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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>So I Know Biting Is Normal...
jenboo 11:35 AM 03-15-2017
DCb is 14 months old. He is very physical...He just walks to to other kids randomly and it hit, pull hair, grab their face, push them to the ground etc. He isn't provoked, he doesn't want their toys etc. He literally just walks to them and does it.
We have stopped him from biting a few times but today we were too late and he bit another DCB good on the face.

Most days DCB ends up being separated from the other children so that he does not hurt anyone. I know he is really young so I am not sure what the best way to handle this would be??
Would you do a 3 strikes rule for biting? How much is enough? Would you term a kid who needed to be separated from the group 90% of them time? What do you tell parents? How can we help DCB??

Thanks!
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Cat Herder 12:43 PM 03-15-2017
IME A child who bites another in the face is a known business liability. Red flag/Deal breaker.

Bites to the face are probably the most common cause of State complaints and lawsuits filed. The pain, infection risk and scarring are simply not worth waiting it out to the victims family. They won't care about the biters development, only your direct supervision and prevention of injury.

The only feasible plan I know is direct physical supervision, preventing escalation before the bite, separating the biter from other children entirely or termination.
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jenboo 12:57 PM 03-15-2017
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
IME A child who bites another in the face is a known business liability. Red flag/Deal breaker.

Bites to the face are probably the most common cause of State complaints and lawsuits filed. The pain, infection risk and scarring are simply not worth waiting it out to the victims family. They won't care about the biters development, only your direct supervision and prevention of injury.

The only feasible plan I know is direct physical supervision, preventing escalation before the bite, separating the biter from other children entirely or termination.
This is what I needed to hear! DCB is usually gated off from the others but I don't have a play yard for outside. I try to keep him next to me at all times but I do have others to tend to as well.

There is zero escalation so there is nothing I can do there. DCB literally just walked up to the child and bit their face.
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DaycareDays126 01:50 PM 03-15-2017
I can tell you from experience this is one of the hardest things to deal with. It is a HUGE liability and, at least for me, IMPOSSIBLE to curb. I dealt with it from a particular child for WAY too long and eventually decided there was nothing more I could do. Guess what is happening now? The child that would get bitten the most is now starting to bite other children. I have implemented the 3 strikes rule and if a child bites and the skin is broken, they are sent home for the day. I allow that to happen ONCE (even though I know that is too much because it will never stop with just ONCE). With the kind of program I run, it is impossible to have a child right next to me all day, giving most of my attention to them to make sure they don't hurt anyone else. Not to mention it takes away all of the attention you could be giving to the other children, it's just not fair. I dealt with it for so long because I loved the family and I felt terrible that I couldn't fix it but since this child has been gone, the days go by so much smoother! Don't risk your business over it...I wouldn't say it's exactly "normal". You'll be able to find someone to fill the spot that won't risk hurting other children or your business. Good luck to you!
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DaycareDays126 01:52 PM 03-15-2017
I should add, this child would also bite for no reason making it next to impossible to stop it because there would be no escalation beforehand.
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Ariana 02:56 PM 03-15-2017
Just thinking outloud but is this a sensory issue? I have seen my 12 month old go up to teddy bears and bite them in the face if he does not have his soother in his mouth constantly. Is this child teething and biting relieves his sensory needs somehow? The DCM asked me to limit his soother but if he doesn't have it he bites everything. My 14 month older is the same. Maybe he needs some kind of chew toy or necklace with him or a soother?
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Pestle 03:21 PM 03-15-2017
We put together a "bitey box" for a 16mo who was biting. It was a stuffed animal, a wooden stick, a rubbery dinosaur, and a silicone toothbrush. He tried all of them out. He didn't like the dinosaur; he liked the stick and the animal but eventually settled on the toothbrush.

When he started to get frustrated, over-excited, or pushy, I'd tell him "Go get your bitey stick!" and he'd run go get the toothbrush, jam it into his mouth, and spend the next 10 minutes looking like he was puffing on a cigar. It helped a lot--eventually he outgrew the biting, but until that happened the bitey box solved most of the problem.

And then his dad started showing him The Walking Dead and he started biting again at 21 months. Sometimes you're fighting a losing battle.
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Tags:aggression, bite to the face, biting, teething excuse, terminate - biter, violence in child care
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