Mumsnet Talk

My two year old daughter is biting her nails and I don't know how to stop or distract her from doing so! She is biting them until she can't pull any more off and usually ends up pulling off skin etc. down the sides and making them very sore. I don't want them to get infected.

When she can't get any more off her finger nails she will sometimes start on her toe nails as well.

Is this just a normal phase she is going through and will it end soon, or is there something else going on? She comes across as a very happy, confident and outgoing little girl so I wouldn't have thought it would be the latter? I do have an eleven week old daughter though if it is an attention seeking problem, but she seems to be fine with her sister, she's always kissing and hugging her and doesn't appear to be jealous.

My sister's son (nearly three) is also biting his nails but as I haven't seen them for a while I don't know how severe it is with him and my sister doesn't seem overly concerned.

Any comments would be greatly received. Thanks.

I wish I could help. My almost-5 year old has started biting her nails. I told her to stop doing it and she just said "why?". I couldn't think of a better response than "it's not very nice".

I try to keep her nails trimmed short so there's not much there to bite.

I'm sure it's just a phase.

My ds 4 yrs 7 mths exactly the same, when I ask him t0 stop he tells me to "Hold on" till he has finished biting the nail he is chomping into. I don't know what to do about it, but totally understand where you are both coming from. I pray he grows out of it,

another nail-biting child here!!!

dd has been doing it since she was 18 mths. don't know what to do either and praying that she'll stop. i'm growing my nails and am going to try and make a big deal of having nice nails, being able to tap them on the table, painting them etc. that she'll stop .... anything is worth a try ...