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I’m a nail-biter. I’ve hid my fingertips since my early school-aged years. So, imagine my reaction when my seven-year-old daughter started biting her nails: ashamed, guilty, upset ? take your pick. I fully admit that my embarrassment about my own nail-biting influences how I?m handling this situation. I tend to admonish or nag her about what this gross habit looks like to others.
My daughter started when most kids begin nail-nibbling, in grade one. And while there?s no nail-biting gene passed between parents and children, she probably started doing it after observing me chewing away, notes Michael Dickinson, chief of paediatrics for Miramichi Regional Hospital in Miramichi, NB. Dickinson estimates that 20 to 25 percent of children are chronic nail-biters. (It?s even more common in adolescents.) There are many reasons why children turn to nibbling their nails. Nine-year-old Hanna Hastings in Guelph, Ont., has been biting her nails for as long as her mother, Liz Hastings, can remember. It?s a way to handle stress or listlessness. ?Sometimes she does it when she?s bored,? says Hastings. ?Or, if a new task is introduced and Hanna worries she won?t be able to do it, she chews her nails in frustration.? Some children with anxiety, notes Dickinson, are orally fixated. Whether it?s a soother, a thumb or their fingernails, having something in their mouth is calming. ?Soothers and thumbs aren?t socially appropriate when kids are older, so nail-biting ca...