Raymond Parenting

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Nail Biting

Posted January 1, 2009

Dear Kitty,

My 3 year old daughter has started to bite her nails and has her fingers in her mouth. She does suck her thumb in bed. She use to put her fingers in her mouth when she seemed to be nervous, but now it is starting to be all the time. Do you have any suggestions?

This sounds like a tension-reducing habit which includes nail biting and fingers in her mouth. While it's a good idea to search around her daily life to see if she is being put into situations which raise some anxiety for her, it could also be that she is going through new development and she is dealing with some normal transition by comforting herself this way.

Certainly it’s a good idea to reduce any anxiety-inducing situations for her if you can identify them, but in any case, I think I would leave this alone for the time being. Bringing it to her attention or pulling her fingers out of her mouth will only result in more of the same, plus guilty feelings. I suggest you ignore it for now and see where it goes.

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