Help! My 7 mo son is mean! - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

OneCharmedMom · 10-19-2007, 10:21 AM

He is so rough and he has started to bite (only me though!). He also hits, although I know that sometimes he is not aware what he is doing - I really think that sometimes he does!
He has his 2 bottom teeth (so it hurts) but I don't feel his anything coming in on top - but I guess that does not necessarily mean that he is not teething. He is drooling like crazy. I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt:that he is not trying to bite and hurt me - maybe he is just teething. But when he bit me - he LAUGHED. I yelled OUCH and pulled him away (he bit me on the shoulder as he was hugging me) and he LAUGHED (at me reaction I suppose). I then firmly told him NO BITING. He LAUGHED again. I could not believe it. SO I gave him to DH (DS has been clingy to me lately) and walked out of the room. He started crying, but I didn't come back in for quite awhile..

Any insight??

rouge · 10-19-2007, 03:03 PM

Your son is not mean

he is just discovering the world around him. If he finds it really razzles you when he bites, then he will want to do it again. How fun was that!! He does not really fully understand what he is doing. He just knows it gets you worked up. When he bites just say "No" and walk away. That's not very fun. Same with the hitting and stuff.

Tiff24 · 10-19-2007, 04:23 PM

My son will be 9 months next week and we've been having problems with him "testing" me. We rolls everywhere and gets into stuff (like a normal baby) but when I tell him "no" or swat his hand he just smiles and does it again. My husband points out that up until now everything has been a game. So I wouldn't be too upset that he laughed when he hurt you. He got a reaction and to him it was probably a fun one. There have been previous threads about biting and how to stop it so you could search for them or wait 'til people give advice, which I'm sure you'll get a lot of. My son doesn't bite (yet) so I don't know what to tell you about that. "Rouge" is right though, just walking away from him might be punishment enough for him to stop.

OneCharmedMom · 10-19-2007, 09:44 PM

Oh thank goodness. Not something to be worried about. I just thought that he was starting to be so rough and he is so young....but I will do the walk away thing and give him as little reaction as possible...your right. How fun is that? Thank you!

mcr285 · 10-23-2007, 01:47 PM

with my two, when they got rough (between 6-7 months), i'd take their hands and tell them "gentle, gentle..." and show them how to softly pat my cheeks and then i'd do it to them and say "see? gentle, gentle..."

at seven months old, yeah, he's looking for that reaction, because we do look somewhat amusing when we're looking all shocked and upset! and it will take time for him to learn to be gentle, but keep doing it and it will come. at around 9-10 months, my younger daughter walked over to my friends 6 month old and just started patting her so softly and was so sweet and gentle to her. my friend was absolutely shocked that my daughter could do that, but if you start early, they do learn!