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So we have entered the toddler phase.. Oh the joys! And don’t get me wrong, there are so much joys.. but for sure biting is not one of them.
If you have tried just about anything and everything to get your little one to stop biting others and he or she still refers back to their teeth friends..
I encourage you to Read on!
What causes the stage of biting?
Whether your little one is struggling to use words to communicate when they are frustrated or overwhelmed, having trouble making friends, doesn’t like the word “NO”, is teething, or discovering their body..
Biting can be frustrating!
The biggest thing to remember when your little one presents this habit is to not inflict anger or pain on them, this just entices them to do it right back to you.
Always say “OW!”
Let them know that biting hurts and then immediately redirect their attention.
Another good idea is to talk to your toddler about good and healthy things we do with our mouth/teeth instead:
• We talk about what is making us upset.
• We eat healthy things to make our bodies grow strong and big.
• We give kisses to mommy, daddy, grandma, our puppies..
• We sing as loud as we can!
But sometimes as hard as we may try, something just doesn’t click in our babes brain, So If your darlin is a visual learner or you find them learning through books and tv shows.. these books are for you.
1. We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins
This book is about a child dinosaur that finds herself scared of going to school, and everything new it brings. After trying her hardest to make friends, she soon learns after biting a classmate that it is a lot easier to make friends if she doesn’t bite. This book will teach your baby not only the importance of not biting, but the importance of friends, and will have them laughing as well.
2. Teeth Are Not For Biting by Elizabeth Verdick
This book gives demonstrations using catchy rhymes about the fun things we can do with our teeth, like we talked about before. It also talks about how biting can hurt and why we don’t want to bite. This is an excellent book for our older toddlers!
3. Little Dinos Don’t Bite by Michael Dahl
This book is a board book, so it will hold up great for younger babes but board books are still great for older toddlers, especially our biters! This book talks all about the stuff we don’t want to bite (our shoes, toys, and mommy). It shows us what we do want to bite and what is good for our teeth (food, snacks). This book also features eye catching illustrations that will have your babe wanting to read it over and over again!
4. No Biting! by Karen Katz
This Interactive book shows all the negative habits that aren’t safe for us to do (biting, hitting, kicking). It even gives examples for redirecting and positive enforcement to negative behaviors. (No we can’t bite our mommy, but we can bite an apple!)
Bonus: Many books come with fun stickers for our little ones to direct their creative attention towards!
5. My Magical Choices by Becky Cummings
This book doesn’t focus on biting in particular, but shows our babes how we have the choice to be something great. We all have choices to make in how our day goes, and this book shows just that. It speaks to our babes of how to communicating our emotions can go along way and how we can turn our emotions into a positive situation, rather than a negative one.
6. People Don’t Bite People by Lisa Wheeler
This book is one of my favorites! Lisa Wheeler talks to our biters through creative rhymes about how yummy things we can bite, and things we shouldn’t (our sister). She goes on to give examples about things that can make us upset, but instead of biting it is better to use our words!
7. Good Biting, Bad Biting by Sally Huss
This book has more of a classic and simple take on biting. It talks to our little one about all the good things that we can bite (a sweet peach) and shows us the things we shouldn't bite (a hard nut). And we should never ever bite other children!
8. Calm Down Time by Elizabeth Verdick
This book focuses on the problem at hand, on how its hard being a kid and learning how to express all these emotions your feeling inside in a positive way. It shows what we can do when we feel upset or overwhelmed. This book is great for even non biters, teaching our kids at a young age that it is okay to take a second and be alone if that’s what we need, so we don’t hurt anyone’s feelings.