[Hollycrand]

Dd has been feverently picking her nose for the past couple of days (and 'showing' me what she finds as well).

When I've asked her not to do it, she's smiled and stuffed her finger even 'deeper' inside. When I've ignored it, she sometimes finds other things to do, but now we're getting to the point where she picks her nose WHILE I'm reading her a book or while she's playing with her dolls/animals.

Any advice or experiences with this?

 

[EviesMom]

I just thought I'd mention that my 14 month old just started doing this too. She seemed to do it on accident on Monday, and since then she's had a finger up her nose several times a day. Scrunching up her nose afterward too, as if to say "well, that felt weird and uncomfortable." I just try to distract her with something she has to use both hands hold and figure that eventually it'll lose it's appeal... I hope! My husband suggested we start a new "milestones" calendar with stuff like "first picked nose," "first ate dust bunny", and so on. :LOL

 

[KyleAnn]

Get used to it. :LOL
Honestly. My ds started that up a while and back and still does it. He even graduated from finger in nose, to finger from nose to mouth. Oh, I'm so proud of him.

I think they just all do it...part of learning. Unfortunately, for us anyway, asking him not to makes it worse, ignoring it...well, he just goes on and keeps doing it. When we're out in public and he's digging in there I gently brush his hand away, but it goes right back. Sometimes he even lets out a loud, "eeeeeeewwww!" We say, "Colin, would you like a kleenex?" and he responds, "No, mama."

 

[Hollycrand]

 

[EmmalinesMom]

I really think all kids go through that phase. I just told Emmaline about 837 times that we use a tissue, and then take her to wash her hands. The hand washing is what got her to stop, lol. She hated having to stop what she was doing to go wash up.

Now she's pretty good about using tissues, but we still have our moments.

 

[thismama]

Mine's picking hers right now... no joke! She's sitting on the floor utterly absorbed. I don't discourage it, in fact I probably encourage it. Sometimes I ask "are you picking your nose? Got any bogies?"

I don't get what the big deal is, and I don't want to start teaching her body "rules" at this age. Her snot doesn't gross me out, and I figure people can just get used to it... that's what babies do.

 

[Vermillion]

I'm with thismama.

My DS has never been much of a nose picker, but if he were I wouldn't fuss about it. His body, who am I to tell him he can't explore it as he wishes. It isn't hurting anyone, except maybe for squeamish people, but they can look away right?

Now if he tried wiping stuff on me, that's another issue. He can keep his prizes to himself :LOL

 

[alegna]

Ignore it and play it down. My BIL and SIL have made BIG mistakes on this one. Their dd (my neice) gets in TROUBLE for it. Poor baby. She hides from them now when she thinks she's in trouble...

-Angela

 

[rockinmama]

I wish my dd would start picking her nose- She's got some crazy looking snots sometimes!
She wont let me try to get my finger in there but she will have me get her baby dolls boggies.

 

[merpk]

Our response: "Here, sweety, is a tissue for that." And then show her how to put the treasure in a tissue.

And then whenever the finger finds the nose, just say, "Would you like a tissue?"

And at some point when the novelty wears off, she'll get the hang of looking for the tissue before looking for the gold ... or maybe even instead of. :LOL

(in case it's not clear, I mean that it should be said with a smile and then the subject dropped, no matter how long the digging continues.

Eventually it stops. Just make sure she washes her hands before helping you shape the dough into cookies ... :LOL)