The twins had them and "we" put them outside on a stone one night when they were 20 months old so the fairies could take them and given them to other children who weren't lucky enough to have any :-)   Middle child sucked her thumb and she stopped a couple of years ago.  Youngest had one til he was a year old and we stopped him from having it during the day and we gradually stopped going back in the middle of the night to rescue the dummy and again one night took it away completely.  He didn't even realise it had gone!!

Just a thought on the hearing side of things - As speech, language and hearing are all connected it would seem to me IMO that another hearing test should be considered. Both my boys had grommets due to glue ear, the eldest at 4 years as he had suffered intermittent hearing loss from frequent ear infections followed by glue ear. The youngest, however, had his grommets put in at 18 months old as he had virtually no audible words. In fact we labelled him as 'caveman' as to gain attention or something he wanted he used to point, bang, grunt or scream.
Within 4 months of the operations and speech and language therapy both boys were communicating fantastically but you can still detect traits of language loss even though they are now 13 and 16 (Or maybe that's just teenagers in general!).
Children who have trouble hearing are not always completely silent, also if there is a language barrier the child may not fully understand how to communicate if words do not come easily hence the reason other behaviour takes its place such as biting, hiting, kicking etc. I suppose they have learnt that actions speak louder than words!
Hope this helps

In my humble opinion, all children go through the hitting, screaming, kicking, pinching & biting stage, personally i would do as some of the other members have suggested & use a firm NO ! & move her away & do something constuctive with her :-) If you can see it happening before it happens use distraction techniques.
I am somewhat bemused that in this day & age that people would recommend biting a young child, if your daughter were a puppy & someone gave you the advice of biting the puppy back that poster would be shot down !
I find it very sad that peoples mentality hasn't moved on about childrens behaviour unlike dog behaviour which has moved on in leaps & bounds, there is no need to lash out at either a child or a puppy, same thing to me.
I'm now going to go & run for cover & put on my bullet proof vest :-)
Good luck with your little girl x
Kind regards x

No need to run stanley, I do love children, but I couldn't eat a whole one :-D

I not sure anyone actually advocated biting the child, although some have said that this is what may have happened to them as children, it certainly did to me.

:)

My daughter use to bite my son- he was 10 months and she almost 4 I think- couldn't figure out why he would cry everytime I left the room for a brief second- to come back and he is bawling- then he was holding his back- lifted his shirt and bite marks this time obviously alot harder then before cause she actually left marks- told her not to do that cause its mean and it hurts- second time she got put into her room and by the 3rd time I bit her back- Then she stopped! My daughter is very very stuborn and still is to this day who will be turning 17 this summer-

Sounds to me as though this is how she is communicating when she wants something, she gets the desired effect by biting. She wants something, or wants another child to move so she bites, some children scream, some point, some get flustered, your child bites. :-)

How is her language earl?

Can you teach her the right words for the things that she wants? Or what she wants to do. Perhaps when she next bites do the OW! and then ask her what she wants, make eye contact and ask her to explain in her own way and then try to give her the language to express herself.

It may well be just something as simple as she finds it easier than speech or just does not know the right words to use. :-)

I think her speech is quite slow, but I've been told that it's only considered an issue if she's still not speaking at 2.  She can say mummy, daddy, all done, door, bye, hiya, but I think that's it really.  Sometimes if you're stroking her face, she'll try to put your hand near her mouth and you can feel her teeth trying to take a nibble.  In these instances you can stop her before she hurts, but obviously if she does that to another child they won't be aware of this.

Hi earl,

I wouldn't be happy with the situation either in the home it is easy to contain but outside too it must be so frustrating, so I did a little internet surfing for you have a look at this. :-) http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Advice/-/Parenting-Skills/-/Discipline-and-Reward/Put-a-stop-to-biting.aspx

I can't offer any helpful advice, but will say that my now 7 year old son used to bite a lot, thankfully he grew out of it.

>>
> I wouldn't be happy with the situation either in the home it is easy to contain but outside too it must be so frustrating, so I did a little internet surfing for you have a look at this. :-) http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Advice/-/Parenting-Skills/-/Discipline-and-Reward/Put-a-stop-to-biting.aspx

lol Carrington, all across the web on child rearing forums and in nurseries throughout the country people are lamenting supernanny and her tv programmes in the same way as people on here roll their eyes and grimace when cesar milan or lady whiplash (wots her name?) are described as the saviours of the dog training world. ;) 

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Thanks Carrington, I'd previously had a look at Supernanny's site, which is where I got the idea of ignoring her and focusing all the attention on the child she has bitten.  It's only been done once (last Thursday), so I'll continue using this method when I'm there.  I printed off that link and gave it to nursery to have a look at.  Their concern is that if they turn their back on her, she'll bite another child.

There is one child who apparantly she just doesn't get on with and vice versa.  Although this child doesn't bite, I'm told she gives as good as she gets.  She bit this child three times yesterday and another child once.  :(  It really seems to be getting worse.  The nursery staff have been discussing her, but seem to be at a loss and think she'll grow out of it, but I feel that it's been going on for too long as it is and it's really not acceptable.  :(

I'm going to speak to the doctor when I'm next there and mention about a hearing test, although nursery are in agreement that she seems to hear fine and they do see her speach improving.

It is really stressful and I wish she would just stop, as she's a really good kid otherwise.  I don't want her to turn into a bully and think that this is acceptable behaviour.  :(

Earl - I did a paper on toddlers biting each other when doing a DPL course, about 35 years ago - can't find it now, and in any case, the theories then will no doubt be completely out of fashion, but one point did stick in my mind - biting is often a "learnt" habit - might be worth asking in the nursery do they/have they had any other children who bite?

It does seem to be a habit that they outgrow by the time they can talk/verbalise though!

Margot

Thanks Margot.

At nursery you're told if you're child has bitten or has been bitten.  I've never been told that anyone's bitten her - although I've suggested that it wouldn't be a bad thing and might teach her that it's not nice.  One kid did try and bite her once, but they caught her before she'd sunk her teeth in.  She was one of the older ones in the baby room when she started and she's now moved into the next room.  She used to bite Nicolas when they were in the baby room (they really like each other and always play together, so I've no idea why she'd bite him).  She moved up to the next room before Nicolas and I know he started biting once she'd gone.

I know they've had other kids in nursery who have bitten, so she's not the first and, I daresay, won't be the last.  But it's been going on for about six months now and it's just really getting me down.  It really worries me that she'll turn into a bully or that she'll ostracise herself from the other children and make herself unpopular.

Nobody tells about these things when you have a little baby!