My little girl is about 22 1/2 months. She's been attending the same daycare since she was 8 weeks old. She is happy there and I like the woman who runs it and the setting.
But, there's another child about 1 1/2 old than her that has been bitting her. The first time was in December when she was bit 3 times in one day. One of the three times was because she stuck her finger in the other girl's mouth. The other two were over disagreements over possession of toys. My husband and I discussed at that time whether to take her out of the daycare, but we thought the daycare provider could work with the kids to stop this.
On at least two other occassions, my daughter has been bitten by the other girl. I keep thinking after it's been awhile that it's stopped and it's been taken care of, but today she bit my daughter 4 times. I was told she had an ear infection and didn't feel good.
I'm torn because I don't want to have to change her to a new daycare if this problem can be solved. It'd also be my luck to move her and find out another child is doing it to her. But, I'm also concerned about whether it's a good idea to allow her to stay there and take this other little girl's abuse. I know biting it common, but I want to protect my little girl and I also don't want her to start biting others thinking it's ok. I'm also expecting another child and my husband questioned whether this little girl would try to bite our baby because she's jealous of attention given to a new baby.
Btw, the biter is the daughter of the lady who runs the daycare so expelling the biter is not an option.
If she is the daughter of the owner then that mom should discipline her toddler. If my son was to bite I would take him away from the other kids and not allow him to play. She needs to keep her biter away from you daughter. That's prob. why she is letting it happen. She does not want to discipline her daughter. I think that some are way more lenient on their own than others.
As a parent of a child who has been both bitten and more recently has bitten two children in one day, I'd say you need to have a discussion with your day care provider about this. That she needs to keep the two children apart and to work with the biter to prevent this behavior from happening. There's usually some sort of warning prior to the behavior -- argument, playing too rough, teething -- or in my son's case, he announced at show and tell that he was going to bite.
A couple of weeks ago I was mortified to find out that my child bit a couple of children. On both of those occasions, he was not being supervised properly. He had given ample warning that he was going to bite, announced he was going to do so, wandered over to another child and rolled up his sleeve and BIT him on the arm. The other time, he got excited -- was rough housing and bit.
Some kids bite because they're teething, because they get excited, because they see other children do it, because they're upset....
sounds like her child has an issue with the biting though, to have had it happen so many times...
I can understand your concern, and think you're absolutely in the right to be upset about it. I too think you need to sit down with her and discuss this. I think its appropriate for you to question how the provider disciplines her child when she's biting...since your child is a constant victim (and probably not the only one!!)
maybe take her some medical info on how DIRTY the human mouth is... bites from humans are taken more seriously than bites from animals in hospital settings!!!
One thing you can do is teach your daughter how to defend herself when it comes to biters. One method is teach her to plug the childs nose until they let go. I saw this once when my nephew was biting another child and he never bit that child again. It is a great self defense technique because it is non violent and it gets the point across in a healthy assertive way. Good luck!
