my 3 year old is biting!

[dancermommy]

Well, my son is 3 years old, and just now he is going to daycare full time (since august) We had him at a home daycare part time for 6 months and he was great, little energetic 2 year old, but the  owner of the daycare moved to another city and had to close down. So, he has been at this daycare center for 2 months and since 3 weeks ago, he has been biting left and right, they are working on it with us, but we really don't understand why he is biting. We took him to get his ears tested, and he hears fine, has a little speach delay (trying to raise him bilingual) and maybe that is teh cause, but we are not sure. We had seen that sometimes other kids are taking his toys/pushing him, and he goes and reacts to it; don't get me wrong, I am not defending him, but maybe he does that because he doesn't speak? I am very surprised with this behavior because I thought that biting was more characteristic of earlier  ages... any sugestions?
Thanks!
T

[rebbecca]

Could it be from stress because of his delay in speech and him having to go to a new daycare?
Good Luck

[dancermommy]

probably. the thing is how do we deal with it! We talk to him about it, tell him taht is bad, it hurts, he gets time out and still... this last couple of weeks had been very hard, he is usually very sweet... do you think that he would be doing better in a smaller daycare? thanks...

[rebbecca]

a smaller daycare would probably help him alot.maybe just getting out of that day care would help the biting. My mom would bite us back but that was the 80s. And i dont think it is a very good idea, I wouldnt do it to my kids. I wish I could have been more help!!

[RockRose]

It seems like kids who bite fall into two categories:  they bite because they are kind of overwhelmed and excited,  and mischevious.  These kids bite adults as well as children,  and bite pets too.  They bite a lot.  

The other kind of kid bites because they have no other means to defend themselves.  They are smaller and less mature than the other kids in the room and when they get picked on they have no effective way to "fight back" other than biting.  And you have to admit,  biting works really well as a defense!!  It sounds like this is what your son is doing.   Have you tried roleplaying with him?  You could try to take his toy and make him shout DON"T TAKE THAT.  Or you could push him and make him shout "DON'T PUSH ME".  Or some other acceptable way you want him to defend himself.

Best wishes.