Don't Bite Strangers!

So I've noticed, in addition to reminding our kids about using good manners and treating people respectfully, there are several things we find ourselves saying now that we are parents: "hold my hand in the parking lot", "don't put that in your mouth" and even the dreaded "because I said so". But there are also a number of sentences I'd never have expected to utter:

"don't clean your feet with your toothbrush"
"don't forget to put your underwear on"
"don't put food in your underwear"
"don't bite your toenails"
"don't wipe your buggers on the wall and then cover them with scotch tape"
"don't sit on your sister's head"

and most recently:
"don't bite strangers"

Don't bite strangers? As if it's ok to bite people you know! Although realistically, I'd rather have my kids bite me than a stranger -- if they insist on biting. This winner of a phrase came out on our way home from Boston. We were at the airport and Evan ran up to a man we had joked with earlier and bit him. He actually BIT the man! So I said what any mother would say, "Evan, don't bite strangers!" Even as the words came out of my mouth it didn't sound quite right. Luckily, Evan only nibbled and the man just laughed about it, calling Evan a little puppy.

This biting incident was the wake up call we needed that Evan was experiencing increased aggression as a side effect to one of the meds he was on. The crazy thing is the way the aggression played out -- this is pure aggression and not anger based. He ran up to the man with a smile on his face and looked like he was going to hug him. We had also seen him hit and throw things but there are so many possible reasons for him to act out, it was hard to make the call. It could have been the disruption to his schedule with traveling, increased seizures, the lack of a nap, etc. When we got home we called his doctor and began weaning him off of one of the drugs and saw a huge improvement in just a week. These drugs are scary things.