BITING 101

Well, the biting issue hasn't gone away. In fact, it's been escalating at home with me and with Daniel. Violet only bites the two of us, and it's always out of jealousy ("I want your attention") or anger from discipline ("I'm mad I just got in trouble").

But today things took a turn for the worse.

She bit another kid in school - a first for her. We were greeted with an incident report when we went to pick her up, and an explanation: She was angry at a kid for stealing a toy so she bit his arm as he pulled the toy away. This was a new motive for biting.

I headed straight to the director's office to talk things through, sure that this was the start of a biting spree for her. We formulated a temporary plan that involved them calling my cell immediately after a bite and me running over to pull her out of the room and discipline her with our standard method: A flick on the lip (which obviously, the teachers aren't allowed to do).

Thankfully, we never had to use this method.

That night, Violet bit me again. With the same motive as earlier in the day: She wanted a fork I had in my hand, and bit me out of anger as I took it away. Something snapped in me (granted, I was still extremely upset about the school incident) and I bit her back.

I feel the need to qualify the statement - I did bite her, but it was lightly. No marks were left.

Still, she cried a new cry. A cry of "how could you do that to me, Mommy"... and it lasted for a good five minutes.

No incidents for the next two days and then a brilliant moment of breakthrough. We were tickling/wrestling and her teeth accidently hit my arm. Not a big deal at all, but she sat straight up with huge eyes. She pointed at my arm, then her mouth and said, "No bite! No bite!"

It worked! Turns out my mom was right all along... apparently this method was used on my little sister as well.

Update: Violet has bitten only a handful of times since then, but very spread out and only at home. She responds beautifully to correction!