How do you deal with a 2 year that bites?

Question

My girlfriends has a 2 year old in her preschool class that bites when she is happy, angry, or sad. You can never tell when she's going to strike. The little girl bite her mom because she was happy to see her. Instead of a kiss she bite mom on the face. How can this be handled?

Answer 1

Although this is common behaviour, she needs to know that it hurts.  The mother should scream "OWWWWW" when she does it.  That will startle the child.

If this doesn't work, you can take a lesson from dog training and when the child bites, put your palm in her mouth sideways and push back.  That's how you train a dog not to bite and I have to say it was pretty effective on my son.

Answer 2

I gave up on answering questions on child behavior a long time ago.  Even when people ask for help, they become offended if you offer a solution.

Answer 3

bite her back but very gently.

Answer 4

knock that girl's teeth out jk

I think it is simply a phase that will be outgrown

Answer 5

Uhm, that's hard!

Give her a lollipop or something to keep her mouth occupied! Or just sit her down and tell her it's bad!

Answer 6

Give him/her a teething ring to bite on.  Explain to the child that he/she can bite it not a person.  The parent needs to say ouch and really act if it hurts really bad...make the child see how sad it makes him/her.  No child wants to hurt their parent and the child may not think much of it if it hasn't been addressed.  Say biting hurts you can bite the toy. In the prek class observe when & why she bites, if she has a language delay or she doesn't talk to express her needs she will bite.  Teach her sign language if so.  Most little ones bite because of the language not being developed enough.  Also, look at the activity level in the class, furniture arrangement, the dynamics of the kids.  All of it plays a part!

Answer 7

she deserves time out!

Answer 8

It's the mother's responsibility to teach the child not to bite.  Almost all children bite when they first get teeth.  At 2 this child has been biting for awhile and getting away with it.  I would handle it by taking her firmly in both hands to look at me when she bites someone and loudly saying NO  BITE!  Then put her in a timeout chair for 2 minutes away from everyone and everything else.  

Actually with my own kids, I used the "mosquito response".  

This means when they bit, I automatically smacked them--not hard, but enough to startle and discomfort them.  This was accompanied by me saying "It hurts when you bite."  They took this to mean that it would hurt them when they bit someone.  My kids never bit more than a few times before stopping for good.  You can't smack someone else's kid, though.

Answer 9

I GENTLY bit mine back and it only took once.  All the books say not to do it.  It worked for my mom and it worked for me.

Answer 10

muzzle

Answer 11

Unfortunately these tactics were used on my own children and may not be appropriate for a preschool teacher but I thought I'd share them anyway because they did work.

The first one is to bite back.It might sound mean but you don't bite hard enough to break skin or seriously hurt the kid but bite hard enough to show them it hurts and you shouldn't do it to other people cause it hurts them too.

Second,  use Tabasco sauce. This is a miracle cure for any bad kid. My son got to the point where all I had to do was pull the bottle of Tabasco out and he turned into an angel.

Answer 12

Some people would say "thats horrible" to the following but it isn't when she bites tell her no and flick her in the mouth

My Brother did this with his kids and they dont bite anymore

Answer 13

i would say tell her mother to spank her tush not hard so she can maybe ask what was that for if she talks and the mom  can tell her it is not nice to bite people

Answer 14

An simple Answer, you retract 100 pounds of Carbon Fiber and string a shield. If operation cannot be completed, threaten her to a danger, or simply make a habit out of her. Firstly test her psychological problems. If okay, presume to envision the current contact to the next step. Now, to train a below 5 years old biter, you must calm down and find the reason or what problem or even deflects that may have occurred in the past. If below 5 years old, operation is possible. First, find the child's hobby. If it is biting resume to second step. The second step is to properly watch the child, If the circumstances are possible, give her a enlarged pacifier of a dose of food. If the child has sharp teeth, a tactical, but strong cushion that can last in between the child's teeth. To form a habit, you must push against effort and give her consequences.

Answer 15

The first thing to not do is to bite the child. This action would be interpreted as a sign that it is ok to bite. Spank and time out or scold (if you do not believe in spanking) and again time out. Scolding in front of others is embarrassing for the child and will stop the biting quicker than anything. Good Luck!! from one who has been there.