We have tried putting the No Bite on her nails but it has not worked. I will not put anything hot on her nails so please do not suggest that. Any other ideas that you have tried and succeeded?
We have tried fingernail polish and she just picks it off or chews it off. It has not helped. I think it is more of a habit thing for her rather than an anxiety thing. She will do it when she is just watching tv.
She might need something else to substitute for biting - there are some toys made for oral sensory seekers. You can also try letting her chew gum.
I bit my nails as a stress reliever until I was in college.
I was a nail biter from a very young age up until my 20s.... My mother would always tell me STOP BITING YOUR NAILS!!! of course I didn't..and the whole shaming business around wasn't a good idea..
Couple of things.. one your daughter may bite her nails due to anxiety that she is feeling but cannot express (I know I did it when I felt anxious) and two: Could be your daughter has a mineral deficiency. I read in particular, Zinc could be one of them .. I have also read that nail biting is related to Trichotillamania (pulling out of hair) which also lends itself to being anxious.. I read up on the topic since I myself wanted to stop the habit..
While I no longer bite my nails, if nervous, I will starting picking at the cuticles. However, when I eat more nutritionally and am not feeling stressed is when I don't act on the habit.. therefore, you might want to approach this from the inside out.. assess her diet.. do certain foods drive the biting... specific situations.. I know if I were to eat a lot of sugary foods, that definitely will cause me to feel jittery and let the picking of the cuticles begin...
good luck to you
This won't help you for a while, but my 7-yr old just stopped biting his nails because he lost his top four teeth! After years of not cutting his fingernails, I noticed that they were long. No teeth, no biting. Hopefully that will happen for her as well!
Otherwise, speaking as a prior nail biter, it took me a long time to decide to stop and I eventually did (but not until my 20's). :( Hoping you find a solution!
So my son just brought home "The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Habit" about nail biting. Mama gives sister 10 cents (1 cent for each finger) at the beginning of each day. And for each nail she doesn't bite she gets to keep the money. Interesting idea, but you'd need to readjust for inflation. And not sure if your daughter would get this idea.
Maybe keeping them painted would help, as well as giving her gum or something else to chew on....
I totally agree with A.L. below. I was a nail biter till my 20s as well. The only thing that stopped me was getting fake nails. Many times i did it out of boredom or nerves. Shame never worked...it had just the opposite effect. Don't acknowledge it. Have her wash her hands often to chase away the dirt and germs. You never know she may just be building her immune system and you didn't know it.
I'm afraid I've yet to find anything that works, and both my kids (and their father) are nail biters. I can share some things that have helped other kids I know stop it.
One child was able to stop because she was given a bracelet of worry beads to fiddle with any time she needed to listen, read, or watch something. She was reminded to use her beads if her hands strayed toward her mouth. Another child was able to successfully kick the habit by being allowed to chew gum. She was allowed to do it at school as long as she wasn't obnoxious about it and disposed of her gum properly. (This was actually her teacher's idea.)
Good luck.
Manicures with pretty polish, it worked for one of my granddaughters at that age. She never has let them grow long, she files them, but at 11.5 she still loves her manicures and pretty polishes.
Well my daughter sucks her thumb and I got her to stop (during the day...I still let her do it at night, but that is it!) by straight-up bribery.
Let me say that I honestly didn't think it work. I don't usually encourage such methods ;) but when her little brother started doing it too just b/c he was watching her, I'd had enough!!
I have one of those fancy cupcake books (Hello, Cupcake!) and I told her that if she stopped sucking her thumb she could pick any one of those cool looking cupcakes and I'd make them for her and a party of her friends.
We made a cool looking chart with gel pens and she got to put stickers on it for every day she didn't suck her thumb. She had to keep it up for 4 weeks. Shockingly, she did it. I mean there were no slip-ups, no whining, she just did it. I couldn't believe it.
I did make like 3 dozen polar bear cupcakes that were so adorable, but painstaking ;), and we had a great time! She hasn't had any issue after that either.
It might be worth a try!
My six-year-old daughter has bitten her nails since she was old enough to bite them. She bites her toes too. Recently, she has started chewing gum all the time and she likes that. It doesn't make her stop biting her nails though, lol.
In other words, good luck with that. :)
My youngest (5) is a thumb sucker and we are working to break that habit before kindergarten starts. We recently started using that stuff you paint on the nails that tastes gross, you can buy it in the baby aisle at Walgreens for around $5. We are coupling that with bribery ( a treat for every day that she does not suck her thumb) and so far it is working.
My older child sucked her fingers until she burned them badly on the fireplace. She had second degree burns that hurt very badly and her fingers were wrapped in gauze. I wonder if you just wrapped her fingers in gauze each day for a couple of weeks if that would do the trick?
