Originally Posted by Leigh:
No offense intended to responsible centers, however, at some centers, your kid is $200/week. Nothing more. So is the kid who is biting. If a child is biting another 90% of days for 2 months, the child should have been removed from the center, IMO. I'm very willing to work with a biter, but for this to continue to happen so often, for so long, they're not taking the appropriate steps to stop the behavior. For example: a biter has to stay right next to me until their behavior improves-I do my darndest to make sure that the opportunity to bite doesn't arise. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but it should work more than 10%-20% of the time.
I agree that I would find a family child care who can focus more attention on supervision.
Sadly, I agree with this. Had this child been enrolled in my daycare, he would have been put on probation, a plan of action would have been put into place, and he would have been shadowed. IF I couldn't COMPLETELY STOP the biting, he would have been terminated.
Originally Posted by Shell:
no way would I subject my child to a situation where the odds of being bitten are 80-90%!!! Things may be going well for now, but if this happens again, I would pull. This stage of development is a huge reason I opened my own daycare. I have worked in multiple centers, and this is an issue at every single one of them- usually it's too many kids (even within ratio) in a small space, that cannot talk. Mixed age groups that are common in home daycares are a better fit because usually your child is with fewer children in his age group, and the older kids set a great example (for the most part). I personally am not a fan of large centers for the little ones, IMHO.
I agree. I love having 2 of 'each' age. ( 2 2yos, 2 3yos, 2 4yos). Parents hear "Kids their own age" and don't see the huge downfalls.