Young children are unpredictable and spontaneous. So, nothing prevents them from studying the depth of the nose with their little fingers somewhere in a crowded place or biting their nails with special rapture. Well, what kind of mom might like it! And why do children bite their nails?
Parents, of course, explain to their child how to behave in society, what actions are permissible and what are considered indecent. However, both at home and at a party, children, playing, thinking, or simply noticing that their parents do not see them at the moment, suddenly take for a forbidden and completely unhygienic occupation - they begin to bite their nails. After another moralizing on this topic, the baby sheds crocodile tears and through sobs says that it will never be this way again. But the very next day he takes up the old again. What to do in this case? Certainly not to scold the child and not bring him to tears. It is better to try to analyze the behavior and environment that surrounds the baby and understand the reason why a smart and cute baby bites his nails. There are several reasons why a child begins to bite his nails, but perhaps the most common and obvious one is stress. This stress can be like going to the first grade of school or starting attending kindergarten, or divorce or quarrels between parents, as well as many other factors that adults, as a rule, do not think to write off such a change in the baby's behavior. By biting his nails, the little person relieves stress and stops worrying or being afraid of something. Track your child and identify times when he was taken for seemingly no reason to bite his nails. Pay attention to how your child reacts to situations of different kinds, ask him to tell how he feels, what he thinks, etc. So, if the kid is afraid to speak in front of the public or is afraid to go to kindergarten, where, as it seems to him, he will be offended, try to help him become more sociable, active. Perhaps we are talking about a child's low self-esteem, which means that you will most likely need the help of a qualified psychologist. Having thus learned the root cause of a bad habit, you can take measures to eliminate it. When a child bites his nails, a kind of replacement of the internal state with an external action takes place. Knowing this, you can help your child not only forget about the bad habit, but also overcome fear, anxiety and other negative emotions. An older child can be helped to overcome this uncontrollable habit with the help of certain (only you two know) signs when he stops biting his nails after seeing the secret gesture you gave. This will awaken additional confidence in you and help him to be more attentive to what his hands and teeth are doing at this moment. It so happens that the child is cheerful, not shy and does not feel fear or similar emotions, but still bites his nails. And he gnaws already from the fact that he has nothing to occupy himself with, that he does not have enough attention from his parents, or that he is simply bored. Help your baby find an interesting hobby for himself, arrange joint family games, try to leave the child as little as possible to himself. In every possible way distract him from the obsessive habit and, perhaps, this will be exactly what will help him to finally get rid of it. Also keep track of the time your child is in front of the TV and the programs they watch. And then the child's "indecent" habit will become just a funny memory.
