Hello all. I have a 5 year old who started to bite her nails about 6 months ago. They are constantly in her mouth. Within seconds of telling her to get her fingers out of her mouth they are right back in there. She is a well adjusted, not overly nervous or worried child. I just think she has developed this habit and now we don't know how to break it. Anyone know of any good tricks for this?
Try having a special time where you sit with her and you two polish your nails together. Nail polish tastes awful and she will probably be hesitant to mess up her pretty fingers. My daughter is 7 and has always loved having her nails polished. Hopefully this will be a simple enough solution-good luck!
My daughter also started biting her nails. I couldn't figure out what to do also. Then I noticed that when ever I forgot to cut her finger nails, that was when she was biting them the most. Even though she would get the nail off, I decided to cut the other finger nails as soon as I saw her start playing with her finger nails or biting them. So far that has helped her to stop biting her finger nails as often. I think this is just a phase . Another thing I've thought of is to take my daughter to get a manicure, which will help and remind her that her nails need to stay pretty. Anyhow good luck, I hope the nail biting eventually stops.
This sounds mean, but it really worked for my best friend when we were children. Her mom made her wear white gloves (the really thin kind that they used to have for dress up) for a while whenever she was caught biting her nails. That helped her to stop because she didn't want any of us to see her with the gloves on... Since it is not school time yet, it might be worth a try? :-)
My daughter is the same age and does the same thing! The only thing that I have found that sort of works is painting her nails. She loves them painted, so she chews them less so the polish doesn't go away. I also tell her how bad it is to eat nail polish, which helps a little. Good luck--let me know if you find something that really works well!!!
We went through this at my house, too, and I wish I had some miracle fix, but, alas, I don't. My daughter spent several years as a nailbiter. Here are a few things that at least seemed to make it less frequent a problem.
There's a Berenstain Bears book called The Bad Habit that helped her to understand what bad habits are and to make her aware of possible triggers. She chewed her nails when she was concentrating deeply on other things, such as at storytime or when she was watching TV. Once she understood that, I was able to say to her, "Your fingers are in your mouth," and she did get that I wasn't nagging, just making her aware of something she hadn't noticed she was doing. It also happened mainly during the school year. Her first grade teacher (a very special, compassionate lady)noticed that she did it a lot during math, the only subject she is anxious about, so she (with my permission) allowed her to discreetly chew gum during math time at school. This did help a great deal. It cut way down on the problem, although it did not eliminate it entirely. But what finally got her to kick the habit (other than time, patience, and a little maturity) was a huge bribe - I told her that if she could go 2 weeks without any nailbiting at all, I'd pay for her to have a big girl manicure. Which is why this last week (finally!) my daughter had teal and hot pink nails with white butterflies on them!
Ask your local pharmacy about a nail biting polish. I think it is called "No Bite" (not sure), but it is a clear nail polish that has a nasty taste.
