I’m having a real problem with my 9 month old son biting. He’s got both top and bottom teeth now so it’s really painful. Tonight he even managed to break skin. He bites me and the babysitter and we’ve both been trying to teach him not to, but now he’s also started biting other kids. At least today was the first I heard of it. A little 4 year old girl at the sitter who loves playing with him told me that he bit her leg “and it really hurt.” I felt so terrible. 😢

I’ve been told not to react, because that encourages him, but sometimes when I don’t see it coming I can’t help it and I yell. Which seems to just make him laugh. My mom says to bite him back, but I feel like he’s too young to understand that. The sitter said today she yelled at him, put him in the time out corner, and he cried. I tried that too, just firmly saying NO BITING and sitting him away from me. He did cry, and it was so hard not to go over and hug him, but I was hoping he’d really learn.

Anyone been through this at this age? What worked and what didn’t?