Nervous habits?

[alison]

What a coincidence. Things have gotten a lot worse in just the past 2 days. M is biting her nails now. The lip-picking is slowing down, but the hair-knotting and nail-biting is now a huge issue. Where can I buy the bitter nail polish?

[diggitydot]

I was a horrible nail biter. You may not need the bitter nail polish. Just having any nail polish on was enough to stop me. Also, keeping my cuticles hydrated went a long way to keeping my hands out of my mouth. you can get cuticle lotions and oils that work really well. I still use Solar Oil to keep them hydrated.

[alison]

This child is driving me insane. I feel like she gets away with murder most of the time, so why the f*ck is she so stressed out?

[HouseofWool]

Could it be that she would do better if she didn't get away with murder? I know that my parents' foster kids (age 15) has an anxiety disorder and he does waaaay better when his world is teeny tiny and the rules are strictly enforced.

[alison]

I meant more that M shouldn't have anything to really be stressed out about. She's happy, healthy, and keeps/is kept busy. She does the biting/picking/hair-twirling when she's relaxed. I watched her bite her nails this afternoon, and she takes a nibble off the top edge of the nail and rips across the whole width of the nail sideways. Gahhhhhh!

We painted her nails like DD suggested, but she still went for it.... I found some "Thum" bitter polish. It contains cayenne pepper and citric acid. M still bit her nails. We eat spicy food on a regular basis, and she didn't react at all to the polish.

[Gwendolyn]

I'll one-up the weird. Dd (similar age to M I think) eats her hair. We brought it up with the pedi and she said that as long as it isn't interfering with her nutrition and she wasn't showing signs of intestinal distress it wasn't as terrible as it seemed. She said the same deal that a good deal of kiddos display obsessive behaviors and simply grow out of them and recommended a behavioral approach of reminding Dd that eating hair is yucky and not food (I felt like the sharks from Nemo for a while). It totally worked and she was finally starting to get some darling duck-tail curls when we started potty training. It's back with a vengeance and she's had some downright fuzzy poops. Apparently the solution is the same; minimize opportunity and continue to extoll the benefits of a hairless diet. Most ped-psych folks (we've got a few in the family) wouldn't consider treatment beyond the behavioral realm without the little having severe, severe issues.

[Michele]

Kai's lip picking is back. He wakes up (?) screaming and fighting and crying and then picks his lip. It's totally a soothing technique but it's causing bloody fingers and sores on his lips which then gives him something to pick. He's again not wanting to go to school. He gets mad at me when I try to hold his hands or ask him to stop picking. I'm guess I'm going to call the ped tomorrow. I'm not sure what can be done about it. They tell me he's super smart at school...and everyone loves him there and he's always in a good mood....but he doesn't want to go. I thought maybe the potty training is getting to be too much for him? I'm trying not to push him, but academically he needs to be in the upper class, but they are supposed to be out of diapers.

[Michele]

I haven't made it to the ped with him yet. Should be this week.

[diggitydot]

Will putting Vaseline on his lips help prevent the picking? It will moisturize them while simultaneously not allowing him the feeling of being able to pick.

[Michele]

I don't have vaseline. I could try olive oil. I have tried Burt's Bees Chapstick and that doesn't help.

[diggitydot]

The heaviness of petroleum jelly works much better for discouraging the picking because it's so greasy. Burt's Bees is too light to do the same.

Our dude picks at his lips when they become chapped. Aside from keeping them from getting chapped in the first place, petroleum jelly keeps his hands off his lips the best.

[Michele]

I'll pick some up tomorrow.