Chomp Chomp!

Until two days ago, neither of my children ever bit each other or anyone else. Well, Monday Royce bit Alice. He did it again yesterday. I'm glad that I don't have to worry about making another parent angry, but WTH?

I spoke with the teacher today for a few minutes, and she said that she thinks it's because 1. Alice is mean to Royce because (going back to what happened before) 2. he wants to play with her and she doesn't want to play with him. 3. He only plays with toys or with her, she plays with everyone. I asked the teacher to try to keep them separated, keep Royce more occupied and try to encourage him to play with other kids.

/sigh. Any suggestions?

 

Is he able to communicate his frustration? I know that Alice talks a lot, but does Royce too? Can you encourage him to use his words when Alice makes him mad? It sounds like he wants to play with her, she blows him off, and he gets mad and goes for the kill (well you know what I mean). Maybe role play what to do when you are mad instead of biting. :hug: Both of mine have bitten me and DH but never each other. The times it happened it was out of frustration or excitement.

 

That's a really good point. He doesn't talk as much or as well as Alice. Hmmmm. . .something else to ponder.

 

Sarah went through phases where she bit Amy once or twice a week (and occasionally other kids) and it didn't stop until at least age 3, maybe older.

With her (and the other kids in the class who tended to bite) it was largely a frustration issue. She didn't talk as well as Amy, and she is also incredibly stubborn and tenacious by nature :laughing: , so if someone tried to push her around or take something from her, she would pinch them in a death grip or bite. My sense is that's what was going on with the other biters in the class too, although I never talked to the parents about it much.

Just growing out of the 2- and 3-year-old emotional issues has helped the most, but it also helped to teach her how to make a "frustration noise" (kind of like a throaty growl -- modeled on my own frustration noise :ibiggrin: ) instead of being physical.

 

Rawr!

I growl too! He did really good yesterday and had a good day at school, and didn't bite Alice or anyone else. I think Mikey got through a little bit when he caught Royce biting one of his toys and explained to him that "he hurts people when he bites them, does he like to be hurt, does he like to be bit, Alice and the rest of the world don't like to be bit, so kindly cut it out" sort of conversation that Daddies are wonderful with. :laughing:

Now that I think about it, it's probably based on frustration on his part. He's frustrated that Alice doesn't want to play with him or has whatever toy he wants. He's frustrated that he can't tell Alice that he wants the toy or to play with her. However, his language is definitely getting much clearer in the past week or two. Only about 50% of it is now gibberish.