17 month old biting himself-drawing blood

[micah_mae_]

He does this when he's having a tantrum, last time was when we were diapering him after a bath. He just bites the crap out of himself! He's also done it during a tantrum at the grocery store as we were leaving (because of the tantrum).
I don't get it, why does he do this?

[justKate]

My 15 month old DD does the same thing. It's awful, because you take such great measures to make sure they don't get hurt and then they bite themselves, gouge their own eyes, pull their hair, scratch themselves, etc. DD does it when she is stressed--like when she's overtired or overstimulated. Or really fighting sleep hard. Or mad at me because I won't let her bite my arms.

I'm not sure why they do it. I'm getting DD an OT eval for the combination of these and some other sensory-seeking behaviors, but if this is not a sample of some bigger trend, then I'd say he's just expressing his frustration. Kind of like an adult punching the wall, I guess.

I'm anxious to see what others have to say....

[AmyKT]

Huh. Weird. Not your baby, but the fact that mine went through the same thing at about the same age. She outgrew it pretty quickly -- it maybe lasted a month or two. We would try to stop her from doing it because it was difficult to watch and it hurt her, but I was grateful at the same time that she wasn't directing the violence at others. Before we knew what was going on, we thought she was being bitten by other children. I don't know why they do it, but it seems to be a common phase.

I hope it passes for your DS as quickly as it did for my DD.

[micah_mae_]

Thanks ladies! I hope it's a phase!