There is a solution you can buy at the chemist, it comes in a nail polish type bottle, i think it is called stop bite (or similar) ask the pharmicist- it tastes bitter and leaves a disgusting taste in your mouth, worth a try!

try painting his nails with clear nail polish, I cant imagine he would like the taste and hopefully it will break the habit.

it might just be a nervous condition or maybe an iron issue.  i would go to the doctor to have bloodwork done to make sure he is ok in that area and if all is well, then try a few of the suggestions some of the moms posted.  they seem like good ideas.

my son bit his nails too and we found out he had an iron deficiancy.  it was not major but we put him on the extra iron and only once in a great while does he bite a nail.  my son is one of those picky eater types that only eats white food. 

we are managing with his food pickiness and it is not easy as i worry.  but for now, chicken and hot dogs are a staple we can not be with out and a big supply of vitamins just in case.  he eats a lot of fruit and other healthy items, he just doesn't like all that color i guess in his food.  who knew. 

very good luck

aaliyah

I was never into biting my nails as a kid, but one suggestion I can offer is the old money jar. Put it in the kitchen or something, and everytime he bites his nails, you put a quarter of his allowance in. Another thing is you could make a chore jar, and everytime you catch him he has to do a chore out of the chore jar. Eventually he'll make a point of not doing it, and then it'll leave his mind, riding him of his habit. Hope this helps.

I used band aids. If it is a subconcious habit and they are not biting for a purpose then band aids might do the trick.

I'm 14 years older than my sister so I'm more like an uncle than an older brother. She started biting her thumbs so badly that the area around her cuticles were quite raw. I simply made her wear a band aid on each thumb. Each time she subconciously went to bite them she ran into the band aid and stopped. It took about a month to rid her of the habit but it worked.

hi, my daughter started about the same age and has also bit her toe nails! She is now 7, all of the nail treatments failed all the bribery, threatening and tears.Now we think together about the actual time she is most likely to bite;watching dvd,tv and then she gets somthing to chew---not eat-----an old plastic soldier, toy,dinosaur.I moisturise allthe nail and skin so there are no hanging bits to chew off----vaseline or a good hand nail cream.All of this wk she has been trying really hard as she wants me to see a difference so she can have pocket money for the school fair.I must say it is easier as they get a bit bigger to negociate if they really want something! good luck.

It seems that my 3yo son has just come through the other side of this habit. He started when he was 18 months old, it coinsided with my starting study and being away from him a couple of nights a week. I tried the paints that taste foul, but they would get on the food that he touched as well and made it taste horrible. I tried telling him that it was dirty and germy, which would last a little bit.

Finally I just moved his hand away from his mouth everytime it went there, but said nothing therefore not giving the action any attention. And he kept asking me why i had long nails (they are trimmed short, but long in his eyes by comparison), and I would tell him that I don't bite them and how his nails could look nice like mummy's if he didn't bite.

I realised a couple days ago that I hadn't had to take his hand away from his mouth for a while when he came up to me and said "look mum I can scratch you like a lion!" and saw that he actually had nails...so he got a little treat today and I told him that it was for having lovely nails and not biting them.

You could even add it as a "thing to work on" on a behaviour chart.

It's just something most of time they don't realise they are doing, and it's just another behaviour you gotta ride through!