Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum and I'm looking for some advice with regards to my son biting my daycare children.

I have been running my daycare for the past 6 months. My son is now 21 months and I have a 20 month old in my care. My son began biting this other child pretty much the first week he started. At that time he was almost 16 months. I stayed on top of him, tried to limit the causes of his biting (the other child likes to steal his toys, and he would get jealous when I was giving the other child attention), told him a firm "No, we do not bite friends" and gave attention to the child he bit. Since he knows a lot of words, I taught him to say help when his toy was being stolen or when he was frustrated. It helped a bit. Around October he seemed to be backing off on the biting, and when he would try to bite I was able to intercept. Once December hit he seemed to be back to his old ways. Luckily, the daycare parents are very understanding and have not seemed very upset by this, telling me it will pass and that its normal. But I feel awful!! Especially because it is my own child doing the biting.

He bit again today. I am going to try a new technique and keep a teething ring on me and when I intercept a bit tell him "No, we don't bite friends. You bite this" in hopes that I can redirect the biting. I really have no idea what to do. I feel like an awful parent. My heart breaks for my daycare child and I hate having to tell his parents that my son bit theirs every few weeks.

Any advice?
Thanks!