Biting in child care - advice needed

We have one DD who is 18mnths old and has been in care since 8mnths Last week we were told that she biten a little boy three times and a girl. We were horrified. It has happened before with other little children and what we thought was once before at childcare at the end of last year. It happened again today and we were called in to a meeting and basically ambushed and told they want to move her to the next age group up to seperate the little boy and her. No other options were given. We were then told that there have been a 11 incidents in total, quite a number that we were not infomred about.

The other issue is her sleep. At the beginning of the year she was moved into the 1-2s and subsequently reduced to one sleep b/c this is the routine the centre insists on. I have voiced my concern and requested they attempt to put her down in the mornings but they tried once and said they couldn't get her down. We brought this issue up today and explained that we have brought it up a number of times and the last time was this morning when I dropped her off. The manager today said the fact that this has not been addressed is not good enough and if we agreed that she could move up an age group then they would try to keep to the rountine we have at home for her.

We are so angry because we have not been kept informed, they have not addressed the sleep issue that we have brought up numerous times and now we have a learned behavioural issue. We understand that the sleep and biting may not be related having said that it may be related.

We are know wondering whether we should try to enrol her somewhere else or persist with the current centre. We are very concerned about DD's reaction to all the change and then if we stay and it still does not work out we will then have to move her which will make a bad situation even worse.

Has anyone got any ideas.

Pull her out!
As far as her sleeps go...no child care centre should force a child to abide to THEIR routine. It should be incredibly flexible as its about the individual child. If she still needs a sleep then she should have one.
They should be telling you every time that she bites...not just when they fell like it.
Take her outta there.

Take her out and find somewhere you feel comfortable with and where there is flexibility and open communication. Not only should your sleep concerns have been addressed but they are trained professionals that should be able to handle a common behaviour problem such as biting.

The centre should be informing you of any event that occurs during the day that could be perceived as a problem. My child care centre lets me know if they accidently pinch themselves between lego blocks. I find that slightly exccessive but comforting because I know I'm getting all the information I need to about their time there.

Also is it only this one little boy she is biting. I would be enquiring as to why she is singling him out. Is he doing something to upset her?

Thanks for your opinions, I was feeling like I was over reacting. Cleary I am not.

DD has biten a number of children but the more recent incidents involve the same little boy. The manager of the centre told us that often the biter picks a victim. I am not sure whether this is true or not. We have definately been given the message that it is DD's fault and the little boy is innocent which is probably true. The manager went to the extrordinary length of showing us photos of the little boy and the bites. I do not feel that had any benefit. Cleary we are aware that the situation is serious.

The other thing that really annoyed me yesterday was when I suggested I spend some time at the centre with the carers to try to get DD into routine the manager was not very open to that. Also when it was decided DD would be moved up the manager did not even have the decency to introduce the carers to us. I do no even know who will be looking after DD.

It could be the boy has a personality to get in someones face and not leave them alone, and your girl feels trapped and then bites. I'm sure she doesn't chase him around the centre for a taste!! Why haven't they tried to separate and distract them? Anyway, thats not really the point...

Take her out of there, find another centre, explain that she has issues with biting when cornered and you believe that stems from lack of sleep, make sure they will follow your routines and have an immediate policy to deal with biting.