4 1/2 Yr Old Nailbiter

Hi!
I totally sympathize! My husband and MIL are nailbiters. So it was about that time 4-4 1/2 that my daughter started. I hated it! But I realized that harping on it would make it worse... and so I waited... and last year, when she was 5 1/2, she asked for her ears pierced... and I made the terms be that I had to cut her nails twice in a row, or about 6 weeks.... and then, even afterwards, I had to continue to cut them regularly... and it worked! A year later, she sometimes still forgets and chews on her pointer finger, but it's never bad and a big part of it is wiggling her teeth and forgetting why her finger was in her mouth in the first place! :) Good luck!

Hi G.,

Unfortunately I don't have much advice, but I do have sympathy as I have a 4 1/2 year old son doing the same thing! We've thought about hot-sauce on the fingers (old school remedy) but I'm afraid he'll rub his eyes or something. I've told him he can get sick because the germs are under his nails and on his hands and if he gets too sick he'll have to go to the doctor and even get a shot (he's petrified of shots.) My mother-in-law suggesting not even saying anything to him anymore and I just realized it seems to have gotten a little better. Coincidence? I'm not sure....

I'll definitely be keeping tabs on your post and hope someone else offers some great advice!

Good luck!
S.
:)

Support her central nervous system with vitamin B complex DROPS, under the tounge, 2 x a day. Increase water intake to keep nerves under control.

Also give her iodine (IDORAL) to help keep her from getting an infection from all the bacteria/viruses she is ingesting.

Hello G.: An interesting topic. How do others percieve nailbiters?? Are you one of those women that does your own nails? or have another do them?
I am well over the age of 50+ and I have the same habit. I have always kept my nails short because of it.
I have to say that I have had many leadership positions and never once have I had anyone make acomment about my nails. I have run my own company and it never stopped me from success.
At 4 1/2, your child may not understand all your social reasonings. So try a different tatic. Sweet smelling hand lotion, keeping the nails trimmed, polish. If you are one that has your nails done then havehers done as well. I paint my grandchildren's in fun colors. See if this helps and then watch to see if there is more going on. Good Luck, Nana G

If your daughter is biting her nails as a form of nervous habit, then give her something else to chew on or do. My dad always carried a "fidget stone" in his pocket and rubbed it in his pocket or just held on to it. He was a fidgeter. Never bit his nails though.
Hopefully she'll grow out of it. Keep her busy doing something else.

Best of wishes!

Encourage her to stop. My now 6 yo dd was a nail biter. We promised nail polish if she let them grow. I was afraid to polish to discouarge biting as I didn't want her to eat the polish. We gently distracted her when she was doing it. We also bought the little nail stickers to put on her nails so that they would be pretty. It took awhile but she had developed the habit over time. It sounds liek this is very new to your daughter so probably could stop quicker. The most important thing is we never punished.

Hi G.,
Bribery worked for me!
I have always been a nailbiter myself and would prefer not to be, but have not found a way to stop (unconcious habit). Anyway, when my daughter started biting her nails at about age 7 I encouraged her not to, but with no results. I finally gave her an incentive which worked well. Her older sister had nice long nails, so I told her if she could grow her nails longer than her sister I would give her $1 per nail. She managed to do that and a year later still does not bite them (I make frequent comments on how nice her nails look and how proud I am of her for not biting them, especially while trimming them).
Good Luck!
M.

You can try putting bandaids on her finger tips. The stop biting polish never worked for me, but bandaids gave me something else to fiddle with.

My son went through a phase of nail biting. We chose to help him to stop it because when he was doing it he was constantly getting sick. Being at pre-school and constantly putting your hands in your mouth is not a good combo.

We used this stuff that looks like nail polish and it is called "No Bite." Tastes horrible and worked in a day or two.

My daughter, now 11, has been biting her nails since she was 2 or 3. I tried to stop it, using the bitter polish, bringing it to her attention, etc. It is a self-soothing behavior and though I hate it I don't bug her about it anymore. In general, she is a nervous kid - and I know nail bitting is hard for some people to stop. My mother has bitten her nails her entire life and she'd stop if she could. My younger daughter doesn't bite her nails, so I'm not sure it's a behavior they get from others.