12 month old biting

[TillyBarry]

My 12 month old son is biting me all the time.  He bites when he is frustrated, teething and in pain,  or when he wants something.  I tell him " no bite." and try to redirect him and figure out what he needs.  Any advice?

[ShannonBell]

I don't remember what age she was, but we got DD1 a book called "Teeth are not for Biting" And, if she bit me, I would go get the book and sit down to read it with her. She loved to have books read to her, but she would get kind of upset when I would do this. Nothing too bad, but she knew that she had done something wrong. She stopped biting after a while. Good luck, and remember that this is probably just a phase. They realize that they have this power and they have to experiment with it.

[TillyBarry]

ShannonBell, Thanks for this.  I will look for the book, a book is a very good idea.  I have really begun to notice that he bites me when he frustrated and overwhelmed.  So I have to avoid letting him get to that point. 

[coffeegirl]

I just wanted to offer my sympathy. My daughter is 11 months old and she bites too, but not out of anger and frustration. With her, it happens either out of excitement when playing, or (more often) when we're holding her and she's on the verge of falling asleep. When it happens at naptime when she's sleepy, what I've started doing is putting on armour lol. When I lay down with my daughter I have a small quilted blanket that I put over my front (she likes to lay face-down on my belly and chest while she's falling asleep). When she starts biting, it has to go through the quilt and usually I can't feel the brunt of it. I also try to remember to have some non-stimulating teething toys handy that I can put near her mouth if she gets in the biting mood.

If it's happening out of aggression, I agree about trying to prevent the aggression as a preemptive strike. When my daughter starts to bite when we're playing, I pull her head away from wherever she's bitten and say, very seriously and close to her face, "NO BITING". Whenever I get face to face with her she likes to smile and giggle and I usually smile back, but in these instances I make sure to stay stone-faced when I'm telling her not to bite. After two or three times of physically stopping her from biting and telling her "NO", she usually stops and goes on to some other kind of playing.  HTH. :)