Biting, toddler style
Our 16 month old has now managed to bite both her parents, on the shoulder, while being held. One time was a few weeks ago, the other was yesterday. We were thinking it was a I'm tired, don't have my pacifier, can't deal kind of frustrated bite, but just tonight we realized she's getting like 4 teeth coming in at once.
What should we do? So far, I think we both responded similarly - yelped "ow", immediately put her down, she cried. This time, we let her cry a couple minutes, then gave her her pacifier and said, "no biting". Any suggestions?
1 Answers
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"That's not food!" We used that with all 3 of our kids. Biting is for food, and only food. Make it a game. Pick up a bottle of shampoo - do we bite this? Is this food? How about a flower? The couch? Mommy's arm? No! Silly! This is food (show her a carrot, or a cracker, and then give it to her).
Teething might be behind it, or she may be using it to express herself and control her surroundings. She's smart enough to learn that every time she bites she loses the attention she wants, and then biting will lose its pull for her.
Wow, what an awesome response! Thanks Mudlark!
- akl, May 20, 2010