Nursery World - Behaviour: biting

Biting alarms adults but it is often a child's cry for attention

Biting is almost as common as temper tantrums in young children. For a child to be bitten is very distressing, but often the distress felt by the child that is doing the biting is hidden and hard to identify. We need to look at the context in which biting occurs if we are to understand why it happens and how to deal with it.

The ability to bite starts during the first year of life. It is important for the baby and toddler to feel they can bite, and that the aggression inherent in biting is acceptable, in that context. Caregivers often see it as a step forward, as new kinds of food can be introduced and hard toys used to bite on can give relief from those sore gums. But it doesn't take long for babies to discover that biting can also be a way of communicating how they feel. Then, of course, they get a very different response - biting mummy's breast is not celebrated in the same way as biting into a crust of bread is, as the following story shows.

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