By the suggestion of her pediatrician, we painted Em’s nails to encourage her to keep her hands out of her mouth and stop biting her nails. I shopped around for a kid friendly polish. She loves her painted fingernails but like I figured, it’s not enough to deter her from biting them.
Any other suggestions?
I was a horrible nail biter too, and my mom’s friend made a deal with me that I’d get a bottle of nail polish if I could stop biting long enough that she could see white edges on my nails. She only had to do that once – the few weeks it took for my nails to grow long enough were enough to break my habit. Maybe she can pick a bottle of nail polish in her favorite color but she can’t use it until her nails are long enough to have white edges?
That sounds like a great idea for when Em is a little bit older. How old were you when she made you that deal? Em just turned two in April and I’m not sure that would be enough of an incentive to make her stop at that age. Maybe in a few months I’ll give it a go! Thanks!
I was a professional nail biter until someone in junior high school mentioned how terrible my nails looked. That was all it took to make me stop.
Have you tried distracting her from the nail biting without comment? “Hey..let’s go look at the flowers again.” Seems like two is so young to try to reason with.