6 Year Old Child and Biting

I feel that it is important to address behavior problems that are clearly not solved with consistant discipline. There may be other factors at work here. I always encourage seeking the help of trained proffessionals. A psycologist or psyciatrist that is a behavior specialist is always going to be a good thing for kids. Also, don't necessarily always trust a pediatrician to help with behavior issues, they are not specifically trained and I have heard more than a few moms say that their pediatricians were very wrong in the diagnosis of behavioral problems with their young chldren. It can never hurt to see someone if you are in doubt about what to do!!!

She may be acting out for attention! the way I see it is some kids do have their own ways of dealing with being angry, and aggression is one of them. Finding her a quiet room to be put in and letting her know that she cannot come out until she is done being upset. Let her know that what she is doing is wrong and also hurts others. As a mother when I deal with discipline, I try to stick to the words I tell them, and that means not getting away with it by giving in to their pitiful looks that can always melt a mother's heart! Let them know that its wrong to hurt others.

I am usually one to suggest positive redirection, but biting at this age I feel needs harsher puishment, and one she won't soon forget. If I were her mom I'd wash her mouth out with soap.

I have a friend that has a little boy (almost 11 ) and he was having alot of problems at school and they finally took him to a psycologist , I know that is not always the answer but if there are other issues, like not having friends and being an out cast or not playing well with others, it wouldn't hurt to at least give it a try and take care of the problems now while she is still young enough, and it could make a big diffrence later, my friend should have taken her son years ago, but she ignored that there was a problem until it got really bad and he was making threats to the kids that were teasing him, so like I said if there are more than just the biting i would have her seen. I hope that it all works out.

I think that you might want to ground her and keep on trying to teach her that sharing and knidness will go a lot longer in life than being mean and biting. I f she is biting the girl from preschool then tell her to just keep away from her and she won't get into trouble. I hope this works for you.

Besides disciplining her, it's important to teach her better ways of dealing with her anger/frustration. Helping her to learn words to verbalize what she is feeling, teaching her to recognize when she is getting upset & then to remove herself from the situation by leaving the room, asking to use the bathroom, moving to the other side of the room etc. Maybe teaching her something nonharmful that she can do to decrease her frustration level &/or give cues to the teacher & family that she is close to losing it? Like, I don't know... twirling her hair or rubbing her arm or cheek for example? Obviously it's harder to reinforce good behaviors while she is at school, but hopefully if you share with the teacher what you are doing to help her & the rationale for it, she will be supportive & help the girl. Teachers are very busy, but I'm sure she wants the biting to stop as well!
A few visits with a social worker/counselor (does the school have one?) might be good. They could help your daughter let you know if there is something in particular that is increasing her anger/frustration level, & give you more suggestions on how to help her modify her behavior. She is too old to be biting; that is usually a behavior of toddlers in my experience.
Finally, perhaps getting her more physically active would help her to work out some of her frustration in a healthy way? Any physical activity/sport would probably be good. Tae Kwon Do, for example, helps teach respect & self-control.

My son was a biter and the only way that he finally stopped was when he learned that he was the only person in the house that mattered he would usually get mad and bite when he wasn't getting what he wanted and he didn't know exactly how to handle it so finally one day I had a kid bite him back. it seemed to work. If she is the only child and is use to having things be her way that may be a problem.