Love-biting (12 months)

[erin23kate]

DS is 1 year old. 

He has a new habit (for about 3 weeks) that I'm having a hard time with.... he bites.  Not in anger or frustration, quite the opposite.  He snuggles up to me, says "lov-ou mama", cuddles really close, then opens his mouth and bites.  Not little bites - he draws blood!  I have literally dozens of bruised and bloody bite-marks.  The worst time is at night, when I'm trying to get him to sleep - over and over and over he cuddles close and bites me - anywhere he can find skin.  He has also bit DH and my mom in the same way.  He has 10 teeth and he can do some pretty serious damage.

I have been putting him down, saying "nice kisses", physically blocking him, and even pressing his own skin to his teeth to show him that it hurts.  I say "biting hurts mommy", and I've been trying to demonstrate how to use mouths nicely.  It's not getting better, if anything it's getting worse.

I'm getting to the point that I recoil when he reaches for me, which makes me feel terrible!  But I'm literally nervous when he wants to cuddle with me.

Advice?

[cristeen]

Just commisseration... At almost 18 mos, we're still working on no bites. It'll stop for a few weeks and then a new tooth will start coming in.

We got him a chewy tube, which is a chewing toy for older kids, and when he starts on me i hand him that to chew. It's also decreased since he started eating whole apples. I can find apples just the right size for his hand and he eats at least one a day. Today he's had 3 so far! But he can ask for them (words and signs).