Biting - Halethorpe,MD

What are his communication skills like? My son, now 20 went through a horrible period of biting when he was a little older than your son. At a check up I mentioned it to his doctor who referred us to a speech pathologist. Within a few weeks of speech therapy the biting stopped. He had a really large vocabulary but was omitting random sounds in words. Because he was so young I didn't recognize that he was having a speech issue, I just thought that's how babies sound & as his mom I knew what he was trying to say. The biting would happen when he tried to interact with other kids & when he wasn't understood he would bite out of frustration.
Best of luck

For us, our son went through a biting stage, then it stopped for a while but later resurfaced. It was hard to understand since we thought he had already learned not to bite. Lucky for us our sitter and the parents of the other children she watched seemed to understand we have a great little boy but that he was just acting in a way some children do. We tried everything from taking away toys to spanking to time out, my husband even bit him back once hoping that would get him to stop, not too hard mind you. We would try to make him apologize, though at first we had to do it for him but we would bring him with us and say, "(instert child's name) says he is sorry for biting". We also tried something we had read where you give more attention to the person that was bit, and less to the one that did the biting such as just telling the child "no biting" while picking up the other child and soothing them and asking if they were ok... Nothing seemed to work. Finally he did stop and hopefully this time it will be for good. It is hard to make children understand things like that when they are so young. You just have to be consistent and eventually they come around. I hope you are able to work it out and that the other parents at daycare are able to accept that your child is just a child and don't take it so personally.

Give him some teething tablets, he may be cutting teeth. Also, when he bites you, you have two options, both of which will make an impact on him. You can a.) bite him back or b.) put him down, tell him firmly "no biting" and turn your back, don't pay attention to him for about a minute. If you choose a method and stick with it consistently, you should see results soon.

Hi there,

Every moment is a learning opportunity. Explain to him that biting hurts. Show him. Tell him to bite himself and see. Give him an apple and tell him to bite the apple. Tell him about all the other things that it's ok to bite. After your talk, if he should bite, just say...noooo...that's not an apple (or other), that hurts don't bite that.

My son was also biting around 13 months. I bought the book, Teeth are not for biting. Amazingly, after reading it to him only a few times over a few days, the biting stopped! I don't know if it will work that well for everyone, but for $8, it's worth a shot. You can get the book on Amazon.com. GOod Luck.

A friend of mine had dramatic success with a chewing toy always clipped onto her son's shirt. At home, she would suggest that he use the toy whenever he started to show signs of being frustrated. Later, he learned to self-regulate, saying that he needed his chew toy, or would get it himself whenever he felt frustrated. Here is the one they used: http://www.especialneeds.com/textured-chewy-tube.html
It's designed for kids with autism, but seems to work great for any teething issues. I think there must be clips for sale somewhere on the site for pinning it to a shirt.

Alrighty then, the boy is 13 months old, he sounds as if he is doing it because he's teething and not out of anger, right? Just keep reinforcing that biting hurts and we don't bite. Make sure he always has something to bite on that is acceptable so if he has the need he can relieve the pain. I do know that in most day cares they will remove a child from the school if they won't quit biting. Do your best to make sure occurences there are avoided. All in all though, this is something he will learn with time and age. Don't fret over it too much, this too shall pass.