‘My daughter bites her nails every time’

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Twisting tufts of hair around their finger or biting nails so far that they can no longer be painted: these mothers talk about their child’s tic.

Janelle (28), mother of Lexie (3):

“’Mama au-au’, Lexie cries every time she bites her nails again. Sometimes bleeding. I comfort her, but also tell her over and over to stop biting. It’s a twitch I don’t think she can stop, despite the pain. She loves nail polish, but her gnawed fingernails are now almost impossible to paint.

“I don’t want to punish, so I’ll try rewarding now”

My mother and mother-in-law tell me to dip her fingers in Byte-X, a bitter substance for thumbs and bites. But I think that’s pathetic. She’s still so young. I don’t want to punish, so I’ll try rewarding now. She gets a sticker if she hasn’t put any fingers in her mouth for a day and a present follows with ten stickers. So far without success, by the way. Apparently it has become automatic.”

Read also – Child, stop with that irritating tic: ‘Everything must be sorted by rainbow color’ >

Keep spinning

Mirjam (29), mother of Loïs (6):

“On the couch, while watching TV, in the car, in bed, at school in class: Loïs twists tufts of her hair around her finger. She often does it unconsciously when she is watching or listening to something. She likes the rustle and soft feel, she says.

“She likes the rustle and soft feel, she says”

I try to slow it down, because sometimes I spend hours combing the created tangles out of her hair. I also notice that the bottom is getting thinner. Particularly on the left, the hair looks as if it has been scorched after a fire: her favorite part.”

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