The bite, then the boring no
They bite you and your first feeling is outrage. Fair. The useful move is smaller than the outrage.
Raising Children treats biting, pinching and hair-pulling as behaviour with a reason. They may not have words for a big feeling. The room may be too loud, too bright, too much.
They may need to move their body harder than the afternoon allowed. They may be tired or hungry. A tooth may be pushing.
Toddlers also do it in a clash with another child. Look for the reason before you invent a character flaw. A biter is often a child who is full.
With a baby, the response is clear and dull. Say no. Remove the hand or the mouth.
Turn away or put them down. You take the attention off the behaviour. If they do it again, you do the same thing.
Variation is how it becomes a game. If a tooth is the driver, give a teether, a cold flannel, a safe toy. If hunger is the driver, feed them.
The moment they touch gently, that is when the attention and the praise arrive. They repeat what works.
With a toddler you add a feeling word. No. No biting.
Biting hurts. You can say it hurt you. If the bite was frustration they cannot name, your calm is the lesson in how a big feeling can look.
You look angry. Give them the sentence. If they want a chew or they are hungry, crackers, vegetable sticks, a straw, a teether.
Not your shoulder as the snack.
Another child is the version that happens in public. Stay calm. Get there quickly.
Apologise to the child and to their parent. Say the other child is crying because the pinch hurt. That is empathy, modelled, not a lecture about sharing.
Then remove your child and help them settle. A long shame speech in the park teaches them that biting produces a show.
Do the same thing tomorrow. Consistency is the teaching. If one of you laughs because it is only a phase and the other shouts, the child learns the bite is a coin flip.
Agree the no. Agree the turn away. Agree the praise for gentle hands.
Tell the grandparents, who will otherwise narrate it as spirit.
If the biting is constant, or you are frightened of the damage, talk to the nurse or GP. Most of it is communication with teeth. You answer in short words and you do not bite them back to show how it feels.
Source: Raising Children Network