Does anybody have any good advice on how to stop a 5 year old biting.
Most of my friends children seem to have either never done it or grown out of "that phase" by the time they were 3 years old.
She is a lovely little girl and such a delight in every way, but I really need to get her stop. She understands that it is not acceptable behaviour and readily admits that she would not like to be bitten herself (nobody has ever bitten her, so she does not know what it feels like).
All sensible advice (please do not suggest that I bite her back so that she knows what is feels like) gratefully received!
Have you thought of getting her to bite her own hand to see how much it hurts. Sometimes its only when they realise how much pain they are causing others they do stop.
She has in temper bitten herself before, but this is going back several years and when she was in such a temper tantrum that she probably did not even feel it.
However, I admit that I had not thought of this, so I will suggest it to her and see what happens.
what occasions make her bite? It could be her mechanism to cope with frustrations when she can't get her own way or when she does not have the vocabulary to express her emotion. I think the advice you have been given to get her to bite herself the way she bites others is a good one, and then perhaps teach her some different coping mechanisms to deal with her emotions, ones that don't involve hurting herslf or those around her. a great book is 'beyond toddlerdom' by dr christopher green for tips on behaviour. it's a very readable and funny book with practical ideas which really work. take that from a mum who knows !!
I had not heard of the book beyond toddlertom. That is a great idea as I do like Dr. Green's suggestions, so I will certainly buy that one.
I have read the toddler taming book and found that very good but at her age now she is obviously past that.
She has dyspraxia and gets very stressed about people "invading her space" which I understand and we obviously try to reflect that in how we deal with her behaviour, but I don't want to be using that as an excuse, as she cannot always bite when she feels threatened is someone is near her.
Sometimes she is tired or feeling a bit off colour (she has a lung disease and spends a lot of time in and out of hospital).
However, sometimes there really does not seem to be any mechanism behind her biting. It really baffles me - she can go from being absolutely fine one moment to a really badly tempered little girl in the space of 5 minutes.
