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How can I prevent my daughter or my son from eating or biting their nails?
Mar 8, 2013

Dr. Rola Al Dhaybi Dermatology
You can use nail polish with bad taste. There are ones available in pharmacies for that purpose.
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Dr. Judy Matta Pediatrics
Before you can stop a child from biting their nails, you have to gain an understanding of why they are doing it in the first place. Your child may bite his/her nails for several reasons:
- Stress or anxiety
- Imitation of other children
- a transition from thumbsucking
To help your child stop biting his/hers nails, try to deal with the reason your child is biting his/her nails.
-Try to find out what stressful situations seem to cause your child to bite his/her nails such as being bored, doing homework etc and try to reduce the stress by helping your child or making a change to the situation.
-Cutting long nails can help
- Keep your child's hands busy by giving her/him a small toy to play with, or paper and pencils.
-Do NOT punish your child for nail biting. Praise your child when he or she is no longer biting his/her nails during the day.
-Apply bitter–tasting preparations to your child's fingernails. These nail polishes can be found in pharmacies.
But most importantly be patient because these habits take time to be broken.
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