Don't Bite Friends...Bite Food

There was a stretch of time last summer that every time I walked into day-care to pick up Colin I cringed.  Would there be an "incident report" to sign?  And, almost every day, there was.  Two if I was really lucky. Prominently attached to the front of his clipboard for all the other parents to see, the incident report detailed the time, circumstances, and aftermath of the bite.  Shame would be splashed across my beet red face as I pulled the indident report off his chart, hastily signed my name, and crumpled my copy into the pocket of my pants to read in the privacy of my car. At just over a year old, I'm not sure there is much a parent can do.  He wasn't talking yet, and biting was the way he said "Hey buddy, get your grubby hands off my book, I had it first".  Let's be honest.  You're stuck in a small room with eight other kids every day - someone is bound to get ticked off and take a chomp out of someone.

This continued just about every day for two months. I thought for sure Colin would get kicked out of school, and wondered why he couldn't just be a hair puller like the other boys in his class.  No embarrassing indicent reports went home to their parents. They probably thought their kids were perfect angels all day! They didn't panic wondering if the day-care center director would corner them to talk about their child's "behavoir".

Once Colin went to the Toddler room in October, he wasn't the big fish in the small pond anymore, and the biting stopped...until about a month ago. Payback is a b----, and Colin got bitten for the first time.  At first, I was releived.  Finally, put in his place.  However, it just rekindled the flame, and the indicent reports started flying fast and furious! After a few run-ins with Colin's full set of pearly whites, we got a note sent home with ideas to attempt to end the biting once and for all. Day-care meant buisiness this time.  Maybe he was on his third strike...

So, we started a new mantra in our household: "Don't bite friends, bite food."

We all say it constantly, and Colin loves to bust it out throughout the day. This has evolved (by Colin I might add) to: "Don't bite friends, bite food, hug friends, bites hurt." Then he dramatically gives himself a hug. 

It looks like for the time being we are in the clear, Colin finally "gets it" and hasn't bitten a friend in a few weeks. 

When Halloween rolled around last year and I decided to have a little fun on Colin's behalf.  Colin dressed up as as a shark.  Not sure his teachers (or Colin's victims) appreciated my humor, but I just couldn't resist.

Halloween 2011