Nail Biting and She's Not 3 Yet?

I come from a family of nail biters (sigh) and it is inherent behavior if you ask me and therefore, tricky to nip in the bud. as a kid, my mother complained all the time about how much I was biting my nails.... yet, I would do it without even thinking about it... also, it was an anxiety release... I will say that the more my mom got upset about it, in turn, it made me more anxious. I mean, I didn't know why I bit my nails.... now scroll forward... I don't bit my nails anymore, but will pick at a cuticle when nervous.. I have to truly say to myself, STOP.... take a deep breath and try and calm myself (As I do it when very anxious)
I have also read that nail biting can be a result of mineral deficiencies in one's body.. that might be worth looking into.. for now, at least in my opinion, I would be gentle with your daughter and when you see her doing it, gently take her hand away... also, distract her and get her to do something else.. I def think we outgrow some habits, but will say... nail biting has been a tough one for me since it was just so automatic from a young age..

I was a long-time nail biter--a habit I picked up from seeing my dad. I probably started biting my nails as soon as I had teeth. No matter how much my parents tried to get me to stop, I couldn't, as a kid. No amount of bribery, gross nail fluid, guilting me, telling me it's gross, describing how germs get caught under nails, did anything--it all made me need to bite more. I think it starts out a simple habit and becomes almost a self-soothing thing--like running your fingers across your head. It wasn't until I was 20, that I was able to quit by carrying a nail file EVERYWHERE and filing whenever I wanted to bite. And even after that, when I was stressed, you could tell because my nails would be bitten down to the flesh. Around 30 I was able to mor or less break the habit.
Before I quit, my tiny little sister 3, almost 4 years old, started to bite her nails. I was horrified! Mostly because I knew this was a learned behavior from seeing my dad and I bite our nails and because I didn't want her to have this out of control behavior, like I did. Well, I already knew what didn't work, so here's what I did and it worked like a charm, within 2 weeks!

I asked her if she would like me to paint her nails(yes I know it's young, but this was a temporary tool). She was very excited by this, so I looked at her nails and told her, matter-of-factly, "Oh no, there's not enough of the white part for me to paint them." Then I showed her on my nails(which had barey enough white to show her). I showed her the white part which grows from edge of the skin and told her, "If, on Saturday, you show me some white on all of your nails, you can pick any color you want and I'll paint your nails." She was really excited. So, each time I saw her biting, I would say, with no punishment, shaming or judgement, in a light tone, "Uh-oh, I sure hope there's some white left on Saturday. I'm really excited about going to the store to pick a nail color with you!" She would say, "Oh yeah!" and get all excited and happy. I never used the word "bite" or shame or an ominous tone of voice. Just, "Oh, I sure hope there's some white on your nails." She always knew what I meant.

It's also a great reward because the reward is directly related to the behavior. If she wants her nails painted, she needs to show me "white." It would not have been the same if I had offered her a toy or money or a trip to the movies. I made painting her nails the reward and the reminders about hoping there would be "white" were the only tool that was needed.

We did this for 2 weeks. After that, (and two ridiculous colors--glittery purple and glittery emerald green)she never bit her nails again. So we were able to quickly, painlessly & without using shame, break the nail-biting behavior before it got to be a habit or an anxiety issue.

She is now nearly 20 and with WAY better nails than mine! LOL

Good luck!

*************Just saw another mom post about a boy. I guess nail polish might not be at the top of his list or socially cool. Maybe offering hand massage and he could go and pick his favorite scented lotion. Or even just offering a little massage or head scratching if he's biting, to help find other ways he can learn to self-soothe.

For girls, the nail polish thing is an easy one that really worked. Maybe, for older girls, even a mother-daughter trip for manicures would be a good enough reward(and carrying a nail file at all times).

Nail biting is a self soothing behavior and there isn't much you can do about it. My mother is a life long nail biter and I was very upset when my daughter started doing it at age 2 or 3. My daughter is now 12 and she doesn't do it as much. We did try the bitter tasting nail polish and that had no effect. I know it's very frustrating but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

My son is almost 3 1/2 and has been doing this for about a year. It is very frustrating and i have found nothing that works. For him i think it is more of a comfort thing as he started it when we took the nuk away and now he just does it when he is up set or in bed. It is getting better but his nails are so short. I know they hurt sometimes but i think he is finally starting understand that the more he does it the more they hurt. I like the previous posters idea of asking her if she wants to have pretty polished nails. Good luck sorry i dont have better advice.

My daughter started this at 1 year old. It lasted a couple months, then stopped. I simply ignored it. Knowing my daughter's personality, if I made a big deal out of it, she would do it more. Try your best to ignore it. After a while if that doesn't work, take the angle of "don't you want pretty nails like mommy so we can polish them...see how pretty mommy's polished nails are?" Since she's almost 3 she may go for this approach.

My daughter has started biting hers at 4-5 y/o because she sees me biting mine. I try to remind her how much it hurts and that she has such beautiful hands - so she should let her nails alone.

I thought my daughter was just sucking her fingers, but must be biting nails b/c some are way shorter than others. I calmly remind her to take her fingers out of her mouth or I manually remove them (w/ or w/o saying anything). It was incessant at first, but now its not as often.

She could also be teething--molars. Whether it's teething or not, you can offer her a teething toy as an alternative.

My almost 3 yr old is biting her nails too. Her daddy does it too. I don't have any advice but would also like to read the suggestions you get.