About a third of preschool and primary school children bite their nails. This habit is not only unaesthetic, but also harmful, because microbes enter the child's body from the hands, which can cause gastrointestinal upset. The emergence of the habit of biting nails can be caused by a number of psychological reasons.
Why does the child bite his nails
The habit of biting nails in the medical language is called onychophagia. Very often it occurs in a child due to stress. If the situation in the child's family is tense, the parents are overly strict or are divorced, the baby will most likely begin to bite his nails. Onychophagia can occur due to an experienced fright or trauma, as well as during the period of adaptation to a kindergarten, school or new place of residence.
In some cases, children may follow an example from adults who have a habit of biting their nails. Poor care for the hands of a child can provoke the development of onychophagia - he can bite off nails and cuticles due to the fact that they interfere with him.
The process of biting nails and burrs soothes the child and relieves nervousness. Sigmund Freud believed that onychophagia can appear due to the fact that your child was not satisfied with the sucking reflex in infancy. This happens if you weaned him early or weaned him off the nipple too hard.
If a child constantly injures himself to blood, especially after any misconduct, onychophagia can signal the child's aggression towards himself. And it also happens that this bad habit becomes for the little man a source of physical pleasure and is a substitute for something pleasant.
To understand the reason for the emergence of a bad habit in your child, try to remember in what period of life it appeared. You should also analyze the situations in which the child bites his nails. If your son or daughter's nails grow back to normal size during the holidays, and during the school year he chews them completely, the stress factor is most likely at school.
How to get rid of onychophagia
If your child bites his nails, in no case should you draw his attention to a bad habit, scold and shame. You should also not smear the baby's fingers with something bitter and punish him, because. it will only make the problem worse.
To wean a child from the bad habit of biting nails, it is necessary to find out the cause of its occurrence and do everything to eliminate the dangerous factor. In some cases, doctors recommend drinking a course of light sedatives or brewing soothing herbal teas for the child with chamomile, lemon balm, mint, valerian, etc.
Teach your child to relieve stress in a different way. It helps to calm down by focusing on your deep breathing, firm clenching and unclenching of your fists. Tell your child not to accumulate negativity in yourself - this leads to stress. You can relieve tension and throw out aggression with the help of outdoor games, sports competitions. Older children, especially boys, can be discouraged from biting their nails by saying that this is a habit for toddlers. Girls need to be taught how to make a beautiful manicure - they will never want to spoil it.
Don't be hard on your child. Love him, give him tenderness, attention and care. Give him more positive emotions and impressions. Make your child feel protected and loved.
