Help, My Daughter Eats Boogers!!!!!

Updated on February 02, 2011
A.W. asks from Kalamazoo, MI
10 answers

My beautiful, wonderful, sweet little 2yr old princess eats boogers!!! My son is 4 and never did this. I also have been suspecting that she bites her nails too. When I go to trim her nails lately, only about half or less need to be cut. I've told her that eating boogers will make her sick and given her all kinds of reasons not to do it. She knows that I don't like it. She has always liked putting things in her mouth( dirt, sand, sticks). The other day I let her take a board book to bed with her during her nap and she ate the corners right off of it and tore the paper off the back and ate that too. I really want to stop this now so that she doesn't become the booger eater girl in school!!!

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J.K.

answers from Detroit on

Try telling her there germs and she can get sick.it may not sink in right away but it will cross her mind when she goes to do it

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J.S.

answers from Saginaw on

I have an 8 year old son who never did that either, however, I have a beautiful little 4 year old princess myself and she is the most disgusting little child!:) I cannot believe some the things she does or some of the things she puts in her mouth-boogars and paper included. I try not to react to it anymore in hopes that she'll quit-she thrives on disapproval. I'm sure it will stop one day. All I can do is wait I guess.

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L.D.

answers from New York on

Eating boogers, believe it or not, is actually healthy doctors say because by eating the bacteria, your immune system becomes familiar with it. Therefore, you become sick less. Obviously, you shouldn't do this in school or in front of someone because it's weird. As for bitting nails, that is because of nervousness or like the other person said, stress. Bitting nails isn't good because after a while it wears your teeth down. That's a habit you should stop as soon as possible. Hope this helped!

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N.W.

answers from Detroit on

Your posting totally gave me a good laugh! My 2 1/2 year old doesn't eat his boogers but hates them. Last month he asked one of his teachers to get his boogers out!

I don't know if you want to do this--- I don't know if I would... but the director at my daycare told me this story. Her son was a booger eater. She told him there was a boogger monster in his stomach and that when he ate boogers the monster got bigger and if it got big enough it was going to crawl out and eat him. I know...a bit extreme. He did stop eating boogers-- and she did say he was concerned about the booger monster after that for a while.

N.P.

answers from Detroit on

When I read your request I initially thought, "Oh no big deal she'll grow out of it." Growing up my little sister ate boogers, hair, paper, dirt, chapstick etc. You name it and she probably ate it at one time or another. But eventually she outgrew it. My mom was not informed and didn't look into it. But as I read the other responses and learned about PICA I looked it up. Healthline.com has some good information on the subject. Make sure you check it out and contact your ped. The boogers are nothing!!!

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J.

answers from Detroit on

cant halp ya about the boogers as I have three boys - nuff said....but on the other front you need to bring it up to her pedi
eating paper, dirt and such is a sign of an eating disorder called Pica......

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V.M.

answers from Kalamazoo on

well Some kids go threwq the boger eatin thing all u can do is tell her kids can be mean and that she dosent want them to be mean or make fun of her but kids do go threw these things sometimes an they do grow out of it

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L.M.

answers from Detroit on

Hello A.!

I want to start my saying I am sorry! I laughed so hard when I read this. I knew of some people who ate boogers. She will grow out of this just as they did. When their parents would sse them eating boogers they would stop them right in their tracks.

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S.N.

answers from Saginaw on

To me, it does not sound like pica. It seems like she might be stressed about something. Little kids often display stress in this sort of behavior. Did she just recently switch to a big kid bed? Maybe you just started potty training before this started? Those are the likely ones at her age. Either way, just keep with current mehtods you use, and this should pass soon.

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