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Old January 8th 04, 10:18 PM
Cheryl S.
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Default biting - what do you do?

"teapot" wrote in message
om...
I thought it would be wise to ask for tips in case he
turns out to be a biter. He's been doing this pull off
thing for the last week or so and he gets 3 chances
to settle before the boob gets put away as it hurts.
Should I use the same strategy for biting? I'm not sure
its working for the pulling off. What I mean by pulling
off is when they have a firm grip on th nipple but wrench
their heads away fast - ouch.


I never give "chances" - I think they are just confusing for the child
and make them want to do it *more*, in an attempt to figure out, "why
was it OK this time but not OK that time?". He can't count to three,
yet. :-)

I'm not there yet with DS, and DD didn't do the painful pull-off thing,
but when she did try biting, I just *immediately* unlatched her and set
her down, then refused to nurse again for at least 15 minutes. After 2,
maybe 3 times, she stopped and never bit again.

Side-note: The thing to remember with kids (and I am not always good at
remembering this myself) is that they are born with *no* *idea* what is
OK and what is not. All behaviors are just things that they try out,
when or if it occurs to them to do so. Kids are not "bad" or "good",
IMO, some are just more experimental than others. ;-) So I try to
think of myself more as teaching them than disciplining them. The
quickest way to teach something is to have action X result in effect Y
immediately and 100% consistently.
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 9 mo.
And Jaden, 4 months

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.