Should I try to keep my 4 year old from biting her nails?

I think… good luck. As a person who bite my nails as a child, it would have taken binding my hands behind my back 24 hours a day to actually stop me.

She may be developing an oral fixation. I don’t know the psychology behind it, but it should be discussed with her doctor. She may need an occupational therapist to help break the habit. It could lead to worse oral related habits if not addressed.

Biting your nails is very bad for your teeth. It flexes the enamel on your teeth & will eventually chip/flake away the enamel. Which, enamel doesn’t grow back. For that reason alone I would try to prevent this bad habit before it gets worse.

I know they sell some kind of nail polish that has a bitter/peppery taste & that deters the person from biting their nails, but I don’t think that would be appropriate for a 4 year old.

Any type of oral habit, like biting nails or sucking thumb, can also cause the teeth to shift out of proper alignment. Especially since her teeth are still developing.

Another thing to worry about, since she is so young, is that she most likely touches everything she sees. Things found on the ground, pets, playground equipment/toys at school. Our hands carry a lot of bacteria. Biting her nails means her fingers are constantly going into her mouth & then back to touching things.

http://www.simplyparenting.com/articles/23

If you can get her to stop than great. Best thing I can suggest is get her to much on celery and carrots. Was she a pacifier baby? If she was than get her to adopt munching on veggies.
This way she will at least satisfy her need to put something in her mouth and it will be healthy instead of harmful. Nail biting is hard. My daughter did it all the way till she was in her twenties. Then she went and got fake nails put on. I was starting to get expensive to bite them off so that helped her but 4 is too young for it. Hot sauce doesn’t work. She learned to love the taste plus they can rub it in their eyes.
You can try to reward her for letting her nails grow and waiting for you to clip them off for her by taking her to a salon to get her nails painted. Have a big girls day once a week each time she manages to let them grow. For painting most won’t charge more than 15. Yes that is expensive but if it works its cheaper than therapy.
My daughter also learned to trade the habit by twirling the end of her hair when she felt like biting her nails. It didn’t stick but it at least got her to stop biting her nails and she didn’t end up picking up another long term habit.
I don’t know if its bad for her teeth but it certainly can be bad for her finger tips and she can make them bleed and get an infection on her fingers from all the germs in her mouth. She can also get hand, foot and mouth disease.
Another concern is that it can lead to her over eating which is why I suggest veggies so she won’t put on weight by trying to trade it for something else to fix her oral fixation.

I’m not sure how you’re supposed to handle this with children but I started biting my nails when I was about 8 (at sleep away camp, from nerves) and at 24, I still bite them. I get weekly manicures to prevent this – it’s expensive and it sucks. I am always embarrassed when I don’t have a manicure (which is really never at this point) and even with getting my nails done, as soon as the polish chips – I start to bite.

If you can, you should try to nip this in the butt now. What about that lemon pepper stuff? While she’s young, it may be a good thing to deter her from biting. It didn’t work for me when I tried it but I was probably about 12.

I would try, if only because most of the adults I know who bite their nails really wish they didn’t. That said, 4 might be a little young for your efforts to be successful. All three of my kids were thumb suckers (as was I), and each had to be old enough to be motivated to quit on their own. (I had tried discouraging it in infant hood, tried like hell to get them to take a pacifier instead, but that didn’t work for shit. I would never belittle the habit, or call it gross or anything.) When they were around 5, I started casually mentioning that they’d need to give up the habit someday. When they were ready to quit (around 6, 7, and 8 years old, if I remember correctly), they asked for help. We used bandaids and/or mittens, not as prevention, but as reminders. They were all successful in quitting.

I started biting my nails when I grew teeth and I stopped biting my nails when I was 20 years old. My teeth are fine, I have never had a filling. My parents tried all sorts of things to try and get me to stop but each method only worked for a very short time until I would get worried about something and start again. I only stopped when I started working with seabirds and really didn’t want to put my hands near my mouth after handling raw fish and birds. I now keep my nails painted to stop me from biting them and to prevent them from flaking. I know this probably won’t help you with your 4 year old but from my point of view, its not worth loosing sleep over. My teeth are fine. Infact I don’t know many other people who do not have any fillings whatsoever or ever had a tooth out…
It will be better for her to stop now, my nails will never be beautiful (however having the fat fingers I do I’ve never had nice hands).
My parents tried daily star charts for me with prizes at the end of each week if I got a star every day/ horrible tasting things/chili on my hands – basically just ended up with sore eyes and a love of spicy food. Painting her nails pretty colours may help however I’m not sure if eating nail varnish is great but I did it. It did slow me down with biting them as I would pick the nail varnish off first which would slow my biting. Another method may just be to transfer the habit to something else less self-destructive for example twirling her hair or twisting a ring. That also worked for me for a while….
I find I turn to biting my nails when I am nervous, make sure she isn’t keeping some big worry on her shoulders. I know I was a massive worrier about silly things and would just bite my nails when I got worked up about things.
I now always have to keep nail clippers with me, and a nail file. I keep my nails short and smooth and will file them at the first little hint of a hang nail. That is the main thing I can not stand. When your nail catches on things it makes me shudder. Keep her nails filed and smooth as much as possible to stop her being able to get to those little fraying bits. Check them every day and give them a quick file. If she has been biting them they will be more frayed and so she will want to bite them more. she may not notice her hands and her nails so much if her nails are nice and smooth and don’t snag on things….. good luck.

I was a nail-biter… I sucked my thumb as a toddler, and when I quit that, I started in on my nails. I bit them for most of my life, with extremely brief periods of not biting which required a lot of awareness and willpower. I don’t bite them any more but I believe it is due to hormone changes more than anything else. One thing that did help, though, was to keep the edges smooth- any roughness at all would trigger the reflex to bite. (I do still sometimes bite dry skin around my nails, gotta keep using lotion!)

I think nail biting does stem from worrying about things. My husband is a big worrier. He keeps thinking the same thing over and over and obsessing about it. I have tried to get him to stop this habit. When I first met him he was going through some difficult times and he was biting his nails a lot. I would actually reach over and just pull his hand down and say stop doing that! He knew I was doing it out of love. I would smile at him when I did it and over time he just stopped.

With kids it may be different but it’s very possible she is worried about something. I would ask her about this although at 4 years old I am not sure how good she would be at verbalizing. Substituting fun activities such as playing with playdoh or clay or drawing or coloring might help. Maybe she is just restless and needs to do something physical like play ball or go for a walk.

I would not subsitute hair twirling. My niece used to do that and you can develop a little bald spot from it! She was about 4 when she used to do it, often while watching videos or tv.
Lots of the other advice given here sounds good to me as well. Good luck!

Yes. Because if your child keeps that habit most likely he/she wont stop in the future. It’s best if you help him/her get rid of it. Maybe put lemon juice on the nails to make him/her stop.