Nail biting

[SueC]

My 4 year old has bitten her nails for probably a year now. I initially did some research that indicated that she would outgrow it, but I've decided I need to address it before it becomes such an ingrained behavior that she has no prayer of kicking it. I tried reminders and painting her nails, neither of which worked, so I finally went ahead and ordered that nail polish that tastes disgusting. I think it's called Orly No Bite. Has anyone else tried this or tried any other methods to keep a kid from biting their nails? She seems to do it when she is bored or anxious, and it floors me where she picked this up since nobody that we are around regularly is a nail biter (at least that I've noticed).

[Phoebe]

Sue- I haven't heard anything about that nail polish. Nail biting is a bad habit, I used to do it until I had acrylic nails on for almost a year. A friend of mine has a 4 yr old daughter with the same problem and her ped suggested seeing a psychologist due to it being an anxious habit. Her daughter said she can't stop, but my friend hasn't pursued the psych avenue yet.

Jennifer

[houseelf]

No, but as long as we're brainstorming on annoying and dirty bad habits, has anyone heard of kids chewing on their sleeves? DS comes home from school everyday with a wet gnarled left sleeve. Very bizarre. He is ruining his clothes.

Sorry to hijack....

Kelly

I have heard that if you have them grab a bar of soap and then dig their nails into it, the soap can't be seen under the nails, but it can be tasted. Other than that, I haven't heard of anything. Sorry not much help.

[Phoebe]

Avery chews on her sleeve and uses it to wipe her face. I don't know where she got that.

[mommax3]

I bit my nails for YEARS until vanity caused me to stop. I'm sorry I don't have any ideas for you, Sue.

Kelly, my boys, especially the oldest (who obsessively used several pacifiers at bedtime until he was 3.5), are like little mice. They will chew on anything and when they were younger, several of their shirts sported little holes on the sleeves and neck. We got them headphones to use when they watched videos in the car and they bit through the wires. They have grown out of it but the tendency creeps back when they are tired or bored or watching too much tv.

Can we say oral fixation?

Sally

[PrincessFiona]

Sue,

My daughter bit her nails for about a year....and I tried everything from sour tasting stuff on her fingers, to tape, to nagging...and none of those things worked.

Then I went out to Kohls and bought a manicure kit that had hand creams, nail files, clippers and a set of nail strengthener/base coat/color/top coat in it.

I told her we were going to start working on not biting our nails together and gave her a manicure of her stubby little nails....we talked about how nice it would be to have beautiful nails (I bite mine too)....She started taking serious care of her nails after that and they are now long and beautiful...I went back to biting mine after a week.

She has kept her nails nice for a year now....try it!

kris

[SueC]

Kids are so wierd! The sleeve chewing thing is kind of funny.
Thanks for the suggestions to cure the nail biting. I don't think the nail bite stuff is going to work so I'll have to try the other ideas.