Nasty bitter

[apples and bananas]

I had an aggressive child once and I used the playpen for time out as he didn't stay still in my time out. He climbed out of the playpen. LOL I would put him in a booster chair and he'd push against the table, almost pushed the chair over several times. I ended up having to put this 2 year old in a highchair with the 5 point strap on him. That was the only way. He got better... sort of. He's no longer with me.

[playfelt]

If biting is happening regularly then it will likely only take 1-2 days of watching the child like a hawk to see what is happening. What you want to do is stay in the background but watch every movement of the child - when he is alone, which child does he seem to try to interact with, which child does he seem to try to move away from. How do the other children react to the biter - sometimes there is actually a child that puts themselves in harms way and teases the biter just to get the child in trouble. Is it a particular toy or activity that causes issues? A particular time of day or just before or after a specific event? This will help weed out issues of hunger, tired, noisy, etc.

[Skysue]

Thanks Playfelt that's exactly what I did. I'm greatful it worked for me. I suppose when I said shadowing I should have elaborated a bit more.

[daycarewhisperer]

I have done home day care for two decades and had one bite incident my first year. I've gone nineteen years without a single bite. I would not keep a biter under any circumstances. I would have terminated this family immediately when I found out the mom lied about the child's behavior at home.

In my setting shadowing would be very expensive. I couldn't make enough money in tuition to cover the adult time.

I don't have biteing because our supervision is very very tight and I don't allow the pre-behaviors that children do before they bite. I also integrate new walkers into our play areas very gradually over a period of months so that they can learn what behaviors we want. I pair up the oldest child with the toddlers in play for months so that the older child can show the toddler what we want.

I have strict rules of play and close/proximal supervision at all times. Here is an article about play rules. With these rules and supervision we have been completely violence free for twenty years: http://www.daycare.com/nannyde/there...m#comment-1422

I promise my parents a violence free child care and I deliver. I take violence and aggression seriously and would have no problem terminating a child or family that didn't have the same expectations. I advertise our violence free program and parents expect that I keep it that way. They would leave if I didn't.