Understanding the Reasons Behind Childhood Biting and Strategies to Encourage Positive Behavior

As a parent or caregiver, you may find yourself deeply concerned and frustrated when your child starts to bite others or themselves. Biting is a relatively common behavior among young children, and while it may be unsettling, it’s essential to remember that it’s a phase that many kids go through. In this blog post, we will delve into the reasons why children bite and explore effective strategies to help them stop this behavior, fostering healthier interactions and social development.

Why do children bite?

1. Communication and Expression: Young children often lack the verbal skills to communicate their feelings effectively. Biting may become a means of expressing frustration, anger, fear, or even excitement when words fail them.
2. Exploration: Toddlers and infants explore the world through their senses, including their mouths. Biting can be a part of their natural curiosity about textures and the environment around them.
3. Attention-seeking: Children may resort to biting as a way to gain attention, especially if they see that biting elicits a strong reaction from adults or other children.
4. Teething: Infants who are teething may find relief from their discomfort by biting on objects or people.
5. Imitation: Kids are highly impressionable and often mimic the behavior they observe in others, even if it includes biting.
6. Frustration and Overstimulation: Overwhelmed or overstimulated children might resort to biting as a way to cope with their emotions.

Strategies to help children stop biting:

1. Teach Alternative Ways of Communication: Since biting is often linked to communication difficulties, focus on teaching your child alternative ways to express their emotions. Encourage them to use words to convey how they feel and praise them when they do so effectively. Repeating words like “Ow!” and “Ouch”, or phrases like “Ouch, that hurt’s me”, children will pick up the tone in your voice that their actions are not a good behavior.
2. Set Clear Boundaries: Establish clear rules about biting and consistently enforce them. Make sure your child understands that biting is not acceptable behavior. Tell your child how that makes you feel if they bite you. Say things like, “It makes me sad when you bite me”, or if they’re attempting to bite another child, things like “Biting hurts them, please do not do that”.
3. Be a Positive Role Model: Children learn by observing others, especially those they look up to. Demonstrate positive and kind behavior in your interactions with others, emphasizing communication and empathy. Praise your child when they opt to teeth on a toy rather than you.
4. Provide Teething Relief: If your child is teething, offer safe and appropriate teething toys to soothe their discomfort. There are many options on the market to soothe teeth pain like teething toys and soothing gels. Rubbing a cold wash cloth on their gums can also be an at-home remedy.
5. Pay Attention to Triggers: Observe when and why your child tends to bite. Identifying triggers can help you address underlying issues and prevent future biting incidents. Maybe your child will show signs of discomfort and you can be ready with some at-home remedies! If you child is more of a biter towards other, there will be ques to look out for to intervene before they try to bite someone or you.
6. Offer Distractions: If your child seems overwhelmed or frustrated, provide distraction with a different activity or toy to redirect their attention away from biting. Biting can serve as a form of release for their pent-up feelings and a means to gain a sense of control over their surroundings. It’s important to note that biting in infants is often a developmental phase and not necessarily a deliberate aggressive action. Sometimes food can be a distraction! Biscuits and cookies can help with their anxiousness.
7. Encourage Socialization: Help your child engage in supervised playdates or group activities. Positive interactions with peers can promote social skills and reduce the tendency to bite. When your child is around others, they’ll learn from their peer group!
8. Praise Positive Behavior: When your child chooses not to bite or expresses their emotions through words, offer praise and positive reinforcement. Positive attention for good behavior can be more effective than negative attention for misbehavior. Tone goes a long way with children, when they hear the happiness in your voice, they’ll know they’ve done good.
9. Stay Calm and Avoid Harsh Punishment: Reacting with anger or punishment may reinforce negative behavior. Instead, stay calm and firmly address the issue without belittling or shaming the child. This can be hard because even as parents, we get frustrated. It’s important to take a breath and speak calmly when addressing disciplinary issues with your child.
10. Seek Professional Help if Necessary: If the biting behavior persists or is causing severe issues, consider seeking guidance from a pediatrician, child psychologist, or behavioral specialist who can provide personalized strategies.

While it can be concerning and challenging to deal with a child who bites, it’s crucial to approach the situation with empathy and understanding. By identifying the reasons behind the behavior and implementing appropriate strategies, you can help your child learn alternative ways of communication and develop healthy social interactions. The suggestions and solutions we’ve talked about are things you and your family can implement to stop biting. Because Biting can be a way of expression for children, its important they know how the behavior effects their world around them. Remember, patience, positive reinforcement, and open communication are essential tools in guiding your child towards more positive behaviors. With time and support, most children outgrow this phase, becoming more adept at expressing themselves and building positive relationships with others.

Don’t worry, you’re not the only family that goes through biting. Remember it’s only a phase in their lives. This is one of the many journeys we go through as parents and caregivers. We want our children to grow into respectable humans, yet maintain their own personality! We’re here for you! Our blogs aim to offer tips and provide a helping hand for support. Let us know what topics you’d like us to cover in future blogs in the comments!