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Tot Sauce: Chompers

by Amy Nance

When I picked up my son from daycare yesterday, I was informed that he had been bitten by another child. He had a very faint mark on his arm, and the skin wasn't broken. This morning, you can't even see the mark.

I didn't think it was that big a deal. Kids are kids. They do stuff like this, right? But then I was asked to sign a waiver that said I had been made aware of the details of the "incident" and that I was releasing the teachers and the daycare from any liability.

Perhaps also relevant to note is that they wouldn't tell me which child had done the biting. Granted, I didn't ask. But when we were discussing it, it was very obvious that the name of the biter was being left out intentionally. It made me wonder if the name of the bitee (my son) was left out of the story when the biter's family was informed. I'm assuming they were informed, anyway.

So I guess my question is, is this really that big of a deal? Biting seems like something that would be relatively common at this age (infants under 1 year old, all cutting teeth). Not that it is acceptable for a child to go around biting other children. You correct the behavior and move on. But it's "normal" right? Or is it not?

I hate the idea of picking up my child one day and finding out that he was the biter. But I suppose it could happen.

Has it happened to your child? Has he/she been bitten? Has he/she bitten another child? How do you handle the situation to ensure it doesn't happen again? 

 

Photo by Flickr member Upsilon Andromedae, used under a Creative Commons License.