Sorry one more thing...BITING! - Autism Spectrum Message Board

Tylers_Mommy · 01-08-2006, 10:02 PM

Tyler has been biting me for a while now and I don't know why he is actually doing it or what I should do to stop him. It seems to me like he is really mixed up on how to show certain emotions. He doesn't bite me when hes mad or upset, he bites me when hes excited and/or happy, or for just no apparent reason at all. He seems to get overly excited and just bites down as hard as he can. I have bruises all over my shoulder and arm from little bitty Ty-Ty teeth. I simply put him down or sit him down and firmly tell him

"No biting Tyler, that hurts Mommy!" (and that is after the YELP when he first bites... expecially when he catches me off gaurd) And thats about it. He also does it for no reason at all. I will be holding him and all the sudden he will just bite down on my shoulder. Those suprise ones are the ones that hurt the most! lol

Thanks everyone!

Have a good night, April

bercol1 · 01-09-2006, 03:25 AM

If your son is still quite young he may not understand what you are saying to him. There has to be an imediate consequence, that he doesn't like. Anthony used to do a simillar thing to me, only he would dig his chin into my arm. It was very sore. I used to scoop his chin up into my hand with a little force (but not hurting him in any way) just enough force to make it uncomfortable for him and hold it in this postition for a couple of seconds, as he found this uncomfortable too. He soon learned that the chin digging behaviour was always followed by the same result and this seemed to stop him. If you are sitting him down and then saying no bitting he might not even be at a stage where he realises what the word bitting means. he might even be doing it to get you to put him down.
Good luck, I hope you get it sorted
Bernadette

caliente · 01-09-2006, 10:16 AM

i've been through the biting too. i used to have bite marks all over my shoulders from my daughter. even one on my stomach and one really huge one on the back of my leg. sometimes she would do it when angry. other times it just seemed to come out of nowhere. especially the leg one... i was standing in the kitchen getting her a snack and she was sitting on the floor near me.. she seemed to be in a good, calm mood... and all of the sudden she opened her mouth real wide and latched on to the back of my leg as hard as she could. i would always just pull her head off me, put my finger over her mouth and say "NO!" it seemed to work as she stopped doing it eventually. or maybe she just "grew out of it." every once in a while now when she gets mad, she opens her mouth and lunges towards me like she wants to bite, but never actually does.

boysboysboys · 01-09-2006, 03:05 PM

Hi,
I also have a biting problem with my 3 year old son, Clark. He goes in phases where he bites several times a day and then has a few days in a row that he doesn't bite at all. We haven't been able to figure out what triggers the biting. His favorite place to bite is in the shoulder, which seems to be the most common place according to the posts in this thread. Clark thinks it is funny. He seems to do it when he is in a silly mood, laughs when scolded about it, then comes in for another bite. He used to always bite his twin, who also has Autism, in the middle of the back. I'm thankful that I'm his target now, but I don't like having to flinch everytime he snuggles into my shoulder. Scoulding and time outs haven't worked for us. I've considered, but haven't yet tried, putting something he wouldn't like in his mouth, like maybe a little dab of mustard, after every bite in hope that it would fix the problem. Anyway, Good Luck!

Tylers_Mommy · 01-10-2006, 12:32 AM

Hello! Thanks for all your input everyone!

I think eventually I will get this all sorted out. Tyler was a pistol today. lol He and I stayed up real late tonight. I just put him to bed. We had a ball though. He is SO MUCH FUN when it is just me and him! When ya toss my 5 yr. old and 7 yr. old in the mix it becomes a really stressful situation though. I am still learning to balance life with 3 boys who all need a lot of attention. It seems like I get more Tyler time after 8 PM when Logan & Jace hit the sack. After storytime they are out till tomorrow morning!

I hope that this biting thing is just a annoying phase that some babies go through. Tyler does have his weird little things that he does that eventually go away if I just hang in there long enough. Sometimes Ty laughs as he is doing it or right after when I talk to him about it. Maybe he is trying to turn it into some kind of game possibly. I don't really know. I would put mustard in his mouth or something like that but I'm not sure how that would turn out since he doesn't eat anything besides his bottles and I am not sure how he would react to something like that. He refuses food and wont eat anything at all...whatsoever. It kinda is like a little problem we have right now. He is still gaining weight though, so its not too big of a problem. It is a good idea if he keeps this up for when he does start eating things. Although I hope it doesn't last that long. lol Thanks for everything!!!

Well thanks again for all your help and suggestions!!!
April