Part of being a parent is learning to trust. Learning to trust your own judgment and learning to trust in your child. As you and your child are learning about one another everyday, you learn to trust each other much like you would with anew friend.
This may sound funny but I am having a small trust issue with Sofia lately. She has taken to biting me very very hard. Hard enough to break skin and draw blood. She bites me in two different situations. One is when she gets very excited and the other is when she gets mad. When she gets it excited it's not as bad. It's more like a love nibble. However when she get mad or frustrated she bites so hard and with such fury it make me cry out in pain. This has resulted in my not being able to trust her to put her mouth anywhere near me unless she is in calm state. I am terrified of being bitten. I flinch like an abused dog any time she puts her mouth to my shoulders. No amount of reprimanding will stop her from doing this.
Any other moms out there have biting issues? The worst part is she has learned to give lovely cute kisses. I say "bacio" and she will kiss my cheek. But I dare not let her linger for fear she will bite my jaw. That's another favorite spot.
I hate having trust issues with a baby. Any suggestions?
What do you do, specifically, when Sofia bites you? She is too young to talk to about this, she's not at an age of reason. Actions speak louder than words. In my opinion, if one of the boys were doing this to me (and what I have done when they've bitten me while breastfeeding, on purpose or not), I would immediately tell him no, and put him down, or if necessary, put him in his room with the door shut. There will be screaming and crying, I imagine, but again, in my opinion, this should be ignored for a period of time (at Sofia's age, probably only about 3-5 minutes). Then go on as normal until the next incident. If you remove her from you physically each and every time she bites, she should get the idea very quickly that if she wants to be near you, she needs to behave. Just keep reminding yourself, whenever Sofia is doing anything that you don't like, or don't want her to do, that YOU are the parent, and you get to decide how things are. She shouldn't get a say in what or how you do things in your household and inter-family relationships until she's much older and has the ability to understand and reason. I know it's hard to be firm with the little ones, but you'll do yourself a huge favor in the long run by duking it out now ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice Amy! I normally tell her no and that it hurts me. But today I decided to try putting her down when she does it. I think that really gets through to her. Hopefully it will stop soon.
ReplyDeletei'm going through the same issues with sophia (they began this week)and i'm doing what amy's said. we have a time out and i tell her no. not fun, either way.
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