How To Stop Nail Biting For Good
Irritating habit or something more?
Nail biting is not just about nerves or boredom. It’s a body-based behavior that gets wired into a child’s routine. The good news? With a few smart strategies rooted in evidence, you can help your child stop biting without shame, nagging, or bitter-tasting polish.
During the childhood years, nail biting is exceptionally common. Up to 45% of Middles and Bigs are nail biters, and many start biting much younger. Kids bite their nails for a variety of reasons: for sensory feedback when they’re bored, to soothe anxiety, or as a leftover habit from thumb sucking. Interestingly, nail biting also seems to run in families.
Don’t think of nail biting as a “bad habit.”
Nail biting is a body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB), similar to hair twisting, cheek biting, and skin picking. It can be intentional, but it’s more often automatic—kids may bite while reading or waiting in line. Although commonly associated with other diagnosable conditions, like anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, nail biting can be diagnosed as a distinct disorder when it causes significant distress or persists despite repeated attempts to stop.
For most kids, a brief period of nail biting is generally harmless. But, there are reasons to fight against the bite. Chronic biting is associated with damage to the nails and teeth, sometimes permanently. Over time, repeated damage can alter the appearance of the nails. Exposed nail beds can keratinize, leading to nail plate shortening or change in nail color. And kids who bite are ingesting germs, increasing their risk of illnesses, while increasing the risk of infecting the nails and fingers themselves.
Want to help your child stop biting? Start here.
The three most effective approaches to extinguish nail biting are habit reversal training, stimulus control, and (for severe cases) medical support. Let’s dive into each.
Habit Reversal Training
Habit Reversal Training (HRT) is a behavioral therapy technique to help individuals become aware of unwanted habits and replace them with more constructive, competing behaviors. HRT is often done with the help of a professional, but there are elements you can start at home.
1. Awareness Training
This HRT component teaches your child to recognize when, where, and how the biting occurs, including identifying triggers and early warning signs. Awareness training is required in order for your child to recognize their biting, especially they bite unconsciously or mindlessly.
During this phase, observe where and when your child is biting. Is the behavior paired with something else, like TV watching, nervousness before a soccer game, or while reading? When you notice them biting, ask if they know they doing it — What does it feel like when they bite? Why do they bite? Do they want to stop?
The goal is to draw awareness to the behavior and spend time identifying situations, feelings, or events that lead up to biting. Once those are identified, kids can practice the ability to pause and interrupt the sequence that leads to biting with a competing response.
2. Competing Response Therapy
Once kids are aware of their biting, this HRT component involves choosing a new behavior to replace it. This alternate behavior, or competing response, should be a socially appropriate alternative that makes biting impossible to occur. Examples include:
Sitting on hands
Folding arms
Interlacing fingers
The new behavior needs to be able to be done subtly and for at least a minute, or enough time to disrupt the biting sequence. Repetition and practice of the competing response over time will lessen or eliminate the biting, especially when paired with good social support.
3. Social Support
Of course, kids can’t do this hard work on their own. They need support from their friends and family to encourage and reinforce progress. To support a child working on nail biting, consider things like:
Using “secret” gestures or words - like an ear tug or saying “bananas” - that gently brings awareness of unconscious biting behaviors without shame or punishment
Communicating and enforcing family boundaries where biting is not acceptable. For example, no biting at the dinner table or no biting in the car
Working on family-wide stress reduction techniques to decrease biting as a coping skill
Letting close friends have permission to remind them to not bite at school or during sports games
Offering simple and associated rewards. For example, on the weeks their nails can be trimmed with a clipper, go get ice cream. Or, for every five competing responses you “catch” them doing, give them a home manicure
Joining online groups to connect with other kids, normalize challenges, and provide additional support
Adding digital support to photo-document progress and get additional tips
Stimulus Control
Similar to HRT, stimulus control techniques identify and modify the biting situation, environment, or triggers. The goal is to bring awareness to the behavior and then change the context in which the biting occurs to reduce its satisfaction and frequency. The following list includes examples of these techniques.
Removing outside triggers: limiting stress, times of boredom, or other known triggers of the behavior
Helping kids to keep nails trimmed short and well manicured to decrease physical urges
Choosing non-removable reminders, like temporary tattoos on the fingers, textured nail polish, nail stickers, or picking bracelets. [Links provided as examples to get your search started, #notsponsored]
Carrying age-appropriate sensory substitutes to compete with sensory urges, like fidget toys, worry stones, or chewing gum
In young kids, applying bitter nail solutions to discourage biting doesn’t work well. In fact, using this technique has been shown to draw attention to the behavior, creating opposition and increased drive. Instead, choose a sensory substitute or non-removable reminder. For older, more motivated kids, there is scant evidence that bitter solutions may be helpful when applied frequently and with good support. Other stimulus control options are still preferred.
Medications
Medications or supplements may be considered for kids whose biting behavior is causing significant damage to their nails, leading to repeated infections, or creating significant social consequences.
NAC (N-acetylcysteine) is an over-the-counter supplement that may help with BFRBs by modulating glutamate and acting as an antioxidant. While mostly studied in skin-picking and hair-pulling disorders, there is growing evidence of NAC’s benefit when used in combination with other behavior modification techniques. NAC is relatively low cost, well-tolerated, and has a mild side effect profile — mostly GI upset with rare reports of behavior changes. Talk with your doctor to see what they recommend.
Currently, there is no FDA approved medication for nail biting. However, some success had been seen in small trials of a few antidepressant medications. These medications are often helping co-existing conditions that accompany the biting, so it’s not clear how well the medications improve nail biting on their own. Of course, this option shouldn’t be used without the assistance of professional-level therapy.
Finding kids who bite their nails is the easy part; it’s getting them to stop that’s hard. Progress has ups and downs, and sometimes victory looks like less rather than none. Make a plan. Be patient. Celebrate every success!
Other Important News
As most of you know, something big is happening this month!
Managing Childhood Anxiety (For Dummies) hits shelves on August 11th. This book is a comprehensive introduction to anxiety in young kids, including its prevention and management. Early feedback has been generous and positive, and I’m excited to get it out into the world.
Preorders matter — and I’d love your support. Hit the link to find Amazon’s promo price, and connect with me on Instagram to get more updates and surprises throughout the month.
As always, hit the heart if you learned something new, and share this with someone you know. The growth of this community is what fuels my effort.
For the kids,
Do the same concerns and methods apply to nail picking?