Biting

My more dominate girl twin keeps biting her brother. They are 16 months old. She is super sweet, but she gets what she wants when she wants it! She has bit him 3 times already. She is not breaking the skin, but the bitings are raised and now leaving bruises.

I have yelled, said "NO" firmly, put her on the step (as a time out). She cries after I yell at her.

Yesterday at day care she bit him again. I am very worried that she is going to bite another child! What can I do? I need all the help and suggestions I can get!

 

I dont really have any suggestions but wanted to tell you that my ds went through this a while back, he bit whenever given the oppertunity-lol He did bite his sister once at daycare and the provider just did the very firm voice and said 'NO, we do NOT bite" he hasnt done it again-that I know of. I think that not giving it too much attention will be better and they will "forget" that they can do it.

Once my 1st dd bit me on my shoulder while I was carrying her and I gently bit her shoulder back (mainly so she would release the bite) and she NEVER bit me again?????

I really think it is a phase....

 

I agree with Lesley Anne. Our DD went through a biting phase and would always bite DH or me. We do think in her case it was because her molars were coming in because once they were in, she stopped. We would do the firm no and really overact (fake crying, the whole 9 yards) how much her bites hurt.

 

We went through this a few times with Jacob. He was our biter. Jackson has never bitten, to my knowledge.

It ALWAYS coincided for him with teething, and I have friends who have had the same experience. In our experience, it would last at most a week or two, then not happen again for several weeks/months.

The trigger for Jacob was when he got very upset by wanting something but being too emotionally involved to step back and ask nicely, or if he was too emotional from being angry that his brother stole his toy. During biting phases, I tried to keep an extra-close eye on their independent play to avoid biting episodes.

We would do the firm "no, we do not bite," along with a time-out. That did send a message, and he usually wouldn't do it again for awhile.

 

My Pedi said that after being firm with "No biting" to be really sad about the fact that they bit someone. A couple of recent studies have shown it to be very effective.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Hopefully they will work on her.

 

One of my girls went through a biting phase. What worked best for us was putting her in a timeout and firmly telling her no, that we didn't bite. And then lavishing all of my attention on her sister, and basically ignored her while she was in the timeout.