false nails - the salon sort - for an 8yo?

[PrettyCandles]

Dd wants to break her habit of picking, biting and tearing at her nails. We have tried rewards, star charts, reminders, one finger at a time, bitter stuff, everything we can think of, but it's not working.

Yesterday I was admiring my aunt's beautiful nails and she told me that she had worn false nails for about a year, and when she stopped having them she found that she had stopped biting them, too.

So I wonder whether this could work for dd? Obviously they wouldn't be long, and would have neutral polish.

Are you kidding? They ruin the real nail underneath and she's eight. FFA.

No way.
Wouldn't consider them for dd at 14 who bites and picks. Let her have manky nails if she hasn't the willpower to give up.

Its true it helps them break the habit

Let her do it herself I reckon when she has a Saturday job etc (or go halvies with her) when she's about 16

In the meantime, she can have manky bit nails like the rest of the kids who choose to bite their nails!

Up to you of course but its almost like rewarding a bad habit.

If you are hell bent on her having some overlays then Biosculpture gel is a lovely product that really does protect the nail.

Could you not just paint them, or get her a professional manicure done, even though they're a mess, as an incentive to stop biting them? I bit mine when younger and now have lovely nails, though they are a bit soft. I love having them done now, when I have the money and time

Its a hard habit to break but I would never consider false nails for a child, no matter what type

I'm a nail biter and have been for as long as I've had teeth so about 33 years. This didn't work for me and actually made things worse because I bit the acrylics off taking most of the nail with it. I wouldn't recommend it if she's a bad biter and she's only 8 might wreck her nail bed forever.
I wish I had an answer of how to stop biting but if I did I wouldn't be sat here monching away.

When I was a little girl you could buy something that you painted on the nails to stop children biting them. Fake nails for children, definitely not. Wait till she is older.

Quite a strong reaction - why the outrage? I don't mean WAG-style nails.

Do these things (what are they called, BTW?) really ruin the nails, or only cause damage if they are ripped off? Are they even available in a small enough size?

I think a nail biter would bite off the acrylic, and god knows what that would do to an 8 year old's nails long term.
Try a bit of sparkly polish perhaps, to encourage her to keep them pretty.

Wise up.

Let her do it the hard way. Encouraging her to muster up the willpower to stop a bad habit will be a far more valuable life lesson to her than rewarding said behaviour with expensive nail covers.

Try that maky tasting stuff you paint on nails

*manky oops!

They possibly aren't available in a small enough size - though I'm not totally up to date with the size of an 8 year old's nail bed.

I know you can get stick on ones from Boots and Superdrug that are aimed at the tween market, so are pretty petite fit, and are pretty sensible length. You could file them down a bit more too. They might look a little waggy but not if you file them down a bit and you could do them yourself at home for £6, they last about a week, sometimes have 3 for 2 etc etc.

In fact I do my own stick on nails at home, its not ideal, I'd rather go to the salon but lack the time where I dont' have my little children with me to go and get refills etc. So I just do the stick ons and then can do them when I want and have a moment.

One of the main reasons I have them is because I get split sides of fingers and in particular thumbs. No cream or remedy has worked to stop them forming from time to time (like every week if I don't have the nails) and they take a couple of weeks, or at least a week, to heal. Whereas if I have a nail that is a little bit over the fingertip in terms of length, it protects them and stops it happening, for some reason. I'd sooner have natural nails or a really nice short Biosculpture gel if anything but I'll stick with the stick ons for now.

If its any help, my nearly 4 year old son wanted a long fingernail once when he saw me doing them, and I was in a good mood for once (!) so I said fine then, and stuck the smallest size on his index finger, and it was a perfect fit. So if I could find a nail to fit my 4 year old, I reckon the petite ones will be okay for your 8 year old. All you do is lightly buff the nail (I mean really lightly, you just have to take the "sheen" off the nail), then a tiny bit of the glue and stick it on.

This kind of thing

These look pretty young and no superglue though I would say they don't stay on well, you need the proper glue really but might be a good place to start

here is another petite set

Okay those ones in the second link someone used on their 5 year old so they would fit.

(read the reviews)