My brother's daughter (2 yrs old) has nail biting habit. What does this implies? Any opinion?

Question

My niece never experienced any physical or emotional violence, in fact she is well taken care off by her parents.

Answer 1

im a mother of 5 and i have learned that if you take a young child off a habbit they enjoy they will pick up another. IE: my girl loved her binky we took it so she went to thumb sucking stoped that and went to hair chewing ......when she went to preschool she stoped all her habits. we figured it was cuz her mind was better occupied.

dont stress.......... she will get over it. i dont sugest the nailpolish. if she really wants to bite she'll get over the taste....but when you see her biting occupy her with a game or coloring DO NOT scold her she mite then just do it out of spite and eventualy chew to far and hurt herself.

Answer 2

I thought nail biting was to do with stress but as I have always bitten my nails I can't have been that stressed for that long!!!. Up until recently it has been a fairly bad habit. Then I started taking a multi-vitamin with minerals. Now I hardly bite my nails at all. I am so proud of my nails!!!
Hope this helps.

Answer 3

As you said, habit, pure and simple. I bit my nails until I was 30. The bitter nail polish that is supposed to stop you chomping became one of my favourite flavours!! I was loved and cherished as a child by both parents, I had a stable family life etc. etc. Quit stresing about it. She may get bored of doing it very quickly or she may take longer. Either way it means nothing, except maybe she's bored. That's when I tended to chew the most.

Answer 4

I used to bite my nails when I was younger and it is something I grew out of, however I do find now that my nails take a long time to grow and sometimes I do still have a little bite when I'm nervous but I do try and stop myself

Answer 5

It's JUST a bad habit. So long as she's not mutilating herself by biting and tearing at the nail beds & just 'trimming' the protruding nail, I wouldn't worry in the slightest.

A good way to discourage it is by letting her file & buff her own nails (supervised), this will keep them short & direct the focus to care & not just something to bite at.

Some kids pick their noses....it doesn't mean they are mentally imbalanced!

Answer 6

Some kids suck their thumbs and grow up just fine.....maybe she is kind of doing that???? But I would try putting pretty polish on every day for a while and see what happens....if she picks up another 'habit' or starts another way of 'acting out' i would look into it further. It is nice that she has an aunt that is so protective and caring.

Answer 7

This don't mean anything she is still young. I used to bit my nails until the age of 5 and then i just stop. it can be just a faze that she is going through. I wouldn't worry about it

Answer 8

Your NIECE.... Her nerves might take control of her...or in other words she may be nervous!!! Try talking to her.
Your niece's nails might be to long and she doesn't like that so she bites them... what's the difference if she clips her nails...

Answer 9

she must be experiencing some kind of stress... maybe the parents fight and you just don't know about it. it could just be that she's seen one of them biting their nails and she's imitating. my nephew bit his nails when he was two also (for both reasons mentioned above). he's 4 now and i don't think he does it anymore, or not as much anyway.

don't worry - she'll grow out of it.

Answer 10

Well, I bit my nails when I was 6 until I was 8 because, I bought this CLEAR nail polish that is really nasty and when you but your finger in your mouth its nasty and it made me quit. It was only $4.00. I am telling you it works, so use it. It also works for thumb sucking.
♥Brunettebabe♥