Biting policy

Biting policy

 

Aim of policy

 

To give practitioners and parents guidance on how we handle incidents of biting.

 

Points to consider

 

Biting can be a very emotional issue for children and parents. Staff must make sure to handle incidents in a way that respects, supports and reassures both the child and family who were bitten and the children and family of the biter. Some young children, especially between the ages of 14 months to 3 years, go through a phase of biting.  For most, biting will disappear once they are able to express their feelings and needs with words, but in some cases it can continue. See the inclusion policy

 

 

Castle Daycare and Preschool aims to do this by

 

• Responding calmly and quickly.
• A member of staff will comfort and attend to the child who has been bitten.
• Another staff member will speak to the child who has bitten.  It will be made clear to the child, depending on their stage of development, that this behaviour is not acceptable.
• The member of staff will show this behaviour is unacceptable by the tone of their voice, body language or if the child is old enough to understand, explanations he/she would simply say that it is wrong to hurt others.
• We will reconcile the children as quickly as possible with adult supervision.
• The incident is logged in our accident book, stating where, when it happened, who was present and how it was dealt with.
• Both sets of parents will be informed separately and privately, without identifying the other child, at the end of the session.  If it is felt that the child needs medical assistance or is too distressed to stay in the setting, we will contact the parent/guardian as appropriate.

 

If biting continues in the nursery, the approach we will take is as follows:

• We will speak to the parents away from their child who has been biting to reassure them that we will track the behaviour to establish any pattern.  This could be due to frustration, hunger, attention, teething, curiosity etc.
• If a pattern is identified, we will draw up an action plan and a copy will be given to the parents and the staff, to be reviewed after two weeks, and we will adjust our routines accordingly.
• If it is felt necessary, we will seek advice from the Early Years and Childcare Service with the parent’s permission.

 

 

• We would speak to the parents of the child who has been bitten and explain that the other parents have been informed and we are working together to resolve the issue.

 

We are a fully inclusive nursery, and we will work with parents to resolve any behavioural issues.