Biting!!!! Help Please!

[Miss Muffet]

Hi guys,

Jade, my 23-month daughter, has restarted biting herself!!! I found a mark today that had almost broken the skin!! How can I stop her from doing this? a) I don't want her hurting herself, and b), I don't want her to start biting other children! :sorry: If anyone can help me with this I'd be grateful. :crossfing

Many thanks in advance.

Tracey

hi
this is always a hard one, epsecially as she is doing to self, as the biting her back wont really work.

ummm, could try reward although may be too young to understand, if you dont do it you can have xyz

sorry will think on it, not been very helpful. one of mine only did it to others and we shadowed him and stopped him before he did it for a while, then he stopped

It may be just her way of releasing frustration when she hasn't learned how to express her feelings properly yet. It must be hard for you to watch, but I would say to try to completely ignore her after she's done it, otherwise she will see she is getting attention for it and continue doing it.

Is there anything going on that links the last time she did this, to this time? Anything from a stress/upheaval to a simple thing like a change in routine?

If the self biting is after being punished, try this: http://www.drspock.com/faq/0,1511,1785,00.html

Not sure if it will help at all, but I got this off t'internet:

What can you do to help prevent biting?

- Try spending extra one-on-one time with your child if you think he is trying to get attention. (Not immediately following an act of self-biting.)
- Play together actively, games that might help the child burn off the steam that might otherwise be kept inside and come out later as a biting incident.
- Interrupt the biting or hitting incident. Pick your child up hold him in your lap. Tell your child as best you can that you won't let him bite himself because you love him and it's your job to take care of him.
- Try to change the situation and redirect the child's attention to something else.
- If possible, try to watch for this behaviour and attempt to circumvent it before it happens.
- Teach your child acceptable alternatives. Perhaps, choose a keyword that word help your child express when he's upset. (Or bang on some drums, or shake a noisy toy really loud, or even bite a cushion or other safe biteable object)
- Praise your child for appropriate behaviour.

What not to do?

- DON'T give your child extra attention or act overly concerned about the bite. Otherwise, self-biting may become a regular behavior anytime the child doesn't get what he wants.
- Check your means of punishment. Make sure that your form of punishment isn't too harsh or frequent for your child. Your child may be getting too angry about the punishment, unable to think about what he did wrong, and unable to express it.

Let us know how it goes. xxx

[Miss Muffet]

Thanks for your help girls.

To be honest I've not noticed a pattern in her biting and I've never actually seen her do it, I just find the marks! :weepy: I also suspect she's nipping herself too!!!! Thanks for the link Muggy, some food for thought there. The funny thing is, she's very secretive about it and when I find a mark she gets very upset, pulls the affected arm away and fights me to stop me from looking at it!! Very confusing! Oh well, if it gets worse there's always duct tape!!!:rotfl:

Thanks again girls.