Hello!

How do you stop nail biting? My daughter is 8 and bites her nails and all the skin around them. I have tried discipline, taking things off her, and nail biter which I put on every day and she still bites them. Her hands look terrible… and now her sister is copying her. I don’t know what else to do. Any suggestions? Thanks so much

Posted by anon, 14/10/13

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  • Use the nail polish that stops you from biting your nails. The chemist should stock this.


  • I tried everything and nothing worked. She just had to grow out of it. When she wa ok daughter enough, my daughter got fake nails applied to discourage bail biting. Kinda works but ruined the bails in a different way


  • I used good old will power to quit, after trying most products on the market. My daughter has had fake nails put on to solve her biting problem


  • I remember when I was a child mum used special ointments available at pharmacies. It worked for a short time.
    I eventually grew out of it and now can’t live without having my nails painted!


  • It’s a bad habit now so apparently it will take 21 days to break Whatever you do will need to be consistent over the 3 weeks and should then stick! Good luck. Let us know what works.


  • some great advice ladies. I myself am a nail biter and nothing I do stops me. I am going to try some of these ideas :)


  • Maybe try rewarding her with a mini cure with mummy at the salon when she goes x amount of days without biting and maybe a star chart for daily motivation?


  • there are some good comments here


  • Treat yourself to a shellac mani and then reward yourself frequently for not biting eg end of each day to begin with. Perhaps put 50c in a jar each reward time and then you can later treat yourself? Be kind to yourself :)


  • U could put vinegar on their nails


  • if you can, file and trim her nails so there are no edges that would annoy her or that she could bite on. Have a girly afternoon where you paint each others nails, a colour of her choice. remove for the start of the school week and paint with a clear varnish. Hopefully, she will enjoy having nice nails. If she lapses now and then, tell her not to worry, she is getting there. It will take awhile. Good luck.


  • Some good advice there below.


  • I got some good hand and nail cream and nail polish and we talked about looking after our nails and painted them pretty colours – worked with my daughter


  • Nag nag, it should take a month to break the habit – hopefully!


  • Either ask the chemist for product or try to encourage a change in behaviour by getting her nails professional done. If you can see the same nail technician they could also help encourage her by doing some cool colours or patterns as motivation to not bite her nails for the next visit.


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