Since returning from our trip from Mexico I’ve noticed little man had a new habit.
He’s nail biting. At first i thought nothing of it. Honestly it didn’t bother me. I was actually ok with it because for a while he had been exploring his nose. I guess you can say i was relieved the nose poking was a small phase and nail biting didn’t seem that extreme. That is until I went to cut his nails and he showed me there was nothing to cut after a month. Little lady has now picked up the habit too.
At first I started with the “No, stop biting your nails” and “get your fingers out of your mouth”. Then i realized, had this been me as a child my grandmother would have gone to the extreme of putting chile under our nails or at least threaten to do so in hopes of kicking the habit.
I didn’t want to resort to that so as I do with most issues I go online to find reasons or causes for many of the kids behaviours. I had already imagined it might be out of anxiety with all the travel we have been doing. I also imagined it may be a cause of anxiety or stress because whenever little man gets into trouble he immediately starts nail biting. However I couldn’t imagine why little lady picked it up. Was it because she saw big brother doing it?
I read on BabyCenter.com
He may be doing it for a number of other, less worrisome reasons — out of curiosity or boredom, to relieve stress, to pass the time, or simply from force of habit.
Most 2-year-olds, however, choose one or a few habits to indulge in (thumb sucking and nose play is a common combination), then eventually give them up without any encouragement. Do your best to ignore the habit, and one day you’ll realize it’s gone the way of diapers and teething rings
So it just as i imagined not a big deal to stress over unless they start hurting them selves.
The article also mentioned what we could do to help the habit disappear besides waiting and hoping for it to go away.
Keep his hands occupied. If you can pinpoint the times and places when your child’s particularly likely to bite his nails — while watching TV, for example, or riding in the car — try giving him substitutes such as finger puppets, a squeezable ball, or a bendable toy to keep his hands busy. Cut his fingernails short, too, so there’s nothing to tempt him to bite.
I plan to continue to watch their habit closely and try to keep their little hands very busy. As a result from watching them closely I realized dad also has a habit of biting his nails. Maybe they picked it up from him. In any case I hope this habit goes away soon it has out worn its welcome.
What did/do you do? How soon did it go away?
Happy Tuesday Everyone!
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