Reader Question: Biting, Mealtime, Daycare and Dad

This is a follow up to this question from Jennifer A.:

Thank you very much for your advice.  For the most part the throwing has been getting better but he has turned biting instead.  Taking the toy away seems to be effective. We are still working on meal times. He likes to take food out of his mouth (not sure how much disciplining I should be doing/if I should just pick my battles). Anyways I did have another question, I will be returning to work in September and I know that since he has been home with me for a full 2 months that it will be a huge transition. I don't have the luxury of easing him into daycare and it is a completely new daycare so it will not be familiar. Is there anything that I can do to help ease the transition? Is there anything that I can do to limit the behavior problems that will occur at home due to the transition? I remember last year (he was only a year so it was less of a problem) he would be fine at daycare but he would have massive tantrums once we were home.  We do spend lots of time together even when he is in daycare. We are usually home by 4:00 so I do try to make the most of our time together. Also, do you have any ideas for calming activities? I find that when my husband returns from work (which is also right at supper time which explains some of the behavior problems) my son becomes so hyper and excited because daddy is home. I apologize for the long list of questions. I don't really have anyone to bounce ideas off or to discuss some of the stages that he is going through. I appreciate all the help that I can get.

Thank you and have a nice week-end.     Jennifer

No problem, Jennifer!  Glad to hear that the throwing has been getting better.  Bummer about the biting.  Lucky for you, I just answered another reader's question on that very thing.  You can check out my response here. 

As for the mealtimes, you should definitely follow your gut and pick and choose your battles.  All too often, we try to "fix" all our kids problem behaviors at once which then leads to us being overwhelmed.  We can't do it all.  I suggest tackling the behaviors that are making mealtimes the most frustrating.  If taking food out of his mouth is not at the top of your list, let it go for now.  Get the big ones under control and tackle the little ones later.  Using this approach, you will have A LOT more energy to deal with them.

Returning to work stinks, doesn't it?  I remember how hard it can be transitioning kids to daycare.  I actually wrote an article on this on Minti (a fantastic resource for parents!) a while back.  Thanks for bringing it to my attention that I never posted it here on my blog.  Took care of that a few days ago.  Here's the link.

As for calming tips, I have done several posts on this topic as well.  You can check them out here, 
here, here, here, and here.

Hopefully, I have answered all your follow up questions, Jennifer!  Let me know if I've missed anything!  As usual, thank you so much for the questions and for being a Mentor Mom reader!!!