Fuller has little, itty, bitty hands with pudgy, wudgy fingers all attached to a meaty wrist that apparently has decided to dedicate its life to finding its way into Fuller’s mouth at all times. It is rare that Fuller doesn’t have a finger or hand or wrist (usually all his own) in his mouth. And another favorite pasttime of his is to vocalize and put his hand (or wrist) over his mouth, covering and uncovering it to make this sound, “WO-oo-OH-wa-OO-oh-BABA-bbbb-MAMAMA-mmmmmm.” It is really fun to listen to. Really.
Yes. Really.
Anyway, the dedication that Fuller has to putting his wrist in his mouth is quite serious. Recently he has decided to add to his hand-mouth love wrist-hand-mouth anger. Grrrr.
In the past few days, when we have told Fuller “No” and removed him from a “No” situation, Fuller’s response has been to whine, open his mouth, insert his wrist (or the pad of his hand) and bite down.
Yes, my son bites himself.
At first it was cute and I laughed. But as he keeps doing it, I realized that it wasn’t that cute and I was getting kind of disturbed by seeing him hurt himself repeatedly.
I’m trying to figure out what, if anything, should be done in this situation. For one thing, Fuller isn’t biting others, just himself. One another hand, biting could be a gateway to cutting (or just a gateway to bitinh kids in the nursery), so it could be a self destructive behavior that I need to break. And then there is the hand that says that this type of behavior is just trying to getting any kind of reaction from me (good or bad) and I should just ignore him. Finally, the fourth hand that I have says to get over it and what kind of harm can eight tiny teeth do? (As oppossed to eight tiny reindeer.) I plan on offering that fourth hand to Fuller to bite down on so that fourth hand knows exactly what kind of harm eight tiny teeth can do.
At this second, Fuller is napping and all his drool is ending up on the sheets and not his wrist. I am inclined to just say that it really doesn’t matter right now. So, he bites himself when he gets upset. I think I’ll really start to worry when he actually does bite another kid. Or if the eight tiny reindeer start to bite him.