Anyone else's DC pick their nails?

[Al1son]

DD2 (7) is currently being assessed for ASD, SPD and I suspect OCD. Every time I look at her at the moment she has her socks off and is picking her toe nails. She's got them so short that they bleed and she finds it painful to put her shoes on.

When I see her doing it I hold her hands and try to distract her but it doesn't often work. Dh tells her to stop and tells her off if she doesn't obey which of course she can't.

If we're out or she's at school and isn't allowed to take her shoes off she picks her finger nails instead and they are nearly as bad but not bleeding as yet.

Any suggestions for how I can help her not to do it/discourage her?

She has lots of other little things she has to do like touching things four times and evening up touches so both sides of her body match.

that is exactly what my ds does(8,working dx AS).

He really hated his teacher last year and he started picking his toenails every night. It got so bad his toe nails would bleed,he would cry but said he couldn't stop.

He wanted to stop,so we came up with a plan. I bought a bumper pack of plasters,and every night after his bath,I put a plaster round every toe. After about a week, I did not need to do this anymore. The cycle had been broken.

He stopped for months,but was so unhappy going back to school after xmas that he started again. So on went the plasters.It only took one day,and he stopped.

I hope this helps.

We've tried all sorts and haven't been able to stop the tie picking .. Yet!

It's got so bad that ds now has an ingrowing toenail and has had to have ABs for it and it has re-occurred as he is still picking!

We are at the moment trying a socks on in bed thing to see if that helps.

Thanks for these replies.

Peaceflower I will try to give the plasters a go. She's never that happy to have plasters on but she also wants to stop so may be willing to try them.

I do hope she doesn't end up with ingrowing nails or infections.

The socks at night haven't worked for us, Carrot but maybe they will for you.

It's nice to know we're not the only ones.

Dd3 bites her toenails and makes the sore, she does it when watching tv.

Although having said that I have not seen her do it once since I bought the gym ball because she is sitting on that instead of the settee.

No Al1son you are not the only ones.

Oh forgot to say, about evening things up, Dd3 said the other day that she needed to have 18 teddies in bed because it has to be an even number.LOL

Thanks for that Ineedalife.

Do you think she's getting sensory input from the ball so she doesn't need to seek it from biting her toes? Or is it more likely to be about not being able to balance?

Love the 18 teddies!

Have just looked back at this thread Al1son, I think Dd3 is getting a lot of sensory feedback from the ball, she has varied between sitting clamly to rolling and bouncing madly when she has been excited. We have only had it for a week so time will tell.

I am quite hopeful that it will stop the need to roll off the settee as I was quite worried about her doing that due to the inevitable accidents that were occuring.

Thanks Ineed.

I've looked into gymballs in Ebay and think I might order one today.

She picks her nails anywhere and everywhere but it might help for some of the time at least.

The plasters idea was met with complete horror but we'll keep working on that.