Thursday, March 06, 2008

Advice needed re: biting

Kate's new thing is biting. She bites her sister several times a day now, and I just don't know how to stop her from doing it. She has had timeouts. She had been yelled at, scolded, and chastised. And she is still biting Claire. I am at wit's end. Suggestions?

Also, the kiddos slept in past 6:30am this morning (unlike yesterday), so I feel much more rested. Thank GOD, because with all that is going on right now, sleep deprivation is NOT something I want to deal with! We are in the final days of Heritage Festival stuff, too, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and am able to see Tim slowly chugging towards me back home for more than 6 hours a day. Yahoo!

7 comments:

Andrea and Ben said...

I know this sounds terrible, but bite her back. My neice was a biter and was bitten (by another kid) and stopped biting immediately. I know it sounds harsh, but I know a few moms that have gotten to that point and it has been effective. Don't hate me, but it is what I would do to my kid.

Katie said...

I have heard about biting them back. But I seriously have NO advice for you. Becca bites me sometimes and I FREAK out, but I don't really think it bothers her! Let me know what you find out!

Anonymous said...

Can you identify why she is biting? Frustration, curiosity, for your reaction, teeth coming in? If you can identify what she is getting out of doing it maybe you can find a better solution.

What I have heard is that you shouldn't bite back because it is sending the message that biting is ok. If the bite came from another child I think that is different than one coming from an adult.

We did check out a book from the library called Teeth are Not for Biting by Elizabeth Verdick. I have seen it at Barnes and Noble recently. We haven't had too much trouble with biting- Katy just liked the book.

What I did about biting depended on their age. They never bite each other only me. Katy gets immediate timeouts and no Clifford show. She was biting because she was pretending to be a dog. Zach I ignored the biting and it stopped. Biting is a hard one. Good Luck.

Steph

Anonymous said...

I'm blessed because my kids have never been biters. The rare occasions when they have bitten (it was always James or me), we smacked them in the mouth immediately and told them no. We've never had a child old enough to spank, bite, but that's how I would respond.

Anonymous said...

When Caitlyn was a biter (she got kicked out of daycare for biting in Fayetteville) I bit her back and it seemed to work. They say not to do that because it promotes biting and says that biting is ok but it worked. She didn't like how it felt and it hurt her so she got the picture. Good luck!

Heather

Elizabeth said...

Oh! Can we expand this discussion to other violent behavior, like Catherine kicking me when I'm trying to put pants on her that she doesn't like, or hitting the dog when Glory annoys her? It seems wrong/ironic to tell her hitting is wrong by spanking her, but I'm not sure what else to do?

Swistle said...

Our girl was biting her twin for awhile. I did the Appalled Voice ("*gasp* Did you BITE Edward??"), followed by the Appalled and Firm Voice ("No, NO. We do NOT bite! Biting HURTS! No, NO. No biting! Biting HURTS.), followed by, "Can you tell him sorry and give him a hug?" I don't think it WORKED so much as that she grew out of it---and she still occasionally bites him, but more like once a month now.