When I was a kid, my mom would threaten to put Tabasco sauce on my fingers to keep me from gnawing at my nails. Her attempts to stop my compulsion were in vain; I turned to nail biting whenever I felt anxious, scared, shy, nervous, or bored. Luckily I grew out of the habit, but others don’t.

It’s estimated that as many as 33 percent of children under the age of eleven bite their fingernails and that number increases among teenagers and drops off as people reach adulthood. Nail biting—which includes chewing at the cuticles or the skin surrounding the nail, too—occurs more frequently than any other nervous habit (such as hair pulling or thumb sucking). Knowing of so many fellow sufferers has always made me wonder—why do we seek comfort by literally biting the hands that feed us, and just how risky is this act?

Maybe We Can Blame Our Parents
No one knows for sure what causes onychophagia (the medical name for nail biting) or why it starts at such young ages. Stress and medical issues are listed as potential culprits, as are low self-esteem, emotional disorders, and family history. Some believe that genetics play a role in nail biting, as it tends to run in families. Others argue that nail biting is a learned behavior, which would also explain the familial link. If a small child sees her parents biting their nails in times of stress or inactivity, she might try it out and derive pleasure from the action, thus sparking a habit.

A Symptom of Oral Fixation
Freud believed that nail biting, like everything else in life, is related to sex. He believed it was just another characteristic of people with an oral fixation, or the constant desire to put things in our mouths as a form of stimulation. (This might explain why I graduated from nail biting to chronic gum chewing.) According to Freud, all babies go through this stage. If they aren’t treated properly, they never move past this dependency and develop oral fixations. Overeating, smoking, chewing on pens, and even seemingly unrelated behaviors like alcoholism and sarcasm are also listed as oral fixation indicators.

Acceptable at Thirteen, Not so Much at Thirty
Regardless of the trigger, most kids engage in some sort of nervous habit and nail biting is the most common. It is a way for them to deal with stressful and anxious situations. Because it is such an oft-occurring habit, nail biting is usually not a cause for alarm (i.e., it doesn’t necessarily mean your child has some kind of disorder). The best way to wean kids off their fingers is to …
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