Nail Biting - Lima,OH

I noticed that when I was prego I grew nails faster, and realized that the vitamins i was taking was helping me. Take a multi-vitamin (one a day womens) and it will help with the nails and also keep you healthy and relaxed.

Paint Bitters on your nails. They will taste so bad you won't put them in your mouth. It dries colorless. To help strenthen your nails eat jello or add knox gelatin to your diet. Old fashioned ideas but they work.

Nail biting is a really bad habit and many folks have it to the point that thier fingers will bleed. I think if they realised how dirty thier finger nails get that they would stop for good.The cause could be a number of things like OCD or a lack in your diet. Stopping is not easy.If I were you I would discuss this with your primary care Dr. on your next visit. I wish I had a answer for you.I suppose you could just keep them cut short so there is nothing to chew on.Good luck.

Try this product by OPI called Nail Envy. I also bit my nails forever and this product helped me alot!

I don't have any advice for you, but I just wanted you to know that I am in the same boat. I have been biting my nails for about 31 years...my mom said I started when I was 5!!! I quit several times, but then something always triggered me starting again. I HATE IT...DESPISE IT...know how gross it is...and desperately want to quit...so I was looking on her to see if you got any good advice!!!! I will keep watching:) Oh, and I don't know if you feel this way, but I hate when I see my children doing it...and try to tell them what a bad habit it is...but feel like such a hypocrite...and hope they don't see me when I am doing it!!! Hang in there...know that you are not alone...and good luck to you!!!

It's so funny I was just talking to my husband about this same problem with myself. Mostly I was thinking about the H1N1 and how bad this habit is. I don't bite my nails I just chew them, mostly when I am thinking deep or like you said working. I used to bite just enough to rip them off and spit them out. I really like the molasses tip, I think I will try it. Makes sense it is a natural thing that comes from Earth and that always has to be good :) I bet the Indians used it for miracles. Anyway, Just wanted to say thanks for writing to help us all out. By the way when I decide that I want to make an effort to grow my nails, I use clear polish. It hardens them and I can reapply it constainly without trying to be straight and dealing with the chipping when I cave. Works for me.

I am a recovering nail bitter. The stratagy that worked for me was I picked one of my hands that I wouldn't bite my nails on I might have even started with a couple fingers. Once I went without bitting them I added a finger until I stopped bitting them all. I still bite everyonce in a while but I found it is important for me to carry finger nail clippers if they get to long, I notice one is lopsided or not just the right shape I will bite it so if I cut it first because sometimes if I start I'll start looking for "something wrong" with the others and bite thoes also. Good luck, I know how difficult it can be and I hope you succeed.

Not sure if any of this will help, but I did some Googling for ya. Good luck!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ypv1R9f-E

http://www.amazon.com/Mavala-Stop-Nail-Biting-Sucking-Pre...

have you tried that nasty-tasting nail polish that's meant for thumb suckers and nail biters?

think of a substitute. decide you will put your hands in your pockets (or whatever action makes sense to you)anytime you bite your nails. some instant, easy alternative that you can train yourself to do.

i know habits are hard to break... maybe you can think of a reward system for yourself-- if i go without biting for a week i get to treat myself to a massage/girls night/chocolate cheesecake or something??

but you are an adult, so you can consciously choose not to anytime you catch yourself more readily than a child can... just decide to stop anytime you catch yourself biting!!

what about carrying fingernail clippers on your keychain?

good luck...

You can rub Vitamin E oil into the cuticle of your nails and that seems to make them grow faster. I also found that my nails seem to grow faster when I have my hands in water, like washing stuff out by hand, and then I clean the nails afterward--hope this helps. When my daughter started biting her nails, we tried a few things, but then gave her $20. to stop. It worked.

Hi Victoria I used to bite my nails even when I got dentures which was when I was 23 and all of a sudden for what reason I have no answer but I quit. I have a niece who works in the public, she just turned 52 and her nails are nothing. I mean she has them bit clear to the quick. She said she doesn't know why she does it. It is very unsanitary because of all the dirt and every day living so there are germs right in her mouth, guess she doesn't think of it that way ~~I never did. Good luck with all the other answers for you.

I don't know to get someone from biting their nails, but to make them grow faster start taking your prenatal vitamins again, they are the reasons your nails grew so fast. L.

Hi Victoria,

This is going to sound completely wacko, but I am going to suggest it anyway. Try taking a teaspoonful of molasses every day.

Let me share my experience with you. I didn't bite my nails, but I did chew the inside of my right cheek, even though I knew it wasn't a good idea (and it would hurt, and occasionally bleed, too).

Over six months ago, I happened to read in a magazine about how some celebrity kept her hair from going gray by eating a spoonful of molasses every day. It sounded a little wacko, but I'm as vain as the next person, so I thought, what the heck? what can I lose, right? It's not going to hurt me. So I started taking the molasses every morning. Well, I still have the grey hair, but I noticed I didn't chew the inside of my cheek any more. This went on even through my father's final illness, death, and funeral (big-time stress there, believe me). I did chew a little when my oldest son went off to college, but nothing like before. The "cure" wasn't instantaneous, but it did happen.

I told my dentist about this at my most recent exam. Naturally she was pleased that I am no longer chewing my cheek. She speculates that there's some nutritional component in the molasses that is helping reduce stress, maybe even stress I don't consciously feel. She also said that any kind of mouth chewing like I was doing, when done while awake (as opposed to, say, grinding your teeth while asleep) is due to stress; that's according to a conference she went to this past summer.

I know it is not exactly the same as biting nails, but you could try it. FWIW... Good luck, and let us know what happens!

K. Z.

Getting artificial nails doesn't always help, as you've seen. Nail biting is one of the hardest habits to break, it's a nervous habit just like smoking. I work in a salon doing nails, and it's really difficult for people to stop. I have found though that when you get regular manicures, whether once a week or biweekly that it does help with the biting because you become more mindful of the habit. There are also nail strengtheners out there that help the nails to grow back, but you have to be diligent about not biting. The other thing is to put a cuticle oil on the nails any time you feel the urge to bite to replace a bad habit with a good one. Not sure if any of this helps, but good luck to you!