What can do to prevent a child from biting their fingernails? Its becoming a bad problem?

Question

My 6 year old is biting his nails until they bleed any otc or rx items or ideas to get him to stop.

Answer 1

This may sound stupid but my four year old does the same thing. I got him to stop by putting hand sanitizer on his hands. He does not like the taste and now he also has clean hands. You could try it and see. Wish I had an exact answer for you it is mostly trial and error here. If you are really concerned you should take him to the doctor it may be a nervous habit.

Answer 2

So what should you do about it? First of all, ignore it as much as you can, and it will probably go away. If you really want to take action, though, try to figure out what might be causing the stress, anxiety, or boredom, and try to remedy it. It is also a great idea to keep your child’s nails trimmed, to discourage biting. You can also try distracting your child by offering a small ball for them to squeeze instead. A reward system can work wonders—you can offer to paint your daughter’s nails, for example, if she promises to not bite her nails. Even just a simple praising of your child for going one day without biting will go a long way.

One thing to avoid is painting your child’s nails with a bitter solution. This rarely, if ever, works, since the nail biting usually recurs after the solution wears off.

Answer 3

You may want to try nail polish with a hardener in it. That got me to stop biting mine. However, stopping the symptom of biting is only a short-terms solution. You really need to try and address the BASIS for the problem. Stress (yes, they CAN feel it at that age), depression, self-image issues -- there are many things that may be causing this and they should be identified and long-term solutions worked on. Good luck!

Answer 4

My aunt mixed Cayenne Pepper with clear fingernail polish to break my little cousin of biting his nails...worked like a charm. There's also an OTC polish a friend used. It has a horrible bitter taste when bitten...

Answer 5

Tell your son that he is going to wear bright red nail polish until he stops biting his nails. Nail polish won't taste very good, and maybe he'll be turned off by his new bright nails. However, you could always use the old approach of tying oven mitts to his hands.

Answer 6

I bit my nails from the time I was 8 until I was 11. You could go the nail polish route or you could do what my dad did--promise him something big that he wants if he stops biting his nails.

Answer 7

First, locate out what triggers you to chew your nails. war of words, hassle, stress, and pin it down at properly as you may. Then start up engaged on those triggers. as quickly as you already know and come across the reason there are a number of treatments. Many on the industry yet additionally the rubberband in the previous stated is nice. attempt conserving your organic nails soakng n bleach water as quickly as an afternoon for approximately 10 minutes. like putting a touch bleach on your dish water. This hardens them and keeps them white on the comparable time. yet rather, seek for out the source that makes you opt for to nibble and medical care the source first and the medical guard biting your nails will come plenty eashier. additionally, ingesting a extreme protein weight loss plan is nice sized for good nails and glossy hair. good success, jackie

Answer 8

Find a way to reward him for NOT doing it. Give him an incentive to stop. If he doesn't do it for an hour, he gets a nickel or a piece of candy. If he doesn't do it for a day, you take him out for ice cream or to the park. Something like that. Eventually he should stop. You can even try a sticker chart for reinforcing positive behavior.

Answer 9

There is solution you can buy or you can "paint" the nails with tobasco sauce. One of the worst problems with nail biting is the child getting pin worms and then constantly re-infecting themselves...

Answer 10

Bribery! Pay him each day he hasn't bitten....or put money into a little box each day he hasn't bitten so it can go towards something he really wants. Or if he has another favourite treat, let him have one of these each day he doesn't bite...but the treat needs to be something really worthwhile!

Good luck