New habits, nose picking, finger chewing...?

[mama2004]

I'm wondering how to guide DS through these new tendencies without causing conflict and I would like to hopefully avoid establishing them as long term habits.

DS will be 3 in April. We have just started potty learning, again; this time he is excited about underpants, but not super motivated to avoid accidents. These oral habits started to show up a bit before we went back to the potty (his cloth diapers literally do not fit any longer, and using disposables 24/7 is not appealing). I bit my nails I'm pretty sure from the time I cut my first teeth until some time in my early 20s. I would really like to try to help DS avoid that habit, but I'm at a loss as to how to discourage/distract without pestering or shaming or making it into some kind of attention getting thing.

So far, when we are out and I notice DS with his fingers in his nose or mouth, I point out that there are germs on things that he is touching that he is putting into his body and that there are germs from his body that he is leaving behind and that germs can cause sickness for ourselves or others, other people don't want to touch things with snotties/spit all over them. I ask if he needs a tissue, does his mouth feel funny, do we need to trim his nails. At home, I try to distract if I catch him with his fingers in his nose or mouth (excessively, not just a momentary fiddling), I've tried just saying things like, "wiggle your fingers!" as if it's a game and we move on to other body parts, or, "let's play catch!" I don't want to be to create an issue, but I'm feeling like I need to interfere. Maybe that's my problem?

Does anyone have any btdt experience or suggestions?

[Bellabaz]

We are dealing with this too. All of my friends with kids a similar age tell me its normal. I try not to bring attention to the hands inthe mouth thing. For dd1 Ithinks its a bit of a nervous thing plus maybe slightly attention seeking ( new baby in the house, new home in a new country with a new language, first preschool experience). I just quiety remove her hands from her mouth once or twice and then leave it alone if she puts them back in. It works better to distract with something that requires 2 hands.

For the nose, I ask if she needs a tissue or just flat out give her one. I tease her that I will get the vaccuum out to suck her buggers if she doesn't use the tissue. I think its all pretty normal for kids this age though. It will hopefully pass.

[slgt]

DD is quite a bit younger - almost 2 - but she discovered picking her nose about 2 months ago. I gently take her finger out of her nose and say, "finger out of your nose" and distract her on to something else. We don't yet make any kind of big deal out of it, but will try some other tactics if it becomes a problem.

She has also started twirling her hair, and she did a lot of hand-chewing during her first 2-year molar.

I dunno, we're just gently redirecting the nose-picking and it seems to work - she's not insistent about it.

The funny part is that she gets very upset whenever she finds a "boogoh", and says, "I pick a boogoh out of my nose...put it back in, mama?" as she holds it out to me.

[CanBoo]

For the nose picking, I just do the same thing they do in DD's preschool. I send them to wash their hands, to keep everybody healthy. I has slowed down the nose picking for both my DD and the little boy I look after part-time.

[Gator-mom]

I dunno..I'm pretty lax about this, which is odd because I'm a nursing student and a little OCD about hand washing. Ds sticks his hands in everything (including his pants). For the pants I tell him that he needs to do that in private in his room, and the others, try not to draw too much attention to it. I will wash his hands more often, but really I figure that kids are going to get into things and be exposed to germs. In most cases, I believe it builds immune systems.