Children frequently develop the habit of biting their nails, which can worry a lot of parents. Although it might not seem like much, there may be deeper causes, such as boredom or stress. Frequently, parents are unsure of how to assist their child in breaking this habit.
Renowned pediatrician Dr. Komarovsky provides clear-cut guidance on how to handle this circumstance. He feels that the first step in coming up with a solution is figuring out why a child bites their nails.
In this post, we’ll examine Dr. Komarovsky’s suggestions and clarify how parents can encourage their child to quit biting their nails without adding to the stress or strain in the household.
| What to do | Explanation |
| Identify the cause | Try to understand if the child is anxious, bored, or stressed. |
| Don"t punish | Avoid scolding or punishing the child, as it can increase stress. |
| Offer alternatives | Suggest activities that keep their hands busy, like drawing or playing with toys. |
| Keep nails short | Trim the child"s nails regularly to reduce the urge to bite. |
| Talk to your child | Have a calm conversation to help them express their feelings. |
| Be patient | Nail-biting is a habit that can take time to stop. |
Children biting their nails can be a common habit that worries parents. Dr. Komarovsky says that it’s important to avoid panicking or punishing the child because doing so may exacerbate the issue. Rather, he suggests concentrating on comprehending the underlying causes of the behavior, like stress or boredom, and gently assisting the child in transitioning to more constructive coping mechanisms. Support and patience are crucial because it takes time to break the habit.
About a bad habit
Roughly thirty percent of kids habitually bite their fingernails. For the most part, adolescents—both boys and girls—do this. Of them, 25 percent carry on the habit into adulthood.
Komarovsky claims that it develops as a regular and repeated series of specific, identical actions, much like other bad habits. This action eventually becomes reflexive and loses brain control. The youngster just starts biting his nails without giving it any thought. A person’s habits from their early years gradually shape their character.
When parents are unsure of how to fully explain to their child the negative effects of a habit, they frequently consult pediatricians. However, this approach does not expedite the resolution of the issue, as it transcends the realm of medicine and assumes aspects of pedagogy and psychology.
Various nations and social circles have different views on bad habits and the norm. It is clearly detrimental for Evgeny Komarovsky to think about the child’s acts that injure him physically and in other ways.
Nail thinning is not good:
- Regular biting the skin around the nail plate can lead to the refinement of the skin, increasing the sensitivity of the fingertips, to inflammatory processes in deep skin layers. The color and appearance of the nails may change from this, they look unhealthy, and also break.
- Children who often gnaw nails, They risk getting sick more, After all, microbes living in the oropharynx can penetrate the bloodstream through microscopic wounds in the area of nail plates injured by teeth and cause rather serious ailments.
Typically, under the nails are a lot of unhelpful microorganisms and parasites that, when the fingers are in the mouth, easily enter the oral cavity and travel throughout the body, causing a host of illnesses in the process. Biting into very hard nail plates can damage tooth enamel.
Doctors have even defined the habit as pathological, naming it onychophagia, and have even developed a fully medical definition for it. The habit is assigned the disease classification number F98.
Reasons for the habit
Medical professionals are still at odds over why kids start biting their nails. There are those who contend that psychological depression, anxiety, and stress are the causes. Some people think that children who have mothers who did not place a high priority on their children’s development of hygiene skills develop the habit.
According to Evgeny Komarovsky, an unfulfilled sucking reflex in early childhood can occasionally be the cause of finger sucking and the subsequent habit of biting nails.
Biting one’s nails is a habit that typically develops in children between the ages of four and five, according to psychologists and psychiatrists. Rarely, children as young as 2 or 3 years old start biting their own nail plates. When a child reaches primary school age, the bad habit will only get worse if parents do not consider taking immediate action before the child turns five. This is because students’ stress levels rise with each new school quarter.
Parents’ personal examples are among the most frequent causes of onychophagia development. When an adult family member bites their nails, the child will simply start to mimic the behavior and will be very resistant to being persuaded of the habit’s detrimental effects. He witnesses his parents doing it every day, and nothing terrible ever happens to them.
Doctors and psychologists identify the following as probable causes of the development of this addiction: autoaggression, heredity, and the child’s resistance to adult authority.
Children’s nails on their hands and feet can occasionally break and exfoliate on their own as a result of certain metabolic disorders. Frequently, kids don’t know any better than to just eat the shattered plate.
How to wean?
According to Komarovsky, if a child does something that their parents did not pay attention to the first time, they can do it again as a fully legal action that was not forbidden. Because of this, it’s best to correct the child’s behavior early on, before the habit has a chance to solidify into a reflex.
In the event that nail biting has become a persistent habit, parents must seriously consider their own pedagogical choices. If you quarrel, then do it everywhere, without exception—not just on the weekends or on holidays. The demands of parents must have a clear purpose. The child needs to understand exactly what he is doing incorrectly and the risks involved.
Parents must do everything in their power to determine the real cause of their child’s addiction in the early stages. If you are unable to locate it on your own, you can speak with a pediatrician or child psychologist in your area. However, you should ask them where the issue "grows its legs" rather than how to break the habit.
The worst thing that can happen to parents who choose to remove their child from dangerous addictions is to pull it rudely and beat him with their hands. This doesn’t fix the issue, and the child will quickly realize that while biting their nails is forbidden when around parents, it is quite acceptable when done on their own and no one else is around.
There is no miraculous remedy for this misfortune that comes in the form of a tablet or syrup. It spreads nails with something bitter (pepper, mustard), and is ineffective. Even worse would be to start yelling at the child, frightening him with all kinds of gory details, as this negative behavior can quickly take the place of another. For instance, the child will start biting their lips or spitting very soon.
If the child’s excitement or stressful circumstances are the cause of his nail biting, you need to teach him other ways to communicate his feelings, like using words. Numerous psychological strategies that are based on games the kid will enjoy can be used for this.
Give your baby calming herbal tea, give him a soothing massage, make sure he gets wet every day, go for more walks in the fresh air with him, and limit the amount of time he spends in front of the TV or computer screen.
You must strengthen the nail plates in addition to getting rid of psychological discomfort because a strong, resistant nail is more difficult to bite. This can be accomplished by starting to give the child calcium supplements in the recommended age range after speaking with a pediatrician. You can create strengthening baths for your nails using saline solutions and essential oils—cedar oil works particularly well for this.
It is important to teach the child to focus in addition to how to de-stress. Your baby will be less likely to put his hands in his mouth if you keep him occupied with something interesting to do, like drawing, making a mosaic, modeling, or anything else. It is preferred that the item be made precisely by hand. There should be finger interaction. If these are collaborative artistic endeavors with grown-ups, then fantastic.
Understanding and patience are needed to help a child who is biting their nails to stop. It’s crucial to identify the underlying cause of this behavior and gently address it rather than reprimanding or punishing.
Establishing a soothing atmosphere, providing encouragement, and imparting different coping mechanisms for tension or boredom can have a significant impact. Throughout the process, parents should continue to be encouraging and reliable.
If the correct strategy is used, the habit should eventually disappear and the child will probably learn more constructive coping skills.
