barb@pyuxa.UUCP (B E Nemeth) (10/03/85)
We're having some problems getting our 2 year old daughter to stop biting. It started with her just biting Mommy, (me). Once in a while she'll nibble on Daddy, Grandma, Auntie, Uncle and she once bit her 8 year old cousin. But basically she loves biting Mommy. I got a real thrill last week when she went to kiss me, and bit my lips. Ouch! When I found out she bit Uncle and cousin I realized I had to get more serious. So I have tried all of the following: I bit her back - not hard to hurt but it left a slight impression. I put some vinegar on her tongue. She loved it. We have a "naughty" chair she sits in and has been put into after biting Mom. Didn't result in not biting. Her favorite activity is going to "Chuck E. Cheese's" a kiddie land pizza place, so I said to her "remember if you bite, no Chuck E. Cheese." The above seemed to work better than anything else but the biting behaviour is still there. Actually I hate threatening. I originally tried just reasoning with her; your biting hurts Mommy, you don't want to hurt Mommy do you. (She smiles and says yes). Believe me, she really is a sweet one except with this biting. Imagine washing dishes and having someone take a bit out of your thigh while you are wearing shorts! Loud screams result and it is not fun! So HELP please. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Barb Nemeth 201-981-7067 work pyuxa!barb
rggoebel@water.UUCP (Randy Goebel LPAIG) (11/02/85)
When I was two, I had the biting habit. My parents tried (so I'm told) all of the techniques you've reported, but the cure was a result of an untimely chomp on my father's toe. You see, my father is an extremely gentle soul who rarely even got angry...early one morning I was crawling around the kitchen floor when he awoke and while he was standing at the sink drinking a glass of water I took a hefty bit of one of his big toes. He was so surprised that without hesitating he picked me up and gave me the only wallop I ever remember him delivering. Apparently I never bit again. My daughter's biting was intially a defense mechanism--when she first began to walk (at nine months) her older brother (18 months her senior) had just learned about football and tackling. Biting was the only way to keep him from piling on. It seems that his screams of pain got her a whole bunch of immediate attention, and so she kept doing it to everyone. She was severe though, and grew out of it in about 2 months. Randy Goebel, father of Jodi and Kari