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A young girl cries in a toy aisle of a store.

Does your child bite? My almost 3-year-old son has gone through that stage, and it’s frustrating – and painful! When biting by young children becomes an ongoing problem, it needs to be addressed, no matter the reason. 

What’s the best way to do this? As always, remain calm and consistent! 

Biting by young children can be a form of communication, especially for little ones who might not have the right words to express their frustration or excitement. 

Biting also might be related to a power struggle. For example, one child bites another to secure the toy they wanted to play with. Or biting could be due to overstimulation, a child is exhausted, overwhelmed, or hungry. 

Keep It Simple

As with most things with our kiddos, it’s best to be as consistent as possible. We don’t want them thinking if they continue that they could get a different outcome. 

You could respond with, “No biting. Biting hurts.” Then focus your attention on making sure the victim of the biting is OK. 

This helps enforce to your child that biting is not rewarded with positive attention. 

Once you are able to return your attention to your child, it is okay to validate how they are feeling. Acknowledge that they could be feeling upset or frustrated. 

But always maintain that biting is never OK.

Learn From the Moment

Next, attempt to turn the situation into a learning moment. Offer an alternative to biting. 

For example, if your child bit another child who stole the toy your child was playing with, you could suggest finding a safe adult to help address the other child. 

Or, if your child is comfortable, he could tell the other child that he was still playing with the toy and he’ll share when he’s ready to play with something else.

 It’s great to find any opportunity to show our kiddos how to communicate using our words.

Take a Break

 If it seems like maybe the biting was sourced from overstimulation, address that. Maybe your kiddo is exhausted and needs a break to lay down. Maybe it’s too loud, and your child was just feeling really uncomfy.

 After addressing the cause of the overstimulation, you can remind your little one to find a parent or teacher who can help them move to quiet space or take a break from the current activity.

Never Use Physical Punishment

Don’t bite your kiddo back! That will just enforce the idea that biting is acceptable in some circumstances. 

Remember to never address behavioral problems with physical punishments. 

Also, always supervise your kiddo during play time with other children, especially during high stress times like when there are a lot of children present. 

More Guidance

At what point should we as parents reach out for professional guidance?

 If it seems like your child is not growing out of this phase or it’s escalating, there could be another reason or stressor causing the misbehavior. If the biting is accompanied by other aggressive behavior, it could be time to ask your pediatrician for suggestions. 

You also can try opening up to your parent-friends. A lot of parents deal with a lot of the same things. It’s OK to talk about things that are challenging us as parents. 

Keeping those parts of our thoughts bottled up can create even more pressure, and other parents might have great advice for you! 

And utilize your village. Ask your own parents, aunts, uncles, cousins how they handled the challenges of parenting. It can be hard to ask, but try to accept the support when you can. We can all use it!

Sophie Hamel is a freelance writer and works in advocacy for victims of interpersonal violence. Her son is almost three years old.

Luminous removes the hassle of arranging for tuition vouchers and helps make childcare affordable. Vouchers can help ease your financial stress. Learn more about qualifying for HRA and ACS vouchers at our Bronx and Brooklyn centers. Payment can also be made by SEIU/1199 Child Care, check, credit card, and through the Luminous reimbursement program. Contact Luminous Early Childhood Learning Center at enrollment@luminouschildcare.org or call us at 929.228.1180.

Happy little African American boy in a pumpkin patch in autumn,

Hi, parents, and happy October! I’m so happy to celebrate my favorite season of the year. It's that time of year for fall fun with little ones. Here are some autumn- and Halloween-themed suggestions to keep your little one entertained.

As always, we are keeping these as simple as can be. Let’s get started! 

Squishy Fun

First is an activity that is great for our really tiny humans. If you plan to carve pumpkins, don’t throw away the guts of the pumpkin.

Instead, toss them in a gallon zip lock bag to create a super simple and squishy sensory activity for those 12-24-month-olds.

This way they are still involved in the pumpkin carving, but in a safe way. And this allows us parents to really focus on our own pumpkins, am I right? 

Pumpkin Washing

Another idea for our little littles is a pumpkin washing station. To keep it really simple, go for smaller pumpkins. You’ll need to grab a container, fill it with warm soapy water, and make sure there you’re set up in an area that is protected from the splashing or is OK to get wet.

Our three- and four-year-olds can really get involved in the activity by washing everyone’s pumpkins before the carving begins! 

With larger pumpkins, skip placing them in water. Instead, just give your little one a couple of washcloths and some warm soapy water. This way they can wipe down all the pumpkins, and get them nice and clean for carving. But you don’t have to find a giant tote to fill with water either. 

Sensory Bin

Another easy peasy sensory activity for our littles ones is a fall-themed sensory bin.

You could use multicolored dry pasta, pinecones, smooth acorns, or even some leaves. There is basically no mess when it comes to this activity since everything is pretty large and we parents love to hear that.

Give this one a try and let me know how it goes and how long your kiddo stayed engaged in the activity. 

Hunting for Decorations

This next one, I just did with my kiddo over the past weekend, and we had such a good time. I realized, I didn’t have any Autumn or Halloween decorations for our house! As such a huge fan of this time of year, that did not sit right with me. Lack of storage space keeps me from holding onto a lot of decorations, other than those we have for Christamas. 

So, I asked my kiddo if he wanted to go to the thrift store to pick out some decorations. Surprise, surprise, his response was “NOW?” It just so happened we had a few free hours before I had to go to work. So, I said “Sure!” and we were off. 

We headed over to our local Goodwill. I really tried to let him pick out the things he thought would be cute for our little home. He found some pumpkin string lights (LOVE), tealight candle holders (one black cat, a pumpkin, and a little ghost), a wooden pumpkin door hanger, and the cutest little stuffed pumpkin with a black top hat and black and white striped arms and legs. They are absolutely perfect.

Extra tip: Bring something to donate to the thrift store. Most thrift stores offer a coupon for making a donation. So not only was everything pretty cheap in the first place, we also got 20% off! We spent a total of only $10. And we had a great time doing it. 

But, the fun didn’t stop there. We still get to go home and decorate with our super fun finds. 

There you have it, friends! Easy peasy autumn activities to incorporate when you’ve got the time.

I hope they are just as much fun for you as they were for me. Let me know how it goes!

Sophie Hamel is a freelance writer and works as a crisis responder. Her son is a 3½-year-old preschooler.



Luminous removes the hassle of arranging for tuition vouchers and helps make childcare affordable. Vouchers can help ease your financial stress. Learn more about qualifying for HRA and ACS vouchers at our Bronx and Brooklyn centers. Payment can also be made by SEIU/1199 Child Care, check, credit card, and through the Luminous reimbursement program. Contact Luminous Early Childhood Learning Center at enrollment@luminouschildcare.orgor call us at 929.228.1180.