Toddler and Nail biting..need Advice.

Try tobasco sauce. Either on the nails and/or as a punishment put a drop in the mouth when you catch him.

dear A.,
the polish is called Stop the Bite and its in the womens polish area. one warning though. i gave that to my daughter for thumb sucking. she was persistent and just put up with the bad tatse. after ingesting so much, it can make your kids really sick. mine threw up several times. it generally works really really wqell if they leave their fingers alone. but if he continues to do it, you dont want him ingesting even what seems like a very small amount.
sorry i didnt have a suggestion, i just wanted to warn you.
M.

It is a phase, both of mine did it at three. I have a 3.5 year old that is still chewing on her fingers and toes. I went to Wal-Mart to get NoBite, but they sell it thru the pharmacy - but they pointed me to some stuff called STOP BITE - it is in a black and red package over on the polish aisle. It's around the nail hardners, and stuff like that.
I painted my daughters one time, and the after taste lasted for three days - she actually has nails now. She occasionally puts them in her mouth, and I tell her that I'll paint them again and she quickly gets them out of her mouth.

Once she tasted it, she wouldn't let me paint her toes. And the bottle says you should paint them twice a day for 3 months until the habit stops. It took me once.

a day or so later, I forgot about the polish and I was licking cotton candy off her fingers and got the nasty taste in my mouth. I can see why it worked.

I find that nail biting is a way to deal with anxiety. You could try replacing the nail biting with another anxiety relieving behavior that you feel is more appropriate.

The nail polish is called No Bite. You can get it anywhere but i know for a fact walmart carries its by all the nail care products. We used this with my oldest and it worked but did take a couple of months and you have to remember to take off the old and reapply new daily. but she has been biting free for over a year now. She bite both her finger and toe nails as well.

It's called "THUM"
You just paint it on like nail polish a couple times a day. Also works on thumb sucking and for my son, walking around with hands in the mouth. Broke him of the habit in about two weeks.

Nail biting is natural, normal and annoying. I have tried everything to no avail. It helped a bit to routinely clip nails...nothing left to bite. Except for germs and the occasional hangnail, I had to tell myself that it isn't as bad as nose picking! I just stocked up on hand sanitizer and gave my kids gentle reminders "fingers" whenever I saw them in their mouths. Good luck.

my 6 yrs old son was the same exact way with fingers and toes man i thought i would never get him to stop biting them but what i did was the first time was put tabasco on his finger that didnt work cause he likes anything hot and spicy the second time i put lemon juice and vinegar on them and he has never bit them again he was about 3 yrs old when i started trying these things so hopefullyt hey work for you my parents did it to me as theres did it tooo them so helpfully technics i like to pass around if you know what i mean

My son's a thumb sucker and I have used both the Thums and Stop Bite on him and even both of them painted on at the same time. He still sucks his thumb. It really depends on how strong the habit is. Just be careful using the Tabasco and hot stuff suggestions, you don't want him putting his fingers in his eyes or even mouth and being traumatized from the burn. I was a nail biter from probably about your son's age until I was about 12 and then I just decided to stop, I still catch myself biting at them when I am nervous, but not actually biting through them. Good luck, I know how hard it is dealing with a child's annoying habit.

There is also a polish called: Thum..... you can find it at the pharmacy area.

My thought is that he's anxious about something. That's when i bite my nails (yes i know it's bad, and it's unconscious---I don't even realize until they're down to the pink!)
Maybe teach him some relaxation techniques?
Hope this helps!