15 Month Old Is Biting

when my daughter started biting at the same age maybe alittle earlier biting back never helped. It just seemed like it was okay for her to do it more and more. It may sound silly but I just kept on saying to "be nice" and she eventually stopped. I honestly kept saying no and be nice and it stopped but I know that may not be easy some times...good luck it took me almost 3 months to completely stop.

Hi, my son is 16 months and he also started biting, usually just me though. I told his pediatrician at his last visit and we figured it out (I hope) I'm always kissing and giving rasberrys on his belly and legs and I think my son is playing and trying to do the same to me. I've been telling him "No Bite" very firmly and walking away and also I have to calm down on the rasberrys :)

Very common and completely normal as you know. This will pass in it's own time. I don't think that there is too much to do about it. My son only bit me and thought my firm reaction was hilarious. Soon I would separate myself from him every time and it passed. Good luck!

I am so sorry...I know it is hard when they do this. When my cousin was doing this my Aunt bit her once...NOT that I recommend that. The time-outs work. I also take something my kids love for a while. I make them say they are sorry. Hopefully this will be a short lived phase.

Mine did too. All I can say is it will stop. You have to give him a time out everytime though. You can try a self bite, but just let him know it's wrong. He will stop.

Hi E.

My son, who now is 2 1/2 went through a biting phace also. I think that a lot of kids go through this phace at some point. When your son bites at night, like you say, it probably is because he is tired. Try looking for cues that he is tired and put him to bed before he resorts to biting you to try to communicate that he needs sleep. Usually, kids bite other kids because they get overexited and they don't know how to handle it or because they haven't yet learned how to approach other kids. When he bites other kids it may help to firmly tell him "no biting" and if you think he is overexited take him to a quiet place. If he bites because he doesn't know yet how to approach other kids, you can tell him how to do it (e.g. tell him to wave hello or to show the other kids his toys, etc.). I don't agree with having him bite himself. He is still very little and having him hurt himself won't teach him not to bite. The reason for him biting is not to hurt other people. You have to find the real reason (like the ones I suggested above) and help him with those needs.

C.

When my now two-year-old did it, I would put him down on the couch right away, say "No bite!" and walk away every time. He wasn't getting attention, so it stopped quickly. When he started hair pulling and hitting, I did the same thing. He still does it occasionally, but he gets automatic time out for hurting people or the animals. It's working well. It's not a perfect solution, but we're down to about once or twice a day instead of every time he gets irked about something.

hi E., this is a normal phase, but it is one that i would treat very seriously, especially if your child is around other kids, especially non-family. it can be serious - as a teacher, we were always very aware of which kids were "biters", and if they draw blood, everyone has to go get blood tests, etc. i would do whatever it is that gets the best results for your child asap. for me, the most effective thing to stop any behavior, especially that young, has always been to turn/walk away immediately. if time outs work better for you, then do that. one thing i sometimes do when severe consequences are required is to throw away a toy in front of them, but i really only do that if it applies, like if my son hits my daughter with a toy, it gets thrown out, etc, i dont really agree with consequences that dont "fit" the crime, but that one definitely works with my son (my daughter could care less if i threw anything out). what im saying is to find what works best with him. time outs in one spot may have no effect, while in another spot he may really hate it and it works. also, if he mostly does it with your nieces and nephew,i would double check to make sure that he isnt learning the behavior from any of them, and also make sure that they arent giving him a big exciting reaction when he does it. also, give him a different way to express his frustration. they need some way. teach him to hit a pillow or the couch or something, and praise like crazy when he does the right thing. and keep repeating, "we DONT bite" tell him we "do nice" and stroke his cheek/arm/whatever and get the other kids to do it too, show him how to do it to them and to you, with big smiles. good luck, D.

Hi E.,

When my son Antonio who is 2 1/2 years old gets frustreated or really mad he will bite himself.

I have absolutely no idea on how to stop him other than to slap his hand and say "No" your gonna hurt yourself. Since then he hasnt bitten himself.

H. F.
Part-Time Working mom/Full time mom of a 2 1/2 year old.

hi, i am also having this problem. my daughter is 13 months old, and has been biting on and off for the past 6 months. it seems for her that she does it most when she's teething, but she will bite anything and everything. if she is mad she will even resort to biting herself. i have tried the time out thing, the walk away and ignore it, or even sternly saying "NO, WE DON'T BITE, I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS BEHAVIOR". but it only works for the moment. i am still looking for the way that works for her. i DO have an almost immediate cure for this. i KNOW it works, i've been through it. when i was younger, a friend of mine bit me, and her mother (my mother's long-time friend) caught me biting her back, so she bit me and i NEVER bit again... i did tell her that i was biting back, so she turned around and bit her daughter too, her daughter never bit again. i have seen a few ppl do that to their kids, and they all say that once they give them a nice hard (not hard enough to bleed, just to show them it hurts), then their child NEVER bites again. i myself have a hard time with this one. i tried biting her back one day, but could only bite in such a soft way that she thought i was playing with her (like when you "munch" on them to tickle and stuff) so it didn't work for me, especially since i couldn't bring myself to hurting her with the bite. it felt wrong for me, maybe if she were older, like 5 or 6 (like i was), then i'd know she knew why she was being bit, but as a baby, i don't think she would understand why she got bit, just that it's ok to bite, so i don't personally suggest it, but as far as i've seen, it's an IMMEDIATE solution to the problem. good luck, and let us know exactly what works for you, since it seems to be so common, i know i have to find something.