including DNA week at badgersontheloose.
I was going to close this week of all things genetic with another trait that was most certainly past down, but that would be following through on something I started. Instead I’m going to do the opposite and disclose a characteristic that Ava most certainly did not receive in her genetic package. It has become quite a pressing issue that must be addressed and for which I need your help, oh wise readers.
Ava bites her nails!
Gasp, I know. As far as I can tell this is a trait that was neither observed nor inherited.
But that’s not stopping her. She bites them like she was created to bite them. Her nails are nubs. Her finger tips are pink and puffy. And she has recently developed little sores around her cuticles. All the traits of a most ardent and efficient nail biter.
At first I thought it would just go away, that if I was careful to keep her nails short she would never think to bite them. I was naive and in the interim, she has become more and more addicted to snacking on her fingertips.
Now if a person starts a regular, and by regular I mean nearly every moment, habit of biting her nails at age three, how will she ever be able to quit such an ingrained habit?
I come from a long line of strong, sturdy, and sometimes dirty fingernails. What can I say, we ate jello, played outside everyday, and there was never a biter among us. We had to be taught to clip and clean, not cease to bite.
And while my teeth did mangle a good many pens, pencils, and crayons in my day, I never had the patience to file my nails down with my teeth. And I’ve always been partial to the snap-snap of a silver trimmer. So I feel completely unequipped to rescue my daughter’s nails from her mouth.
That is why I’m turning to you, my faithful readers. You are wise in the ways of many things and hopefully one of those things is how-to-make-a-three-year-old-girl-stop-biting-her-nails-as-though-it-was-her-sole-source-of-protein.
If you could help bring her nail-biting to an end, I will… I will let her paint her nails red.
Oh, oh, maybe that is the answer. Oh, that is a prohibited prize that just might work. Again, I am naive to the ways of nail-biters, so I entreat you again to share your wisdom.
Rachel,
Do whatever you can do get Ava to stop biting. I started biting my nails when I was young and it’s become a 30-year habit that I cannot yet break. It’s not too late. Maybe that yucky tasting stuff, or like you said, the promise to paint her nails. Maybe a “girls day” manicure. Something you and she can do together. My Mira bites her toenails! I caught her biting her big toenail twice now! I’m trying to stop that as well.
Here is an article from babycenter.com:
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_nail-biting-why-it-happens-and-what-to-do-about-it_65507.pc
Good luck!
Michelle
Hey Rachel! I too am a nail biter and had to gigle about this post. It is the silliest habit, and I have been biting my nails since I was really young too…maybe around Ava’s age or a little older. My parents used to put that nasty tasting stuff on there, but I just got used to it and kept doing it. I think I have tried putting socks on my hands before…or sitting on my hands if I start to bite them…but I have found that if they are kept painted and regularly, that seems to help. I now hardly have time to do things like painting my nails, but I ought to, as the biting continues!!!!! I find that I bite them more if I am nervous or anxious about something…
I like what Michelle said about having a girls day manicure. That sounds like a lot of fun, and might teach her to take pride in keeping her nails pretty & clean.
I hope it goes well for you & Ava, learning the ways of not biting…
I am sorry to report that I have no advice on the matter.
If only you were as good at thinking-up-your-own-remedies-for-your-three-year-old’s-nail-biting-habit as you are at writing!
Well, then there would have been no need to write this well-written post.
Nail-biters unite!! It looks like those of us who bite their nails (yes, me included) have some sympathy for little Ava, as I too have just always been a nail-biter for as long as I can remember. The only thing that has worked for me is using the “Stop the Bite”…I use it for a while and “succeed” only to fall back into the habit again. My Mackenzie is a biter…and instead of focusing on the negative of an icky taste…I reward her with getting her nails painted IF they are long enough to be painted. Right now, that seems to be some motivation to stop. But, on the other hand, I so understand that sometimes us nail-biters don’t even know that we are doing it!! It is a hard, bad habit… Sorry…I am rambling here…
Keep us posted on her nail-biting woes!! Kristi
[...] January 14, 2008 by Rachel since I have seen a band of white on my daughter’s fingertips! [...]