OUCH!!! Help, please - I've got a biter!

[nigellas]

My 18MO son has been biting me a lot lately - not just little nibbles, but full on grab my skin with his teeth, clamps down HARD and then PULLS. He's broken the skin a few times and even bit a hole in one of my shirts. I'm sure it's hilarious to him because I occasionally yelp in pain (I try to remain composed, but when he dangling by my cheek, for example, it fricking HURTS!) and then try to get him off me as fast as possible. After detaching him (sometimes even this is hard) I'll say sternly "Teeth are for eating. Do not bite. That Hurts mommy." (or some variation of this)... This usually calms him down, but he's often back at it within the hour...
It seems to be getting worse, and I'm finding that I'm starting to avoid his big hugs and silliness, because he usually clamps down during a big bear hug, or when we are on the ground being silly.

HELP! Any advice is very much appreciated.

[aaronsmom]

Sometimes toddlers don't understand when you say something hurts so you need to *show* them it hurts. (No, I don't mean bite him back!) What worked with my DS was physically expressing my pain. Ex; rubbing the spot where he bit saying 'ow' or 'crying' (sometimes it really would bring tears to my eyes). Then I'd ask if he could kiss it and make it better. Now whenever he wants to bite, he'll catch himself and kiss me instead. That might not work for you (my DS is a tad bit older) but HTH!