Daughter Was Bitten Today...

Poor baby :( dont worry to much this kind of stuff happens all the time and i think as long as yor keeping it clean it will be fine.

Never had this happen... How terrible:( I just wanted to say I'd feel the same way as you: concerned about it being infected and such (I'm sure you've heard that human bites are worse than most animal bites as far as getting infected), and I'd probably ask this question on here, too! How old is your daughter and the biter?

ETA: To Laurie: "soon your child will bite someone too"... is that a joke? I have four girls... they DON'T bite. Never known a child personally who has bitten where the skin breaks. yikes... No really, are you joking? I certainly hope her daughter doesn't bite. Other than the pain, I think biting is just plain gross! Am I the odd one out on this? Is it really that common?

Our daughter had a bite on her face. Broke the skin.. She did not even cry.. Looked bad, but no infection..

And do not worry, soon your child will bite someone too..

Unfortunately, this is a normal toddlerhood occurence. DD had got bitten at daycare several times & none of the bites ever got infected. I never bothered with calling the doctor, personally. I know it sucks, but at least your kid is not the biter.

My children have never bit anyone, so I don't know about the whole "don't worry your child will bite". I hope (?) that she meant that this is pretty common so not to get mad at the other child for doing something that is not out of the ordinary. My son got bit once and it did not break the skin but surely left a good bruise. I think you are supposed to be worried about dog bites, not kids. lol
L.

Hi,

I know its scary, but its very uncommon for the bites to get infected. I would just keep a little cool pack on it and give her some tylenol. Hang in there!

M

I've had my children (or maybe it was just my eldest?) bitten by someone else's child and there was never an infection. I've had my own children bite each other (my youngest is a biter) and never had an infection. Human bites aren't known for causing infections although it can happen with bad bites or bites that aren't attended.

I would just keep an eye on it and watch for signs of infection but the laws of statistics are in her favor.

It's super common and they rarely get infected. Yes, it is highly likely your kid will either be bitten or be a biter. Distraction and 'shadowing' the biter are really the only things that work until the biter outgrows the behavior. I sure wouldn't say that spanking a child 'worked' to stop a behavior if it took 3-4 months of hitting the kid. Most biters give it up long before then.

And the biter's parents always feel bad. There is nothing they can do after the fact to change the behavior - so I am not sure what 'taking it seriously' would entail. So, yes it is upsetting and then they all grow up a little and develop new challenges. When DS was that age, I decided I was way happier that he be the bitee than the biter.

Of course they can get infected, but it usually doesn't happen. Use some antibiotic ointment on it and it should be fine.

Ugh. I HATE biting...my daughters went through a tiny bit of that - luckily nothing serious but it happened a couple of times, I felt awful. They never broke skin but it did look a bit bruised. We had to be very strict - if you bite someone we leave immediately wherever it is that we were. My children have been bitten a couple of times by others. VERY upsetting if the mom of the biter doesn't take it seriously. I think I have gotten more upset about biting than other things kids do like hit or whatever because they can only hit so hard. They're never going to seriously hurt another kid with hitting - their arms are not that strong, and there is so little weight behind the hit. But biting on the other hand, they can bite SO hard!!! The couple of times my daughters were bitten by other kids I was really not happy.
As far as infection, I don't think this is an issue.

My kids have bitten one another but never to the point of bleeding; they have had a bruise or a bit of a scrape and it wasn't a problem. I think if it is cleaned and you are watching it you are good. If it looks red, swollen, hot to the touch or you child has a fever call or see the doctor since those are signs of infection. If you have several toddlers or preschoolers together then biting isn't uncommon--not every kid but often a few in every class.

It's highly unlikely that it will get infected since you cleaned it. If it starts to get red, putting antibiotic cream or ointment on it will take care of it. The only reason to see the doctor is if it doesn't heal once you start putting antibiotic cream on it. If it gets pussy and the redness swells and she gets a fever. It will stay red for several days and that's not a reason to see the doctor.

Hi Erica I have never heard of a child bite getting infected, I have had a couple biters in my daycare care and no child ever got an inffection, of course I nipped the bitting in the bud right away in case any of youare wondering. J.

my son has been bitten a lot and has bitten other kids. its just what they do. if it breaks the skin you should see a doctor. they might do antibiotics. keep it clean, etc.

The dirtiest part of a human being is the mouth. Much dirtier than even the bowels. (Dirty meaning bacteria, germs, viruses, etc)

Watch it carefully and keep it clean and disinfected. Tell the mother what her child did so she can start corrective action.

Biting is terrible to correct. After trying more different suggestions than you could put/type on a page, I finally had to resort to spanking. The rule was, if you bite you get spanked. It doesn't make any difference why, you get spanked. Even at that, it took 3 or 4 months to finally get it stopped.

It was horrible.

Good luck to you and yours.