Nail Biting Remedies

The nail biting habit starts in childhood and may continue till early adulthood. Most people successfully abandon this habit by the time they reach the age of 20. However, there are some adults who can continue to bite nails beyond the age of 30. The main nail biting causes are stress, anxiety, inactivity or boredom, etc. Some children learn to bite nails after observing other family members doing the same. Nail biting not only makes the fingernails look ugly but also can have an adverse effect on the health. It leads to broken, painful nails along with bleeding and infections of the nail bed. It can lead to dental problems as well. For all these negative effects of this compulsive behavior, people look for effective nail biting remedies.

Nail Biting Remedies for Adults

We all know, that it is not very easy to abandon the habit of biting one's nails. You need a lot of patience and willpower to leave the habit. Here are some useful remedies:

Cover the Hands: Wear gloves to keep your nails under cover. As a result, even if you put the finger in your mouth unconsciously then also you cannot bite the nails. You can also cover up the nails with bandages or stickers which can acts as barriers and you are unable to access the fingers in order to chew them.

Engage Your Hands: Keep something in your hands all the time. The best thing that can be used for this purpose is stress ball. It will keep your hands busy and you do not get the scope to bite the nails. Or, you can keep your hands busy in activities like painting, writing or playing video games. As your hands are not free, you do not get the chance to bite nails.

Train Your Mind: This is one of the best home remedies for nail biting for adults. Tie rubber bands around both the wrists and the moment you are going to bite the nails snap the rubber band on the wrist. It will take some time to develop this habit of striking the rubber band before biting nails. Once you get the habit you will find that the pain you get will train the mind not to bite nails.

Manicure: Go for a manicure regularly so that your nails are in a well trimmed condition. As a result, you will not get any uneven edges of the nails to bite. Moreover, the pleasing sight of nicely filed nails will stop you from making them ugly by biting them.

Nail Biting Remedies for Children

There are a number of home remedies for nail biting that can help your child to get rid of the habit of nail biting. They are as follows:

• Always keep their nails in a neatly cut condition so that there is no extra nail left that they can bite upon.
• Do not punish when they bite nails nor should you promise any incentive if they do not chew nails. Rather, shower them with praises when they successfully avoid nail biting for several days.
• Children usually tend to bite nails during watching their favorite TV show. Keep some drawing books ready near their hands and ask them to color pictures while watching TV. This will distract their mind and the temptation to bite nails will go down.
• Make some alternative arrangements like sugarless lollipops or carrot sticks that they can munch. Thus their mouth will remain busy and the urge to bite the nails will automatically go down at least for a brief period of time.
• Apply some solution on the nails of your child which is bitter in taste. There is a colorless lacquer available in the market that can be used for this purpose. Alternatively, you can use lemon juice or bitter gourd juice. When they find that unpleasant taste as soon as they put the nails into the mouth they will start avoiding putting the fingers into the mouth.

Remedies that work for you may not work for others. So you have to find out for yourself which nail biting treatment is the most suitable one for you. The same thing is applicable for the nail biting cures for your child too. If the cause of the nail biting habit is some underlying stress, then efforts have to be made to reduce the tension and anxiety.