Like many adults, children also suffer from bad habits. The most common habit among children is a merciless biting of nails. At first glance, there is nothing fatal in this habit, but when it is discovered, the necessary measures should be taken immediately.
Reasons kids bite their nails
The habit of constantly and actively biting nails today is such a common phenomenon that it even found its place in the list of scientific terms. This habit is called — "onychophagia".
Doctors observed and found that about 30% of children from 6 to 10 years of age suffer from onychophagia. Boys are more prone to this habit than girls. At the age of 10 to 17 years, the percentage of children biting nails increases to 50%. This is precisely the age when frequent changes take place in life, relationships with parents and friends are far from ideal, the load in the school rises. But a similar habit arises also because of a number of other reasons, which we will consider below.
- Stress and Neurosis
The desire to bite your nails appears with stress and neurosis. The causes of stress can be disagreements with parents and peers, increased mental stress, lack of sleep or banal self-dissatisfaction. Neurosis can occur due to diseases of the cardiovascular system or from a lack of vitamins E, B and magnesium.
- Bad example
The child is inclined to imitate everything that he sees. Perhaps someone from close friends or relatives also suffers from this bad habit.
- From finger to nail
Baby grew up and you first wean him from the chest, later from the nipples. But the nipple found an alternative - a finger. The early childhood habit of sucking a finger has grown into a habit of biting nails (how to wean sucking fingers).
- Hygiene
Untimely trimming of the nails of the child can also be the reason. If the nail plates are weak, then they, growing quite a bit, begin to break and flake. This begins to cause inconvenience to the child. Then he takes his own measures, - nibbles them.
- Excessive Inhibitions and Idleness
If a child is denied many pleasures, for example, is forbidden to eat sweets, then he will try to replace this with nail biting. This activity has a calming effect on him and distracts from an annoying feeling. In the same way, your child can rid himself of boredom. Therefore, make sure that he does not hang around idle. Find him an interesting and useful activity.
- The negative impact of technology
Do not let your baby sit too long at the TV and computer. Not all television broadcasts are good for a child; not all computer games are useful.The child absorbs all the negativity that flows from the media. Modern computer games are crammed with fierce fighting scenes. Pick up cartoons (some rules for watching children's cartoons), programs and games that would have a positive and creative effect on the children's psyche.
- Change of habitual rhythm of life
Up to three years, the child is constantly under the supervision of parents. But it's time to go to kindergarten. Mom and dad are no longer around, there is a need to somehow adapt in society, and this is stress (we read about how to prepare a child for kindergarten) At the age of 6-7 years, a first grader is taken to school. And here again comes the period of adaptation. Psychologically, such changes do not pass without a trace.
The habit of biting your nails is a neurotic reaction similar to sucking a finger or ticks. Pupils are more likely to suffer from this disorder than toddlers, because they experience great physical and emotional stress. In this way, the child tries to cope with stress, anxiety, agitation. If parents, instead of looking for a reason, scold and constantly pull on a son or daughter, the situation only gets worse. There is a vicious circle: anxiety leads to the habit of biting your nails, ugly hands cause the anger of parents, as a result, the baby’s nervous tension intensifies, and self-esteem drops even lower. Often this problem is paired with other disorders of the nervous system: increased irritability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (up to 75% of children with ADHD bite their nails), enuresis. A physical consequence may be helminthic infestations, inflammation of the periungual tissues, periodontitis, up to exposing the neck of the tooth. So help is necessary for the child. There is no special medicine for children who bite their nails - bitter pharmacy varnishes do not always help and often only transfer the problem to a different direction. But sometimes doctors prescribe in such cases mild sedatives and nootropic drugs
Consequences of habit
The famous children's doctor Komarovsky always asks to remember that the habit of biting nails, if it is not eliminated on time, can remain in a more mature age. This is fraught with a number of unpleasant consequences:
- frequent microbial and viral diseases;
- inflammation of the periungual surface;
- from constant licking of the hands, worms (helminths) may appear;
- there is a risk of catching a viral and gastrointestinal infection;
- the nail plate and cuticle undergo deformation;
- the nail stops growing;
- gums suffer from constant nibbling of dirty nails, tooth mobility increases;
- social problems: the child can become withdrawn due to the constant ridicule of peers. As a result, difficulties with full communication, future employment, etc.
How to wean a child to bite nails?
Each parent is looking for his own ways to cope with such an unseemly habit in a child. Someone simply does not pay attention to it, thinking that with age it will pass, and some apply more stringent measures - they beat on hands. To help the child cope with the habit, you need to find out the exact causes of its occurrence. If you already understand what the reason is, then below you can find useful tips for eradicating it.
- Stress relief
A simple breathing exercise will help your child fight neurosis. You need to take a deep breath, exhale and listen to your own breathing. To relieve tension, you need to intensively compress and unclench the cams.
- Hygiene
Take care of your own hygiene. Take care of your hands. Thus set a positive example for the child. Also teach the child to hygiene - regularly take care of his nails, focus on the beauty and cleanliness of the nails. If you have a daughter, give her a beautiful manicure. Compare her with a magazine model. Ask other households who have the same problem not to bite their nails in the presence of the child.
- Distract attention
As soon as your child pulls his fingers to his mouth, distract him from this activity. Ask him to bring something or do something with his hands. But such a method is bad in that it is impossible to monitor the child day and night.
- Tactile activities
Find a child activities that would distract him from this habit. Get paint, clay, or clay. Take your baby with drawing or modeling. It will take his hands. In addition, hands smeared with clay or clay, he will not want to take in his mouth.
- Promise your child a reward if he stops biting his nails
Money offered, 100 rubles. in a day. Check on Sunday; if grown - gets 700 rubles. I don’t know how pedagogical it is, but it works well for a 14-year-old “baby”. The result was already in a week.
- Reflex development
Put a bracelet on your child’s hand. As soon as he reaches for his mouth, click on his arm with a bracelet. This way of dealing with the habit will bear fruit. Although to some he may seem cruel.
Recommendations of specialists
If a child does not get rid of a bad habit, it makes sense to turn to a child psychologist. Tips for eliminating it, which are most often recommended by specialists, are given below.
- Do not criticize
Do not scold or shout at your baby. Such increased attention to the child’s habit can only aggravate the situation of the child becoming nervous, and his hands will again reach into his mouth. Not to mention that children are prone to go out of harm by protesting against bans. Therefore, it is necessary to explain to the child that this is a bad habit by other methods - without negativity, without prohibitions and jerking. Look for the most suitable, effective method and use it from the position of a loving and caring parent, and not the Cerberus, who is annoyed by this "nasty habit."
- Be patient
Understand that it is as difficult for a child to overcome this habit as an adult to quit smoking. Remember: a categorical ban only causes rejection and protest! For the child to hear and understand you, find the right motivation. For example, if a child refuses porridge, then tell him - "This is useful!" - just pointless. But the phrase "You will eat porridge, and become strong and muscular, like dad" - will act much faster.
- Drawing lesson
If you can’t understand in what area your child has problems, ask him to paint a picture. Let the picture be the image of family, friends, schools and others. Those areas of life that will be painted in dark colors are problematic.
- Risk of infection
Talk to the baby. Explain why you don’t need to do this. Tell us about parasites that can live under the nails and which fall into the baby’s tummy along with the dirt under the nails. Find pictures with their image and show the baby. Report to the child that biting nails is a habit of weak people, and strong and courageous people never bite their nails. Arrange the accents correctly, leading the child to the desired independent conclusion.
- Doing sports
Put your child in a sports section. Exercising will help relieve nervous tension, throw out negativity, without harming the environment.
- Fairy tale therapy
Tell the child a story of his own composition, in which there will be two heroes: negative and positive. A negative hero behaves badly, does not look after himself and bites his nails, and a positive character is very kind, funny and neat. The positive character has many friends, no one wants to communicate with the negative. This method has a good effect on the mind of the baby.
- Give your child more attention.
Like all bad habits in children, nail polish is the result of neurosis and lack of tactile contact with loved ones, parents. Our son (5 years old) began to bite his nails when the youngest child appeared. Naturally, he got less attention - all the concerns were about the younger. We went to a psychologist, and she pointed out to us our omission. Tip: pay more attention to the child, more hugs and kisses, praise and care. And not a single bad habit will cling to your baby!
- Sedatives
Before going to bed, give a weak drink of decoction of chamomile, lemon balm or mint. You can offer warm milk with honey. It will also have a calming effect. Put a couple drops of soothing essential oil next to the crib. Do not give your child homeopathic medicines without consulting a doctor.
- See a neurologist
If there is a serious mental disorder, or all of the previous methods are powerless, visit a neurologist. He will advise sedatives, herbal teas or a vitamin complex. If you suspect a disease of the nervous system, the doctor will prescribe a neurosonography and prescribe medication based on the results of the examination. You may also need an analysis of feces for the presence of helminths, a cardiogram for suspected cardiovascular diseases.
The use of bitter varnish
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Since this problem is well-known, a special bitter varnish has appeared for its elimination, which can be bought at a pharmacy. For example: “Do not bite”, “Nekusayka”, “BELWEDER”. A bitter taste discourages the desire to bite nails from a child, and the composition of the varnish does not harm health. But to fix the problem, varnish alone is not enough. Always remember the cause of the habit.
Renew varnish every three days. If there are fears that the varnish contains harmful substances, you can use mustard, century juice or bitter pepper. But remember that the fingers of a child can hit not only the mouth, but also the eyes. Sensations after that will be more than unpleasant. A safer method is to apply a patch on the nails.
REVIEW: The varnish is intended for children who bite their nails, to get rid of this bad habit. I bought this varnish for my daughter. I tried of course first on myself. The taste is really very bitter, once you try it, you will immediately remove a finger from your mouth. The taste also remains on the lips, after the nail has been in the mouth, then it is felt if you immediately want to eat something.
So the varnish is really effective. We helped to cope with the daughter's nasty habit. It is convenient that it is colorless, so that it is almost imperceptible on the nails. Can be used by an adult.
The annotations write that the varnish is safe for the baby’s nails, contains vitamin A, which prevents the destruction of the nail.
The taste lasts less than a day, so every day you need to tint again.
Immediately the whole jar was not even used, it was opened after 3 months - the varnish thickened a lot.
Mommy tips from forums
Victoria: we bought a special transparent nail polish, it’s called “Do not bite!” and the baby is painted on it. It is safe for the child, but if he takes his fingers in his mouth, then unpleasant bitterness appears immediately. Very effective remedy! It costs about 300 rubles. It helped us.
Ksenia: Make up with varnish, sits and nibbles even more, although bitterly awful! And in the cabin we painted airplanes on my nails and said you shouldn’t eat such beauty ... After some time, I completely stopped.
The guest:And my nails didn’t bite, but tore them off, picked them and stripped them off with stripes, this is even worse than biting! The nails were constantly in the wounds and so it was about six months, I just did not know what to do, and then the decision came by itself. The finger hit and it turned black, such a black dot appeared, a vessel burst under the nail. I (kind mother) thought of saying that it was the nails that started to turn black, that my daughter was constantly picking them, and they would become blacker and fall off completely over time, and she was a little princess, princesses couldn’t be without nails. 🙂 You know how to whisper. Try really with a beautiful manicure in the salon, tell your daughter that she is beautiful and her nails should also be beautiful, but as an option (the stump is clear, you don’t need to beat off the child’s fingers) try experimenting with black varnish.It seems to me that this is more harmless than bitter varnish, the more you remember by yourself, the more they forbid, the more you want)) And, garbage, that such a habit is a consequence of neurosis, not always, initially it can arise from the fact that the child there’s nothing to do, mine did it before bedtime, when the lights are turned off, but I still don’t want to sleep.
Katya - Katerina: Do not smear in any way !!! This is nervous, I tell you for sure. My son was biting his nails for a very long time - I was busy with work and paid little attention to him, then there were problems in the kindergarten in the last year, and when I went on maternity leave and my son almost stopped going to the garden - gradually everything was fine and the nails stopped biting. Look for the cause of the child’s nervousness. Now my student has gone to school, sometimes I notice fingers in my mouth again, but my nails are still in order, I look at him ... And then I didn’t cut his nails for more than a year ... there was nothing to cut off. You know your child, like no other, you must understand what is happening to him ... Good luck, it will not be easy.
natka: my daughter also bit her nails, you take Levomycin in tablets, push 2 tablets into a glass of water and put the baby's nails in the solution and let it dry. I did this a couple of times and now she doesn’t bite.
And finally, devote more time to your baby, envelop him with care, love and affection. Spend more time playing entertaining games, get out with your whole family for walks, and create a cozy and pleasant atmosphere in the house. Do not ignore children's habits, but look for ways to deal with them. Be mindful of yourself and your children.
READ ALSO: Bad and bad habits in children under one year old - and are they really bad? – https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/razvitie-rebenka-do-goda/vrednyie-i-plohie-privyichki-u-detey-do-goda.html
My daughter, too, as a child constantly nibbled her nails. It was not easy to wean her from this habit, but I didn’t resort to anything out of the ordinary, just started to take care of her nails and paint them together, and every little girl even wants to look beautiful, so she stopped biting them.
Oh, how familiar this story is. I remember as a nightmare. The daughter nibbled on her arms and legs constantly. She had it as a way out of a nervous situation. Almost so, a little scared and immediately nibble. I approached this comprehensively. First, homeopathic Bach drops (on herbs) helped with stress. Secondly, they reduced the load on it and the number of experiences (a minimum of classes with a large number of children, more time at home). Thirdly, we agreed: if the nails grow back, we go to do a manicure with her beloved Winx. After 2 weeks, everything went.
My daughter began to bite her nails at 10 years old, I bought a special varnish to wean her from this habit. But this only helped for a period while the varnish was on the nails. I turned to a psychologist, we discussed the problem with him and found out that this is related to stress. I talked with my daughter, it turned out that a girl had been transferred to their class with whom they did not get along very well, so she was worried. Having discussed the problem, we dealt with my daughter’s emotions., Biting her nails stopped. I think the habit of biting your nails is most often stress. Take care of your children!