Nail Bitter

My son also started biting his nails at the same age as yours. I tried a tactic that worked, I made him wash his hands every single time he put them into his mouth. I told him, "hey, it is fine if you are going to bite your nails, but you need to wash your hands first," after having to stop and wash his hands about 20 times the first day, I saw a dramatic decrease.

Also, this worked with nose-picking also - did the same thing, and that stopped that as well.

Good luck!

Hello. I'm a mom of a 3 year old and a holistic nutritionist. My question back to you: are there other habits your child has that show 'nervousness'? Often just a few drops of a comprehensive B vitamin such as Max Stress B from PRLabs can help to soothe the child's nervous system which can help to relieve nail biting and irritibility and even restless leg syndrome to name a few. So, if your child does posess any of these other habits or traits, then it's likely he is low on nutrition. This is not a surprise based on our current level of toxicity in the air (and world)...our little ones often don't get enough nutrients to combat these stresses, so they use up there reserves. Just a 'different' thought for you.

Namaste,
J. Eltman, MPH, RD
Preventive & Therapeutic Holistic Health
www.CreativeNutrition.com
1.877.5.EATWELL
Author: The NO DIET Diet: Healthy Meals in 5 Minutes

It seems that nail biting crops up at this age.
My daughter started doing this at this age. LOTS of kids I know (friends kids) also started doing this at this age.
Our Pediatrician also echoed the same thing.

For some kids it's just a stress release thing, or out of boredom. I asked my daughter once "why" she did that.. and she just said "I don't know... I like to do it when I'm bored...or about to go to sleep." I think it helped to 'relax' her.

But each child is different.

My daughter is now 6 years old, her habit started at 2, and then now she still does it, but very infrequently. Nothing we did stopped it per say.

As she got older per her maturity, we just explained to her that biting nails is a way that people get sick... because germs hide under the nails and it's not very clean to put them in your mouth. For my girl, these logical explanations work with her and she totally understands. And no, it did not make her hung-up on it or on 'germs.'

Her Dad, my Husband, also bites his nails... and HE tends to catch a cold after doing so. He admits it, and explained this to my daughter as well. The nails/hands are in fact how germs are spread after all.

In any case, kids bite nails for a variety of reasons. Each being different. And yes, some kids just bite nails and then it goes on and on as adults.

Another thing is, once my girl got her cuticle all sore, because she tried to bite off a hang-nail... so it turned red and sore... and she told us. We didn't scold or punish...but it was the perfect "opportunity" for explaining another reason why it's not too good of an idea to bite her nails. So we put a band-aid on it, and explained we don't want it to get infected.

You can try and dig deeper, see if he has other "stress" problems.. .but really, sometimes there is just no reason and over-micro-analyzing it can just go overboard, beyond the usual normal developmental and cognitive changes they go through in normalcy.

I never tried the nutritional aspect... the poster made some good points and some children do lack certain things. For my girl, she is healthy and a good eater and takes good/natural stuff for supplements as needed, not on a daily basis though because she has a well rounded diet.

In any case, here is a link on it:
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_nail-biting-why-it-h...

All the best,
Susan

Krystal,

I have been a 'fair-weather' nail bitter my whole life...well, since age 3 or so. My Mom tried everything, and to no avail. It wasn't until she started cutting my nails every two days, and giving me something to squeeze when I caught myself biting my nails.

Turns out I was a 'stress' biter. On days, that I felt overwhelmed...like when I started preschool, I would bite more frequently. It was actually my teacher who pointed it out.

I Googled this topic and found one site with some good advice.

Hope this helps.

http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/behavior/nail-biting....

I was a nail bitter until I graduated from Law School. I think the thing that helped me the most, was getting manicures. They cut off all rough areas and left nothing for me to pick at. I have decided that if my kids ever start biting, I will get them manicures to clean up the nails. For now, when ever I see extra skin on my kids nails (4 and 6), I use the cuticle cutter to snap it away. Good luck

my son starting biting his nails too.... I am stillfiguring out what works but when I catch him doing it I say blah that's gross don't bite your nails... It doesn't seem to be working so I am planning on getting the sour stuff and painting it on his nails to see if that would deter him from doing it... I think you get it at rite-aid or some where similar..

This is what worked for us. We eliminated both finger sucking and nail bitting all at once, I offered a visit to the toy store to allow her to pick anything if she successfully stopped both for 30 days, I helped with a product called "Stop" by Mavala, it tastes terrible. Every once in a while I still have to once the product because she will sometimes still groom/bite her nails and she is now 4. This is a tough habit to break good that you handle it asap.
good luck!

Thanks for posting this! I was just about to do the same. My son is almost 2 and a half and has been biting his nails since shortly after turning 2. People advise hot sauce and such, but they still rub their eyes a lot, that would be troublesome!

im a really bad nail biter too... so i too would like to know how the break the habit :]