbing at a toy your child has? Are they bothering him in some way? Is he bored?

B (Behaviors) – observable actions that immediately follow antecedent (in this case “Biting”)

C (Consequence) – what happens after the behavior occurs as a result of ( or in response to) the behavior (natural consequences, staff/peer responses) *make sure the consequence matches the behavior – when he bites what happens? Is the other child removed (if he was bothered by the other child this would be a reward – does he get attention (negative attention can be just as good as positive attention)

S (setting events) – events that occur at a different point in time that may influence or set the stage for the likelihood of a behavior occurring or having an effect on how the person responds to the antecedent (sleep? Is he hungry? Sick? Headaches? constipated?, etc)

Ask the day care
1) what happens right before he bites
2) figure out why he is doing the behavior (this will change you response)
3) replace with appropriate response (e.g. is he is biting b/c he is mad – see if you can show him to say “no” or stomp his foot as opposed to biting. If he is biting to get attention then have the person remove him and say NOTHING to him (zero attention), if he is bored structure the day to provide choices that he can engage in to prevent his behavior.
4) Ask when does this behavior NOT occur (e.g. does he never bite in the AM? Does he never bite during group play? Arts and crafts? Etc.

Hope that helps
Good luck!

My 3 1/2 year old went thru this and was a huge issue at our home daycare as well. My provider was really good at re-directing his frustration by giving him something else to bite on and every time he did, he was removed from the situation and talked to about how it hurts. Another mom actually took her kid out, and mine stayed, due to my son biting. As a parent you feel awful, but anyone that has children this age understands that it is a phase and will pass. A lot of centers though, will kick children out after 3 times, so I would talk to them about their policies and see if they have any recommendations. When he did it at home, I tapped his mouth and told him, "No biting, that hurts." It took at least a couple of months to get control of it, but it did stop. Good luck!

My doctor suggested using pure lemon juice. This did not work for mine because they love the lemon juice, so I tried lime juice. With my oldest the lime juice worked, but for my youngest I had to use vinagar. Just a small dab on the tongue, and they quit biting rather quickly.

You didn't say if your child had any developmental delays but my son is autistic and although he never bit any child he was often the child getting bitten all by children who were autistic too. AJC gave you some ideas on how to deal with this. In the autism world it is likely sensory issues and frustration not being able to express oneself. If you child talks (and he should by now) ask him to use his words if you sense the biting is due to frustration. If his issues are sensory, the book The Out-of-Sync Child may give you some clues.

It's a phase like the others said. Many moms that I have talked to had to deal with this at some point. My son was kicked out of 2 daycares due to his biting. We gave him other things to bite and bought the book , 'Teeth are not for biting'. We talked to him about being kind and giving kisses and loves instead. Unfortunatly, he just wanted to bite. around age 3 he just gave it up and never did it again. It was had having to apologize for all the kids he bite, some moms just don't understand that the phase bititng is not a totally mean thing. My son was also very loving and gave tons of hugs and kisses, he never had a problem with sharing or cooperating, he just bit. It totaly sucked. I really hope you don't have as many problems as we did. Just do your best to enforce kindness in his actions, and show him love, and he will get over it eventually. good luck to you!

I had a son that did this as well. After trying everything, I bit him.....not hard enough to really hurt him, but hard enough that he understood that it hurt......I don't think until that point, he understood. He stopped very soon after........I'm not saying this works for everyone, but it worked for me............they need to understand that it hurts....like hitting.......and your son is pretty young......
Good luck.....

I'm thinking that this is a phase. Does he do this at home at all? My son was being the bitee at daycare for awhile, and then became the biter - for about a week. We talked about soft touches, only using our hands, no mouths, how biting hurts, and we don't want to hurt our friends, etc. The consistency of the daycare seemed to be what solved it as he wasn't doing it at home.

We also noticed that this was during a period where there was a teacher change and all the kids seemed to be pushing boundaries with this new teacher.