Nägelkauer This is how fingernail biting can be stopped

Nail bugs need to look for another stress valve
Fingernail chewing is common. According to estimates, up to 40 percent of children and around ten percent of adults nibble on their nails. Although chewing is usually harmless, it can also be a serious problem behind it. However, those affected can take countermeasures.

Stress is a cause of fingernail biting
Although adults also chew on their fingernails, the phenomenon is much more common among children. Mostly stress is the reason that the fingers automatically wander to the mouth and be nibbled at it. But sometimes it is also trivial causes such as "boredom," as the social pedagogue Gritli Bertram told "Heilpraxisnet". Parents should not react to the chewing of nails with penalties and sanctions. "Rather, it is important to research the causes and to understand the children," says Bertram.

Up to 40 percent of children and around ten percent of adults chew nails. The cause of this is often stress. But you can countersteer. (Image: Scott Griessel / fotolia.com)

Compulsive behavior - but usually harmless
The results of nail-biting not only look ugly, they also make it easier for pathogens to play. In a message from the news agency dpa experts report on interesting facts.

For example, Prof. Peter Falkai of the German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN) explains that nail biting is a compulsive behavior or even a disturbance of impulse control, but mostly harmless.

However, if nail biting becomes stronger or more frequent, it will be critical. "Or when people chew nails so intensely and so doggedly that they cause injuries, such as the skin," says Falkai, who is also director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Munich. "Then it is often a symptom of a disease."

Up to 40 percent of children chew on their nails
As the doctor and psychologist Harald Tegtmeyer from Lindau explained in the dpa message, the distinction between bad but harmless habit and expression of a mental disorder is not easy.

According to the spokesperson of the Committee for Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy at the Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ), nail biting in many societies, especially in younger years: "An estimated 30 to 40 percent of children and 10 percent of adults are affected."

Do not put children under pressure
Children often get used to nail biting after a few months or a few years: "In puberty, you pay more attention to yourself, take care of nail biting differently. It becomes embarrassing, also from the point of view, "says Tegtmeyer.

Parents can assist their offspring in weaning, for example by discreetly pointing them to nail biting in the appropriate situation.

According to Gritli Bertram, children should not be pressured. House arrest or television ban are completely wrong approaches and put children back into further stressful situations. Better is a reward system: "For every week without fingernail chewing there is a little attention. This can be an ice cream or a joint visit to the cinema, "the social pedagogue told Heilpraxisnet..

Entrance gate for mushrooms and bacteria
But nibbles and broken cuticles are not just a cosmetic problem. "They also serve as a gateway for fungi and bacteria and thus promote inflammation," explains the dermatologist Marion Moers-Carpi from the professional association of German dermatologists in the dpa report.

The nail-forming cells can be permanently irreversibly damaged, so that the nail only grows deformed again - typical are pronounced longitudinal grooves.

Small changes can help
Chewing should therefore be best avoided. In order to do that, it is important to first find out in which situations the fingers even move into the mouth. According to Falkai, this is usually the case when the stress level increases.

Then the question must be clarified: "What can I do to avoid the stress?" In some cases, even small changes are enough; For example, imagine the clock, if you always come at the last minute.

Some rely on weaning on bitter paints or patches around the fingertips. Falkai considers this to be the only method that does not make sense. According to the expert, it was more important to get to the bottom of the causes of nail-biting and to counteract them.

According to Falkai, it is sometimes easier to stop nail-biting from one hundred to zero, but first try to reduce the frequency. (Ad)