Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Few Things Have Happened

One by one all the computers failed us this week. We had snow and the entire county shut down leaving all the kids home to drive me insane. Our propane ran out Friday night and I refuse to pay extra so we didn't have hot water or heat until Monday morning. Dado had to be put down and my DH is devastated.

The real kicker though, is that Kiera has become a violent biter. She is not mad when she does it. She is happy or excited and can't contain it so she attacks the nearest person. She had been hitting before she turned to into The Biting Beast. Yesterday, she was showering with Emma and took a chunk out of her tummy. It bled and the poor child screamed. She couldn't get her to let go and the whole area is black and blue, swollen, and scabbed up today. She can't even let her shirt touch her. This morning in a fit of excitement, she stabbed me in the head with a ballpoint pen. It scraped the skin and it hurts many hours later. She is so sweet after she attacks, she feels terrible. We get lots of kisses and sorrys but we are terrified of who may be next. It's hilarious, we all cringe when she giggles near us. You should see the room scatter.

6 comments:

Dnay said...

I'm sure you know this, but push the biter's head into the one being bitten, not pull away.

Integrity Singer said...

Aspie Boy used to bite. Still does sometimes. His specialist said to pinch his nose so he won't be able to breathe and be forced to relinquish the bite.

Do you know the basket hold or other legal restraining holds until Kiera deescalates? When Aspie Boy was younger, those restraining holds were a lifesaver. I know Kiera's not autistic but the same principles apply to attack this problem.

I'll be at the RTC next week. Wanna catch up for a bit?

Tudu said...

Jennie, just give me a heads up. I only have one baby during the day now and sometimes I can pawn her off. LOL

Jeri said...

When my daughter was in preschool, there was a "biter"...she would bite though usually out of anger. Finally, they started pinning a sponge to her shirt so when she felt she needed to bite, she could bite that. It was strange watching this kid running and suddenly stop and just bite the heck out of that sponge! It served the purpose for whatever tension she needed to release though. I was concerned that she'd bite off a chunk of cellulose from the sponge and choke and suggested a wash cloth instead. just an idea

Abby said...

Not about the biting, but the comment about holding a kid's nose to make him/her stop biting brought back a memory that made me laugh...

I worked at an overnight Y camp for a few summers and we had to do midnight wake-ups for some bedwetters every week. Seeing as how I was dubbed "Mother Wendy," I was pretty much on this duty every night for 3 summers straight. One summer we had a kid who was particularly difficult to wake up and would actually continue to sleep/SNORE while we were making him get out of bed & stand up! I was stuck having to pick him up off his top bunk, stand him up, and shake him until he was awake enough not to collapse to the floor.... until my coworker showed me one night that if you plug the kid's nose, he'd wake up pretty quickly! Figured a few seconds of oxygen deprivation was better than the whiplash I was worried I'd give him!! =)

Marthavmuffin said...

wow it just keeps piling on for you. I am amazed how you deal with all of the challenges brought to your family and hope you find a way to deal with this newest one.