Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
Bites that break skin can be very serious. Yes they happen, but they can be serious. And quite frankly for a child to be bitten over and over by another child is abuse. No, it isn't the adult doing it, but it is still abusive if it isn't stopped. There is no difference in an adult abusing a child and another child doing it IMHO. And the reason why the child is biting doesn't really matter, unless that reason can be used to stop it. I would be very upset if my child was bitten four times and noting seemed to be helping, and I would pull my child for their safety. One bite or maybe two I could understand. It does make it harder if the providers child is doing the biting, because you can't very well term your own child.
I've seen MULTIPLE cases where children bite other children (sometimes younger children bitting older before/after care children) and make them bleed. Also, some children won't let go. I have a four year old ESL student like this. He learned through violence (he wasn't only a biter) he could get his way at home. One day I had enough of it and but him in time out for pushing a little girl on the floor for taking "his" seat. He bite me. Me being me, I pretended it didn't hurt and tried to pull him off. He twisted my skin and literally bit a piece of skin off of my hand. It wouldn't stop bleeding and I had to get stitches. Some children literally bite like a dog. I can only imagine how he could have hurt other children.