what is the correct way to teach my 14 month old to stop biting me?

Question

ok she bites others and she bites me !!! what actions should i take at this age?

Answer 1

Immediately pull her away from the "bitee", get down on her level and look in her the eye, and sternly tell her that "WE DO NOT BITE." Even at her young age, you can try telling her that it hurts people and makes them sad when she bites them - she'll probably understand more than you'd think. The key thing is to act immediately when it happens and remove her from the situation. It's not too early to have a "time out" spot - a chair, a bottom stair step, etc. - where you can sit her down to talk about what she's done wrong. (She's still too young to sit there for more than about a minute, of course - one minute per year of age is the general rule for time outs, but that starts around age two.)

Whatever you do, DON'T bite her back. I'm sure *someone* around here will suggest that. All that will teach her is that it's okay to bite as long as you're bigger and stronger than the person you're biting. Not the lesson you want to be teaching your little girl.

Best of luck to you - I know it's frustrating, but stay on top of the behavior and remember that this too shall pass!

Answer 2

If you use physical force back on to her you are only teaching her another way to act out. A LOT of parents use other methods that are degrading because they have not found a way to communicate with their child. All kids learn differently, you need to figure out how its best to communicate with your child. I started drawing faces of sad people, hurt people, happy, laughing, etc. And I taught her the different emotions. In turn, when she does something wrong I tell her how that makes me feel and then she remembers those faces and stops her action. As far as biting, ignore her. It will stop. Teach her the emotions so she knows how you feel. If you bite her back...or spank her, you are teaching her dominance...that you are stronger then she is, if you find a way to communicate with her, it can be more time consuming, but better for her and you. You want to teach her that what she is doing is unacceptable, not that you can do it harder. That's just childish in itself! Good luck! You will get through this!

Answer 3

Biting is a common behavior in most toddlers and increases when a child is tired or frustrated. You should never bite back or overreact when it happens. Toddlers like the reaction. You have to teach your child that it is unacceptable behavior. You could give them these steps:
Some steps to take when your child bites include:

Immediately look her in the eye and give her a loud and firm 'NO.' You may also move her to another area for a time out. Let her know that it is never all right to bite another person because it hurts.
Supervise your child closely when she is with other children, so that you can distract her or interrupt any behavior that may lead to biting.
It is important to not overreact and never bite your child back. Biting her back or using physical punishment will just reinforce that it is okay to hurt others.
Give her lots of praise when she controls herself and doesn't bite.
Biting back will only fuel her anger and cause aggression. Ignore all these people that recommend to bite back. They obviously aren't educated on child development.
I studied this in school:
Children's hands are tools for exploring, an extension of the child's natural curiosity. Biting them back sends a powerful negative message. Sensitive parents that were interviewed all agree that the hands should be off-limits for physical punishment. Research supports this idea. Psychologists studied a group of sixteen fourteen-month-olds playing with their mothers. When one group of toddlers tried to bite another child. They received a bite on the hand; the other group of toddlers did not receive this form of physical punishment. In follow-up studies of these children seven months later, the punished babies were found to be less skilled at exploring their environment. Better to separate the child from the object or supervise his exploration and leave little hands unhurt.

Answer 4

a lot of people have said bite back, and while i do not totally disagree, i think the question needs to be asked: do you know WHY she's biting? with my daughter, it started with my husband and i playing "we're gonna eat you up!". she didn't understand that when she bit us, she wasn't doing it in the gentle, tickling way we did it to her, so in the end, i did one day bite back after she gave me a hell of a nip. a lot of kids bite, but 14 months is a big kid and heaven help you if she breaks someone's skin, in the litiginous society we live in today. consistency is key in breaking the habit, but if there is some sort of negative attention getting thing going on, as opposed to just playing too rough, you gotta get on the ball NOW, so it doesn't progress to hitting or throwing and breaking things. if this is a result of frustration in not being understood, say she's trying to tell you she needs something and you're not understanding her, try asking her why she bit you, and don't let it go unanswered. whatever form of punishment you would normally use for other infractions, use it with the biting, don't try to come up with something new and confuse her. i really do think you need to get to the root of why she's doing it, though, before you'll be able to get her to stop. there are a lot of people who say that physical punishment is no good, but how many of them are parents? a smack on the bottom or the hands never hurt me, i have a good relationship with my father, i have a good relationship with my daughter, so if you believe in spanking, than stick with it. if you do time-outs, stick with that. i don't really care what a clinical psychologist has to say about the matter, or what the results were in a controlled study group, and i don't believe that dr. phil never smacked any of his kids. we're talking about advice from practical people in the real world, for a 14 month old child. if she still biting at 14 years, then seek advice from a psychologist.

Answer 5

When she bites you have to tell her "no" firmly. You don't have to shout, that'll just upset her but you must be firm. It's a really difficult age because they're too little for the naughty step and yet you have to let them know that biting's not ok. When she bites just gently prise her off and say no. Sooner or later she'll get the message. Sorry I can't help more but good luck xx

Answer 6

Consistancy is really the key here. As soon as she bites pull her mouth away and get close to her face and firmly say NO BITING! Remove her from the situation and redirect her attention. If she bit another child then show the other child lots of attention.

Answer 7

I would just tell her firmly "NO BITE" and leave it at that, or remove her for a minute from whatever activity she is involved in. PLEASE don't listen to all those people who may suggest that you bite her back to show her how it feels. She is doing what most all babies her age do, and she will grow out of it, as long as you don't make too big of a deal about it.

Answer 8

I would put my kids in the playpen for 1 minute (they usually cried) and repeated no biting when I took them out. For both my kids it was a phase and fortunately relatively short.

Answer 9

Tell her don't bite. That isn't nice. They learn...let them know she is only 14 months playfully bite her back so she would understand

Answer 10

Tell her "No biting, that really hurts ....."(mommy, daddy, cousin bob, whoever) and put her in her playpen with no toys for 2-3 minutes.

It may take a while, but she will learn.