About five minutes ago my son bit me extra extra hard in my armpit (ow!!!). He really likes biting me. Sometimes it happens when he is teething, but other times I think he is just doing it for fun or attention. The weird thing is he never bites his dad. What is that all about?
I have talked to several friends with babies/toddlers around my son's age and it appears to be normal for babies to bite their mamas but not their dadas (or daycare providers for that matter). Why do mamas get all the teeth marks and bruises?
I should also point out that I have a cat who never bites my husband, but does from time to time bite me. At least with the cat I am pretty sure it is because my husband is more dominant and will seriously punish him if he bites him. With my son I'm not really sure what is going on...
By the way I do know I should try to break my son of this biting habit and believe me I am trying. The thing is when he bites me a lot of the time it is so unexpected and it is always in the most sensitive places: the inside of my thighs, the backs of my knees, or now my armpit! I tell him no and make him sit by himself for a while, but so far this has not resulted in any serious changes in behavior.
I guess I can console myself with the thought that even though I get to deal with my son's wildest side and worst crying spells, I also get the best snuggles and the most love. I think mamas get the highest highs and the lowest lows of baby behavior.
Anyway I resisted the urge to take a photo of the bruise under my arm which is now turning purple, so I am sure most readers will be happy they do not have to look at that. But if you have kids and have (or have not) experienced this "biting mama only" thing please let me know why you think this happens.
I have talked to several friends with babies/toddlers around my son's age and it appears to be normal for babies to bite their mamas but not their dadas (or daycare providers for that matter). Why do mamas get all the teeth marks and bruises?
I should also point out that I have a cat who never bites my husband, but does from time to time bite me. At least with the cat I am pretty sure it is because my husband is more dominant and will seriously punish him if he bites him. With my son I'm not really sure what is going on...
By the way I do know I should try to break my son of this biting habit and believe me I am trying. The thing is when he bites me a lot of the time it is so unexpected and it is always in the most sensitive places: the inside of my thighs, the backs of my knees, or now my armpit! I tell him no and make him sit by himself for a while, but so far this has not resulted in any serious changes in behavior.
I guess I can console myself with the thought that even though I get to deal with my son's wildest side and worst crying spells, I also get the best snuggles and the most love. I think mamas get the highest highs and the lowest lows of baby behavior.
Anyway I resisted the urge to take a photo of the bruise under my arm which is now turning purple, so I am sure most readers will be happy they do not have to look at that. But if you have kids and have (or have not) experienced this "biting mama only" thing please let me know why you think this happens.
I am a stay at home father and I get bitten by my son on a daily basis and I don't mean little nibbles I mean like seriously hard. I am with him 24/7 and have been since the 2nd day he came into this world. He just started doing this about 2 or 3 months ago and it started as an every once in a while thing but now it's daily. For instance today he has bitten me around 30 times, he doesn't do it when he is angry or upset nor does he do it when he is excitable. Its random and very unexpected. I can't seem to get him to stop either. He has two sisters and other family members and he never bites them at all. He is super close to me and I definetly get quite a bit of bonding and love time with him. He is very codependant on me and has a hard time when I leave or am not around even for the smallest amounts of times. I never am gone for more than an hour or two.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to share that you are not alone, if you by chance find out why they do this or some way to get them to stop it please share it with me because I am at my wits end and cannot handle being bitten like this its so super frustrating. I can get mad and say NO or STOP and he will turn around 2 min later and do it again.
Please any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I wrote this blog post awhile ago and this was a relatively short phase for my son. He did expand to biting his dad and once a kid at day care. Our son also was biting when he was excited (not angry). We reacted by putting him in a time out and telling him this was very serious and very bad. For my son, and maybe for your son Dave the biggest punishment for him at that age was to have to be apart from me (and it is handy that they can't bite if you are not close enough). Not sure how old your son is but if he is old enough to understand consequences you could try warning him if he bites he won't be held, or take away his favorite toy. Otherwise I think the immediate and lengthy time outs helped for us. Our son really did not care when we said "no" or "stop" also. But if I put him down or walked away that really had an effect on him. Since you are his favorite person maybe if you go into another room for a while after he bites you he'll get the message you won't play or be around if he keeps it up. But as with all things with kids I think it was also just a phase he outgrew and maybe he would have outgrown it no matter what we did!
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