Boy, was I glad to be writing this post today! You see, last year my then 3 years old boy started these few annoying habits...
1) Biting his finger nails
2) Picking his nose
3) Playing with his privates
I've never mentioned them in my blog because, yes, I'm ashamed. I googled around to find out why kids do this, what should I do or get to stop my boy from biting his nails, and so on.
Anyway, for his finger nails biting habit, my SIL told me to find in pharmacies whether there are any solutions or medications that we can apply on the child's nails (which has bitter taste or something after applied) that can deter a child from biting their nails. I googled and find what other mums used and found this solution called 'Thum' (it was sold on Amazon website but had some negative reviews) I went around and asked like 4-5 pharmacies and the pharmacists all gave me a weird look as they have never heard of such brands nor such things that can be applied to a child's finger nails.
I gave up on finding the solution after that but from time to time will gently remind my boy not to bite his fingernails and regularly trimmed his nails because his biting made his nails uneven and chipped. Since last month, I noticed that his nail biting habits diminishing and he even from time to time tell me 'Look mummy, I don't bite fingers, I'm big boy already!' and when I checked his finger nails, yes, they are getting long. Yipee!!
I did the same for his nose picking habits, not to overly highlight or mentioned to him so that he doesn't find it too obvious that I'm observing and watching him all the times. I finally figured out a way to deal with his nose picking habit. And today, I can happily say he has definitely cut down on his nose picking habit tremendously (or at least hide them from obvious sight).
As for his last annoying habit which is playing with his privates, my SIL told me one of her boys also had the same habit and told me to wait it out, don't highlight it or tell him to stop or that it is shameful etc etc as they are figuring out their body parts and curious and as long as I keep monitoring him, it will go away and yes, today, I can gladly say that this habit is diminishing too.
I guess it also helped that we keep reminding our boy that he is growing up and becoming a big boy now and continuously show examples (of other older cousins for example) to him that other boys do not bite fingers, pick nose or play with their penis.
I also think that not obviously stopping or forbidding him to continue his habits helped as I believe the more we tell our child not to do something, the more they will want to do it. So, gentle and once in a while reminder of not doing this and that does help.
So there you go! I am so happy to see my boy outgrowing his annoying habits!
Does your child have any annoying habits? What do you do?
