Biting

[smith76]

I am having issues with children biting in the toddler room as much as we supervise and and keep the toddlers busy there are two children are the main children biting but i have other toddlers starting to do the same thing. we sit them in time out, redirect them but one little boy just goes and does it for no reason. what strategies do other people use in their toddler room. I went and found some information about biting in child care to give out to each family. Im at wits end because i have no support or direction on how to handle more than one biter in the room. I have spoken to both of their parents one parent is really good and said to do whatever needs to be done even if we have to give the dummy and the other parent does not care one bit.

[fchaudari76]

From what I have experienced no child bites with no reason. Something always triggers it and you need to know what causes the child to bite and then work on resolving it so when faced with these situations the child does not go to bite.
Some children resort to biting as an attention seeking behaviour, except it is obviously an extreme behaviour compared to a child just being naughty or clingy etc and wanting attention. In some cases it is things at home which cause the child to resort to this behaviour and however hard it is you have to talk to parents and try and get to the bottom of it.
In biting cases I adopt a no tolerance attitude... they bite or attempt to bite and they are immediately removed from the situation no matter what .... even if they go to bite because another child has tried to take a toy ... they still have to learn that biting is unacceptable. You remove them and clearly tell them they need to use their words but they CANNOT bite. Naturally (for this example) you also deal with the other child explaining that snatching toys is also not what we do.
However hard it is (and maybe you need to ask your Director if she can spare someone) is have the biters shadowed so they are caught before they actually bite.
Dummies are not the solution to biters!... if a child is (in his eyes) provoked they will just take it out and bite anyway! It solves nothing.

[Lorina]

I agree with Fefe in saying that children bite for a reason and sometimes this reason is due to attention seeking behavior. Often when dealing with a biting issue, you would approach the biter and ask why they did it, say sorry to the bitten child, etc. By doing all these things, you are creating unwanted attention to the biter. The biter would then begin to realize that every time they bite they will receive attention from you even though it's negative. To resolve this issue, you must try not to give attention at all to the biter. If a child bites, simply lead them away from the situation and put them into a secluded area for a couple of minutes. You don't need to make a child apologies especially in the toddler room but provide comfort and support to the child whom was bitten. By doing this you are elimanting the unwanted attention caused by the biter.

[mastaneh]

Biting is common and approximately one in every 10 toddlers bite others and usual responses to biting behaviours include focusing on the child bitten , encouraging the use of words , using separation, redirection and follow through.
Bitting often happens when children are stressed , and as an expression for frustration.Some researcher argue that it may also arise out of a child's developmental need for oral stimulation and thus can be managed by offering different textured foods and toys to chew.