Why do children bite their nails?

It is a common phenomenon for children to bite their nails. However, if this phenomenon is not treated and corrected as soon as possible, it will affect the health of the children. Therefore, many parents of children whose children bite their nails want to know specifically why their children bite their nails. In order for you to understand the reason as soon as possible, please take a look at the detailed introduction below.

There are 3 reasons why children bite their nails

Generally speaking, there are three possibilities when children like to bite their nails: lack of trace elements, mental stress, or it is simply a bad habit.

First, you should take your child to the hospital for trace element testing to see what trace elements are lacking, and then supplement them in a targeted manner. If the child also has symptoms such as inattention or roundworms, it is more likely that he is zinc deficient, but be sure to check before making a judgment.

If there is no lack of trace elements, it may be that the child is nervous or has developed a bad habit of biting his nails. At this time, you should pay more attention to your child and correct him/her with the correct method, instead of scolding him/her when he/she bites his/her nails. You should educate your child with a caring attitude not to bite his/her nails, tell him/her that this will allow bacteria to enter the stomach and cause disease, etc., and use other diversion methods such as playing games to relieve the child's mental tension.

What are the dangers of children biting their nails all the time?

Many people know that nails are the "first holy place" for virus criminals to hide. Biting fingernails will allow bacteria to enter the baby's body and cause some unnecessary illnesses, such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, enteritis, etc. It may also damage the nails, causing nail pain, bleeding, and even infection. From a psychological perspective, fingernail biting is a manifestation of obsessive-compulsive disorder and has nothing to do with a person's personality or hobbies. "Because of insecurity and anxiety, this behavior is used to relieve emotions. Biting fingernails is harmless, but people around should not pay too much attention to it, so as not to increase the insecurity of the person biting his fingernails.

How can parents correct and prevent it?

1. If older children have the habit of biting their nails, parents can work together with their children to fight this bad habit. Parents can explain to their children the bad things about habits like nail biting, discuss with their children how to change the habit, and work together to achieve the goal.

2. You can use interesting toys, do handicrafts, play shadow puppet games, play "flower flipping" games (in some places it is called picking ropes, which is a kind of rope picking that is done by two people with a circle of string wrapped around their hands), etc., to let children discover more fun that fingers can bring and the mystery of finger coordination, so as to gradually reduce the habit of biting fingers in the happy exploration; another way is to make beautiful nail paintings and finger masks with children, so that children are reluctant to take them off or destroy them, and even change the masks with children every day to tell different stories, encourage children to tell other children, so as to seize the children's reluctance to destroy this cute prop because of chewing, and achieve the purpose of stopping children from biting their nails.

3. Apply berberine (crush the tablets and dissolve them in water) or chili water on the child's fingers, and emphasize that fingers are full of bacteria and are very dirty (be moderate and do not cause adverse consequences such as mysophobia) to stop the child's behavior.

4. In addition to biting their nails, some children also have other unusual behaviors, such as biting their fingertips until they bleed, plucking their eyebrows and hair, or even biting their skin. This may mean that the baby is experiencing some psychological pressure that he cannot bear at his age, or that he feels overly nervous mentally. At this time, it is best to take the baby to see a doctor.

Editor's reminder

It takes a process to correct a child's nail biting habit. The younger the child is, the easier it is to correct. Therefore, when parents find that their children have the habit of biting their nails, they should correct it as soon as possible. Parents should have patience and confidence, and must not use corporal punishment, scold loudly, or roughly pull the child's fingers away from the mouth, as this may subconsciously aggravate the child's nail biting habit.

What is the reason why children bite their nails? The above is a detailed introduction. There are generally three reasons why children bite their nails. One is nervousness, one is lack of nutrition, and the other is a bad habit. Therefore, parents must understand the above content to determine the reason for their children, and then carry out targeted treatment and correction to help their children get rid of this bad habit as soon as possible.