I have been through potty training with my son, sleeping issues etc and nothing has bothered me more than my 19 month old picking her nose (and eating it!..."all gone, mommy!") She has done it to the point of bleeding a few times. She gets offended and crys if I take the booger off her finger, as if I've taken a treasure! Any advice? Just ride it out? Thanks.
a wise, experienced mom told me "don't worry about it. peer pressure will take care of it when it really matters" so i don't really fret about it. i noticed that when i do make a big deal of it, my son does it for attention.
another thing we've done, that helped a lot, is saying it's ok to pick your nose in the bathroom. so instead of just completely banning it we give him a place to do it if his nose really itches. that's helped a lot.
Just so you know this is not dangerous and is normal. Children her age view these things as treasures and are at a stage where they are exploring their bodies. She is recognizing that this is from her own body and is becoming upset because she feels as though you are taking a part of her away. I would suggest doing the "yucky" big girls don't do that method and offer her a wipe to put it on herself. It will cause less problems if you let her get rid of it herself (fostering independence) your daughter is entering into Eriksons stage of autonomy vs shame/doubt. I would not degrade her (I am not suggesting you are) but just say calmly yucky lets get rid of that and offer her a wipe. Should she continue to do this just ignore her while she is doing it and address proper hand hygeine when she is done. Let her know that she can do that when she is alone but it is not appropriate to do in public. Just so you know you may find with your daughter that she suffers from constipation from not wanting to have a BM as the potty training stage arrives. It sounds like she is one of the millions of children who cling to their own bodily products It is quite normal and I would not worry just let her know you don't approve and offer other activities. As I am sure you know toddlers can't be reasoned with real well so set limits and DISTRACT!!!! HTH
My 6 year old was like this and his dr suggested a saline nose spray and/or vaseline. sometimes the nasal area gets dry and itchy and this will help it stay moist, for lack of a better word.
The last thing I would want is for "peer pressure" to "take care" of my child's bad habit. Send your child to school with any bad habit, and schildren remember it all the way through high school. And children today are meaner and meaner than they used to be.
All three of my children pick their noses, but if I try to clean them out (q-tips, saline, anything) they're furious with me. What I have finally started doing is explaining WHY they have boogers. Hairs in the nose catch the germs that, if inside our bodies, would make us sick. With my older children, I gave a little more info-
Anyway, it has started to take hold with my 4 and five year old, and Ive found them less and less picking their noses. My two year old still pretty much walks around with his finger in his nose.
While I have always believed that there are two types of people in this world; those who pick their noses and those who lie about it, all you can really do is teach her- and sometimes it takes many many lessons explained in different ways. I doubt your daughter is old enough to understand why its yucky or that she should wipe it in a tissue.
At 19months, this is one of the few things that she can see with her eyes that comes from her body- so if she understand that poopy, pee, and ear wax are yucky, group boogers in the same category for her.
Until she can understand though, all you can do is behavior modification- trying to get her booger placed somewhere other than her mouth by her.
As with most things with children, time, time, time... everything takes us time...
May I suggest you check with your dr and see if they reccommend a vitamin for your daughter. She may be missing something in her daily diet and the vitamin could help. Also, she may have a high production of mucus and this is her way of getting it out of there.
Hope this helps!
thats funny we have the same problem with one of my grand daughters,I am always catching her. Mybe she has an allergy and the doctor can give you a nasal spray for it so she don't get the discomfort of having bugars in her nose!
I was checking out your little signature. Your kids sound like mine when you said 'tough as nails sister'. It's second born syndrome - LOL.
