My 2 1/2 year old daughter just started biting people for no reason. When you put her in timeout she gets down, runs away and laughs. She has always been good and hasn't been around any kids her age to see biting, what do I do?
2007-06-04 18:36:06 · 23 answers · asked by mysticmary 3 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
Bite her back. I know that it sounds really mean but at that age she doesn't know what pain is and doesn't realize that when she bites someone, it's actually hurting them. Biting her back (not hard and definetly not breaking the skin) shows her that it doesn't feel cool and she'll start to understand why she's being punished when she does it.
2007-06-04 21:04:46 · answer #1 · answered by Raven 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Biting back is like hitting a child to teach them not to hit.
It might work out of fear or pain, but it does not teach anything to the child, except that the one that hits or bites stronger wins.
From what you're describing, your daughter is in her terrible two and she is looking for a reaction.
When she bites, tell her not to bite and put her on a time-out.
At the same time, give her a lot of positive reinforcement and attention when she does something good , so she wont be tempted to bite to get your attention.
2007-06-04 18:53:44 · answer #2 · answered by annelle 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I also had to deal with this.. fortunately for us and unfortunately for her brother, my daughter only bit him...and that's what helped us figure what to do
I did some reading and found out that this is pretty normal for a pre-verbal kid, or one with limited vocabulary... It's a coping mechanism for frustration.. although it is inappropriate.
I read that you need to find out what is triggering the biting... in our case it was her brother.... and be very vigilant at all times but extra super vigilant at those times. (She did try a couple of other times and we caught it, thank goodness!). Anyways, if you can intervene before the biting, she will forget about it as a coping mechanism... everytime we saw the situation arising, and her go in for the flesh, we would intervene and distract her... worked within a week and a half and the articles i had read said you need to go 2 weeks of super high alert and not allow any biting by stepping in and they'll forget, so it definitely worked!
No matter what anyone says, this does not mean you are a bad parent. and you should definitely not bite her back! She wouldn't understand that kind of cause and effect!
Good luck!
2007-06-04 18:45:04 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Teach her that biting is wrong. Do not let her run away and laugh when you put her for time outs, make her sit. Be stern with her, and tell her "no" in a tone so that she knows she has done something bad. If she continues, see a professional, or get her something else to bite instead of people (toy, etc) (but i wouldn't encourage the bitting or let it continue, show her it is wrong)...
2007-06-04 18:40:24 · answer #4 · answered by Sewage 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I tried putting my 3 year old in time out as my mother-in-law suggested. This didn't work on my daughter. Finally, I started biting her whenever she bite someone. It wasn't hard enough to leave teeth marks or even cause pain, but she knew she didn't like it, and she stopped biting on the 1st day.
2007-06-04 18:48:42 · answer #5 · answered by Georgie 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Many people will say to bite her back. But telling her it's a bad thing to do, being stern and then putting her in a time out should work. You MUST be consistant though. That's the only way you will be able to teach her withought using the old eye for an eye method. It may take some time but it will work!
2007-06-04 18:39:13 · answer #6 · answered by Tashia 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
For mine it was pinching...we would pinch her back,not hard just to show her it was not a nice thing. So I'm sure you can do the same thing. When she bites, just bite her back with very little pressure and tell her that is is not nice to bite so please do not bite again and set her in time out(continue to place her back when she gets up. If that does not help much, try taking away her toys for a while.
2007-06-04 18:49:30 · answer #7 · answered by AHHHHhhhhh 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If she bites you, or you see her bite someone, bite her back, just as hard. She'll learn its not acceptable behavior. If she gets out of time out, spank her bottom. Not hard, just hard enough for her to realize, she'd rather stay in timeout, than get a spanking.
2007-06-05 05:01:32 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like the terrible twos, im not sure what the problem solving answer is but i can give you a suggestion, maybe bite her back(this one would probably be last resort) otherwise pretend to cry, pick her up one thousand times and make her sit in the corner, tell her if she doesnt sit there one of her toys(just pick one doesnt matter)is going in the bin,just a couple of sugestions, not too sure, they sound harsh but if you stay calm they arent, they listen and dont want to sit there anymore
I hope this helps, biting can really hurt.
2007-06-04 18:59:28 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Holly crap... I had this issue with 2 of my 3 kids. One started biting out of no where. Sometimes it was because he was mad, but sometimes it was for no reason.
At first we got really mad and put him in time outs. It got worst... So we decided to just keep it simple. If he bit someone we would just put him in a TO quietly, we didn't yell or say a hole bunch of things he already knew. We didn't give him the attention he wanted. We would actually give a lot of attention to our other child that was bitten. That seems to work.
2007-06-04 18:41:18 · answer #10 · answered by Brickey 2 · 4⤊ 1⤋