No Biting!

Many families with young children have experienced a situation involving biting. Maybe there is a kid in preschool who has begun biting. Maybe your child has started biting. It’s a tough situation for parents and teachers (and children!) to deal with with.

Toddlers and Preschoolers bite for a variety of reasons…

• Maybe they are trying to get attention. Sometimes if a child feels ignored, any attention — even negative attention — can help them feel like they are being noticed.

• Maybe they are trying to show their independence and their ability to control a situation.

• Maybe they are frustrated and the biting is just a way to express that frustration.

• Maybe their routine has changed and they are biting as a way to relieve the stress.

• Maybe they are in a new situation — going to a new preschool or adjusting to a new sibling — and they have no words to express how they feel.

• Maybe — like Doodle in one of the following picture books — they just wake up one morning feeling “Bitey!”

The library has a variety of books you can read with your child about biting; reading them together might help you talk with your child about why it’s not such a good idea.

Little Dinos Don’t Bite, written by Michael Dahl and illustrated by Adam Record, is a board book in the “hello genius” series. In this book, Little Dino learns that he should not bite–except for food, of course.

No Biting! is a lift-the-flap book by Karen Katz which offers alternatives to inappropriate behaviors. “No biting your friends!” but lifting the flap reveals an alternative, bite into an apple instead. “No hitting Mommy!” but lifting the flap suggests the better alternative of hitting a drum.

One of my favorite new books about this topic is No More Biting for Billy Goat by Bernette Ford and Sam Williams. (You might remember the authors for their previous books, No More Diapers for Ducky! , No More Bottles for Bunny!) The book opens as Billy Goat is going to school for his first day. He really doesn’t want to stay. And in his frustration he bites poor Bunny, Lambkins, and even Piggy. When Ducky helps him learn how to talk with his new friends and how to play the games, Billy Goat realizes that teeth are for biting food, not friends.

Doodle Bites is a Tilly and Friends Book by Polly Dunbar. In this picture book Doodle is a green crocodile who wakes up one morning feeling Bitey! After she chomps her breakfast, chews the mail, and crunches and munches on the sofa, she finds something else to bite. Her friends! Yikes!

Have you shared books with your child about biting? What’s your favorite?