Discouraging biting habit in 10 month old

My 10 month old has begun biting people quite a bit. Any ideas on how

toypup...

What consequence was that?

Nikki...

I held him in a bear hug, facing outward. I discovered he really hated that
type of restraint.

to discourage this behavior. It's bad enough with DH and I as we can
usually realize that he's going to do it and avoid it but my poor 4
year old seems to be getting the brunt of this painful problem.

toto...

The key to making sure your 4 year old is not getting bitten is
supervision and prevention for at least a few weeks until the baby
learns not to bite.

Rosalie B....

If it wasn't me being bitten, I would tell the 4yo to stay away from
the younger sibling. The 4 yo can be told to do that.

Then you teach the 10 month old not to bite when it is a grown person.
The 4 yo can get back into contact with the baby after the problem
passes.

grandma Rosalie

At this age, it's probably teething. When the baby goes to bite,
take her away from the 4 year old before s/he bites. Hand her
something s/he can bite and say *we bite ********** not people.*
Put her in the playpen or in a gated off room for about 1 minute.
Ignore her for this short period of time. Then get her out and
say *no biting now.* Do this every time she starts to bite. She
will get the idea pretty quickly. It may also be exploration and
testing to see what happens, but the same procedure will apply
anyway.

Also have some teethers or bagels or something she can bite
that she likes nearby at all times for teething. You can try orajel
or some other analgesic on her mouth for teething pain. Bagels
work well because they are hard and they taste good too..

Shelley
mom to Jacob (4 yo) and Owen (10 mo)

dragonlady...

With my biter, I had to stay really close for some period of time. I
was fortunate, in that he usually telegraph his intent to bite in ways I
could see. When he aimed at someone, I'd get something else between his
mouth and the object of his intention (usually something cloth -- his
blankie was always close) and say, firmly, "We bite blankets, NOT
people." (For a while, I tried to keep teething toys, REALLY designed
for biting close enough, but found that I couldn't always get to one
fast enough; the blankie, however, was always close enough.) On those
occassions where he DID manage to bite someone, I'd put him in his
playpen or somewhere else where he couldn't get to anyone, and pay LOTS
of attention to the child who got bit.

It's been a while (he's 20 now, and hardly ever tries to bite anyone, as
far as I know), but if memory serves it was at least 2 months of pretty
constant, extremely close supervision. During that time, he was either
isolated from his sisters (one three years older, one twin) or I was
right there. Eventually, though, when he got frustrated he'd chew on
something else (he seemed to need to bite SOMETHING!).

Good luck. Biting is a frustrating problem, but not uncommon.

Stephanie...

What I did with both of mine I did not do on purpose. However it worked like
cases my kids decided to take their first and only chomp (actually my DD
tried again one or 2 times, but got ouch then too and gave up) to bite HARD,
hard enough to draw blood.

Donna Metler...

With my daughter's first bite (on DH), it was even more than that-DH had
been raised in a house where his mother bred purebred kittens, and when you
train a kitten not to bite, the common technique is to say NO loudly and tap
the kitten's nose with your index finger. Not hard at all, but it startles

dejablues...

and

the kitten.

Well, DD bit daddy, and daddy reacted instinctively-he tapped her nose and

dejablues...

startles

dejablues...

and

said "NO". Completely surprised and startled DD. Had daddy convinced he'd
permanently damaged his relationship with his daughter and half ready to
report himself for child abuse until she stopped crying and was ready to
cuddle in his arms again.

She's not bitten anyone since-and it's been about 4 months. I can't say I
recommend the technique-but I must admit, it was effective.

Rosalie B....

When the kids were teething, and got ready to bite while bfing, my mom
recommended that I tap their cheek and say "No". And then remove the
breast. This worked. I don't know that I'd recommend it now, but for
a pre-verbal child, startling them is pretty much the key.

grandma Rosalie

dejablues...

I used a technique recommended for puppies. When they bite down, push the
bitten part further back into their mouth towards the throat. They will gag,
and let go. Pulling away will result in their teeth ripping your skin (bad)
, and will have no negative consequence for them.

For some kids (and puppies!) the bitten person yelling and expressing pain
is a funny game, so they do it again. Make them gag, and it becomes not fun.

dragonlady...

Not sure that would be a good idea when the arm they're biting is their

dejablues...

loudly

sister's arm.

dejablues...

A screaming sister and a parent rushing in to stop it all is the best kind

dejablues...

nose

of reinforcement! ;-)

I guess it depends on the ages of the kids, toddler-on-toddler aggression
needs parental interference.
Older kids fight to see whose side the parent will take, IMO, and I tend to

dejablues...

convinced

dejablues...

ready

ignore it, or tell them to work it out themselves.

dejablues...

ready

toypup...

dejablues...

can't

dejablues...

push

I did that when DS bit my arm and ended up with a nasty bruise the shape of

dejablues...

will

dejablues...

skin

dejablues...

expressing

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not

dejablues...

their

dejablues...

kind

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aggression

dejablues...

dragonlady...

Toddler biting needs to be stopped -- there's a danger of genuine injury.

And the screaming sister and parent rushing in to stop it wasn't enough
with my son. He was one of those kids who just seemed to need to BITE
something when he was frustrated!

So close supervision until he could be relied on to NOT bite worked
better.

As it was, he nailed each of his sisters more than once. With three
kids, it just wasn't always possible to be close enough, though lord
knows I tried. I don't remember him ever successfully biting me or DH

dejablues...

Thankfully, the biting stage is a short-lived one!

his upper and lower teeth. It didn't stop him, though. That method did
work while BF'ing, because he briefly couldn't breath with his face on my
boob, but my arm deeper in his mouth didn't work.

-L....

DS bit us a couple of times around the same age and it stopped almost
immediately when we started saying "OUCH!" really loud, and putting him
down, with no attention for a little bit afterward. He figured it out
pretty quickly.