What is nail biting?
Nail biting is the habit of biting off your fingernails (for some, even their toenails!). It is a compulsive condition, frequently observed in children and teenagers and studies even show that boys bite their nails more often than girls.
Why is nail biting bad?
Nail biting can tear off the skin around the nail and may cause bleeding, infection and also makes your fingertips very sensitive to pain. Swallowing these nails can also cause tears in your intestine and may even lead to intestinal infections. Keeping the nails in your mouth can also ruin the enamel of your teeth, weakening them. The worst part is all the germs under the nail you are biting off. These can cause illness because it is quite hard to clean under your fingernails.
What causes nail biting?
People bite nails if they are hungry, bored, nervous or stressed out. It can also be because of emotional and mental disorders or sudden difficulties.
Tips to get over nail biting:
Keeping your hands busy is a good strategy to prevent nail biting. Solving the Rubik’s cube, drawing, writing, typing, playing video games or other similar activities help out. I find the Rubik’s cube the most effective, because it requires both hands to be busy at the same time, unlike other activities.
Distracting your mouth also works well. Chewing gum, sucking on lollipops or candy or constantly munching snacks like chips, carrot sticks can stop your desire to bite your nails.
For repairing your nails and making them regrow, food rich in calcium and magnesium is highly recommended. Some examples are nuts, cereals, a few fat foods and meats like pork.
Covering your nails also helps out a lot. If you can’t see your nails, you won’t want to bite them.
For girls, try manicuring your hands regularly. You won’t want to bite off good looking nails.
I do hope this helps all of you compulsive nail biters out there.