Help we have a vampire!

[Playmate]

I have been minding for 19 years and for the first time ever I'm having to deal with a child that is biting :( The child in question is 19 months old and has a very firery temper. She does have quite a lot of language and is able to express herself verbally. She did it for the first time yesterday, bitting one child twice and another once. The first occaision the other child had taken a toy away from her, the second occasion she wanted the raisins that the other child had (she had finished hers :rolleyes:) and obviously he wasn't giving them up! The other occasion we both missed completely so have no idea what triggered it :panic:
Today at lunch time she was due to go home (grandma was 5mins late) and we were busy getting all children hand washed and sat at the table/ highchairs etc. I had put one into a high chair, turned my back as I sat another at the table and the one in the high chair yelped, you've guessed it - she has struck again:eek: Her grandmother arrived whilst child was still screaming. We both spoke sternly to he and tried to show her what she had done and how she had upset the child.
Not quite sure where to go with this, mum and grandma are devistated obviously. My biggest concern is that we have a pilot ofsted inspection on Monday and I don't want to be seen to be dealing with this incorrectly.
If anyone can share with me any experiences of how they dealt with a similar situation I would be extremely grateful.

[adele1985]

hi hun
If it does happen when mrs O is there then this is what I would do

tell the child "its not nice to bite" sternly (as you did when grandma was there)

Ask the child to say sorry to the child they have biten

then just move them away from the situation (maybe to do another activity)

hope that helps xx (hopefully you wont have to deal with it when the inspection arrives

[Blaze]

I would suggest that you write a Biting policy this weekend :thumbsup:

[The Juggler]

hon, I had a biter years ago and despite close supervision was unsuccessful in stopping it (but it was a mixture of this with other behaviour and he was 2 1/2 :panic:)

I recently did a course for the 2 year old training and picked up a tip that I hadn't heard before.

Obviously you will shadow this child closely anyway now, but the trick is when shadowing to see when it's going to happen, then just move the child away/distract but don't even mention it (i.e no attention for the behaviour). Apparently if you can do this for a period the biting/scratching or whatever, will extinguish itself.

I can't remember the exact time period. I would imagine if it's a daily thing it would extinguish quickly but if its only occasionally it might take longer.

Hope it works.:)

[Pipsqueak]

I thoughly recommend teeth extraction or a Hannibal Lecter style face mask.....

or a small water pistol and a sharp no.....



sorry couldn't resist!:D

[Playmate]

I thoughly recommend teeth extraction or a Hannibal Lecter style face mask.....

or a small water pistol and a sharp no.....



sorry couldn't resist!:D

funny you should say this, My 16 yr old DD loves this child to bits (she is cute and cheeky) and when she found out about the biting she said "if she does it again I will remove her teeth" :laughing: If only it were so easy :panic:

Juggler thanks for that advise, she certainly will be shadowed on Monday! trouble is because we have 6 children between the 2 of us, its not always that easy :(

[Playmate]

I would suggest that you write a Biting policy this weekend :thumbsup:

Might add a paragraph to the behaviour policy :D

[Twinkles]

I can only tell you what I do. Not sure if it's the 'right' thing to do but it works for me.

I physically turn my back on the bitee and make a huge fuss of the bitten child.
I don't know quite how it works other than of course they hate to be ignored.

Someone will probably come on now and tell me I'm damaging their self esteem/psyche/chances of ever growing up normal :D

[Ripeberry]

I thoughly recommend teeth extraction or a Hannibal Lecter style face mask.....

or a small water pistol and a sharp no.....



sorry couldn't resist!:D

He,he,he :laughing:

[The Juggler]

I thoughly recommend teeth extraction or a Hannibal Lecter style face mask.....

or a small water pistol and a sharp no.....



sorry couldn't resist!:D

:laughing::laughing:

[bec123]

My dd went through a phase of biting when she was 16 months old - she bit all of my mindees - it was a nightmare - it turns out she was teething... also probably a bit of anger but she was definitely teething - might be something to think about?

[stardust]

On a course I attended a few weeks back social and emotional behaviour I think it was called. This came up and The lady who did the course is a behavioural therapist said each day the first time that it happens tell the child a sharp no, explain and move away. Then times after that a sharp no and move the child away, deal with upset child and don't give the 'biter' any attention other than no and remove. Apparently from 10 months old a child understands being told no as long as it is reinforced with being removed ect. So at 19 months the child should have a firm understanding of no and if give too much attention will continue for attention.
The lady said doing the above for 2-3 weeks normally stops the behaviour in a 'normal' child if you are firm and it lasts longer than 6 weeks there may be signs of a problem either developmentally or the child is feeling frustrated or jealous. Not necessarily at your but at home ect. She said that biting is normally brought on by stress to the child so new baby, new home, change in routine.
I know how you feel though we had a little girl in nursery and no matter what you do it only takes a split second. The little girl was excluded as mum refused to accept help and we couldn't continue caring for her as the other parents were getting really upset which is understandable and was threatening to remove their children.
Hope the above works for you xx
And you could always have a box full of teethers or foam shapes/letters ect for the child to sink their teeth into when they need to just incase it is teething.

[onceinabluemoon]

Lots of fab info here. Hope you manage to get it stopped. :)

[miffy]

Lots of fab info here. Hope you manage to get it stopped. :)

Me too, I like the water pistol idea (joking!)

How did the pilot inspection go?

Miffy xx