How to Stop My 3.5 Yr Old Daughter from Biting Her Nails

Nail biting comes from stress/anxiety. I would look into what's causing her stress. If you read a basic high school psychology book, it will tell you that stress is one of the major underlying causes of all diseases. If she's not biting her nails to relieve her stress, something else will crop up in it's place.

my mom use to take a bar of ivory soap and run my nails across it. The shocking taste of soap in my mouth made me quite pretty fast.

there is a product called Marvala Stop that you can find online. It's non-toxic and goes on easily on the nail. My son was a nail biter/thumb sucker and a couple of applications of this product stopped him permanently. He was about the same age as your daughter. It's a clear liquid that has a very bitter taste. You brush it on and let it dry for a minute. It lasts about 3 days before you have to reapply. I honestly only had to reapply once.
If you choose to go this route, I recommend doing it in the morning because I started it before bedtime and my son woke up several times that night because he had put his thumb in his mouth. It's very safe and effective.

My son starting biting his nails around this age. It can actually be a normal phase. The habit went away on its own. I found this book to be very helpful in dealing with all the three year old changes: Your Three Year Old: Friend or Enemy by Louise Bates. (Terrible title, I know). It explains in detail where your child is developmentally. Just having that insight helped to deal with the changes.

HTH
C.

Hi after reading the other responses I have two suggestions that I have used with many children and they both work well. First you could explain that when she is biting her nails especially when her hands are dirty from playing outside, that she may actually be eating eggs from pin worms. (pin worms are not a fun thing for kids or parents and this is a prime way that they are contracted in children). It sounds like a scare tactic but if you can explain it to her in a not too scary way I have had lots of moms do this with success. Saying bugs or whatever you child will relate to in the moment. A less scary and also effective method is to put clear tape around the tips of her fingers for a few days, albeit pesky for you, it will reminder her each time she tries to bit that she doesn't want to be doing it and usually within a few days she will stop. She is old enough that she will understand and not eat the tape. give it a try and she how she does. Most kids are grossed out enough with the idea of worms/bugs in their bodies that they will stop.
Good luck, this is a hard issue. Let us know what works!

You can rub tabasco or nasty tasting nail biting polish. Sounds mean but it works.

My 4-year old daughter used to bite her nails too. Then a friend suggested I let her use nailpolish to encourage her to keep them looking nice. She only gets to use light, light pink or clear with glitter. She won't even think of biting them now!

I just bought some stuff at Rite aid, but it doesn't work. It is a cayenne pepper base oil you paint on the nails. I have the same prob with my 3.5 year old boy. When I told my husband the active ingredient, he dipped our sons hand in red pepper (once) and it worked for a minute. Feel funny about the use of hot pepper on its own, but I am getting desprate. It is obvious it is a nervous habbit, so I am also trying to work on his discomfort in certain social situations, which I think is why he is doing it. Please let us know if you find something that does work.

It looks like you have gotten some pretty good advice. However, I wanted to mention one thing. You might watch for when she is actually biting her nails because it usually is a nervous habit or starts because of something in her environment (anything from something upsetting her to her seeing someone else do it).If you can get to the source of the problem it will help you help her figure out how to deal with it more effectively. Its hard to do so at 3.5 but it will be important for her later development and it doesn't mean you can't do some of the other suggestions in the meantime.

Hi M.,
I still have a problem with this myself sometimes, but I find that when my hands (cuticles) are really moisturized, I don't bite as much. I know you said nails, not cuticles, but dry skin shrinks the nail area and is uncomfortable. Besides, rubbing hand lotion on several times a day will give her something to do with her hands. Make sure you choose a non-greasy formula and help her control the amount she uses so she doesn't use enough for her whole body.

Nail polish may also work, or get some bitter-apple from the pet store. It discourages pets (and people) from chewing on things they shouldn't.

If you want information on all-natural lotions and other products visit my website and request information. I will be glad to share what I know. www.SwitchingStores.info
J.

My daughter is also 3 she started bitting her nails at about 2. to get her to stop i let her paint her nails if i saw her bitting her nails i would get the nail polish remover and take off the nail polish she did not like that becasue she wanted to have pretty hands like mommy. now at 3 she bites them occasionaly. when i cut her nails if i notice she has been bitting we take off the nail polish and she has to go a week with out bitting her nails it seems to work for us right now.

She is fulfilling a sensory need. Have her chew or bite on something you find acceptable.

I've always heard that nail-biting is a manifestation of anxiety. You might want to take special notice when she starts the biting and what event may have happened just before she started to trigger the nail-biting. True, she may have picked up this behavior from seeing someones else but don't rule out anxiety right away...I myself have an anxious habit which started when I was in middle school when my family/home environment became stressful. I'm 31 now and still "soothe" myself with this habit when I'm anxious about something. But hopefully your daughter is not harboring anxiety but rather is copying someone else.

My daughter loved going to the nail store (every store was named after what it sold or did. Yes, Starbucks is still the coffee store and she's 7.) with me. Occasionally, I'd like her get a light pink or clear coat. I told her we couldn't get her nails done if she bit them.

I noticed she had gone several days, with helpful reminders (I put NAIL STORE on the calendar and reminded her often when we were going.), then I took her to get hers painted. The kicker was, I let her pick a different color (It had to be light and I think it was dusty blue.), but reminded her that she shouldn't bite the nails. The gals in the salon also talked about how important it was not to bite the nails. They explained how it hurts the nail bed, infection, etc. She's a smart kid and I think the explanation was what did it...and wearing blue nail polish.

That's what I did.
S

Hi there,
I bit my nails as a kid, and my mom put this anti-nail biting polish on. It's like a clear nail polish, but just tastes nasty. It totally worked on me. I've seen it in drug stores recently.

I wasn't able to stop my son, and he's 19 and still bites his nails. I did manage to stop my daughter, I just told her not to bite them, before the habit got hardwired in her brain, and now at 15 she has nice nails. However, if your daughter already bites them that much it might be pretty ingrained in her brain and hard for her to stop. If so, she will probably have the habit for a long time (I did). Don't worry about the germs so much, just have her wash her hands occasionally. The worst thing is if she can't stop her nails won't be so great when she's older.

Maybe some of the other moms can come up with some good ideas on ways to stop. Apparently it takes 21 days to break a habit.

I know 3 yrs old may be a little young for this, but the first thing I thought of was keeping them trimmed short and maybe painting them ( a very light color ofcourse). She might think they are pretty & stop biting them.