Picking Her Lip

Wish I could help you. Since my 4 1/2 year old daughter stopped sucking her thumb about a year ago she's picked up the habit of picking at the skin on her top lip to the point that it bleeds sometimes. I bought her some special lip balm and Tinkerbell lip gloss thinking that might help and it did, but only temporarily. It's been really cold here lately and it's also hard to get my daughter to drink enough liquids so her lips get really dry and that makes her pick at her lip even more.

This could be a tic or a food allergy.

I have picked and bitten at both my lips and cuticles for the majority of my life, and recently decided to try an elimination diet (due to my daughters' health, actually, but felt the impacts on mine immediately as well!) and have found that corn, of all things, is responsible for both my urge to pick at skin AND the dryness of my skin.

I would try an elimination diet for her. Also, I would ignore it as much as possible, since the more attention you call to it, the more likely it is to be on her mind to pick at it, and if it's anxiety related, it is just a vicious cycle :(

There are various elimination diets- some of which are GAPS, SCD, and Feingold.

Here is my food blog for my own family, if you are interested in our journey:
www.chickiepea.wordpress.com

you could try putting gloves on her at naptime. If the picking is serious- causing injury to her lip, you might consider painting her nails with that stuff that smells and tastes bad. No Bite is what I had to use on my daughter because she chewed her nails so bad, she was breaking the skin.

Good Luck!

I have worn red lipstick all the time for about forty five years because of this. Guess you'll have to wait a couple of years to follow that tip. Good luck!

my 3 yr old has done this alot this winter... I just try to use "medicine" lipstick (aquphor) often and tell her that if she keeps picking her lips they won't be able to heal. When I can tell she hasn't done it in a while I ask her if she wants to put on some pretty gloss since her lips look so good