About a third of children of preschool and younger school age gnaw nails. This habit not only not esthetic, but also harmful since microbes from hands get to an organism of the child that can cause gastrointestinal frustration. Emergence of a habit to gnaw nails can be near is caused the psychological reasons.
Why the child gnaws nails
The habit to gnaw nails in medical language is called an onikhofagiya. Very often it arises at the child because of a stress. If in family of the child the intense situation, parents are excessively strict or are divorced – the kid with high probability will begin to gnaw nails. Onikhofagiya can arise from the endured fright or a trauma and also during adaptation to a garden, school or the new residence.
In certain cases children can follow an example of the adults who are accustomed to gnaw nails. Bad manicuring of the child can provoke development of an onikhofagiya - he can bite off nails and a cuticle because they disturb it.
Process of an obgryzaniye of nails and hangnails calms the child and removes nervousness. Siegmund Freud considered that the onikhofagiya can appear because at your child in infancy the sosatelny reflex was not satisfied. So occurs if you early separated it from a breast or too strictly disaccustomed to a pacifier. If the child constantly wounds himself till it bleeds, especially after any offenses, the onikhofagiya can signal about the aggression existing at the kid to itself. And happens and so that this addiction becomes a source of physical pleasure for the little man and is replacement something pleasant. To understand the cause of an addiction at your child, try to remember during what period of life it appeared. It is necessary to analyze also situations in which the child gnaws nails. If on vacation the nails of your son or daughter grow to the normal sizes, and during academic year he chews them completely – the stressful factor, most likely, is in school.
How to get rid of an onikhofagiya
If your child gnaws nails, it is impossible to focus his attention on an addiction at all, to abuse and shame. It is also not necessary to smear fingers of the kid with something bitter and to punish him since it will only aggravate a problem. To disaccustom the child to an addiction to gnaw nails, it is necessary to find out the reason of its emergence and to make everything to eliminate a dangerous factor. In certain cases doctors recommend to spend on drink a rate of light sedative medicines or to make to the child the calming herbal teas with a camomile, a melissa, mint, a valerian, etc. Teach the child to remove stress in a different way. Concentration on the deep breath, strong tightening and unclamping of fists helps to calm down. Prompt to the child that it is not necessary to save a negative in itself – it leads to a stress. It is possible to remove stress and to splash out aggression by means of outdoor games, sports competitions. More adult children, especially boys, it is possible to disaccustom to gnaw nails, having told that it is a habit for kids. Girls it is necessary to teach to do beautiful manicure – they will never want to spoil it. Be not strict with the child. If you love him, then endow with tenderness, attention and care. You give it more positive emotions and impressions. Let your child feel protected and darling.