Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Gross Habits

Carter started biting his fingernails pretty much immediately after he started school in January.  I hate how short they are but if there’s even a tiny bit of white, he needs to gnaw it off.  And I can’t cut it off because it’s such a tiny sliver.  We’ve tried putting the nasty nail polish but it didn’t do anything.  He didn’t even notice.  We remind him not to bite when we see him doing it, but now it seems he just does it when he goes to bed.  I rarely catch him doing it anymore.

Another gross habit he has is licking pillows.  He lays on a pillow to watch tv, sucking his thumb, and every few minutes, turns his head and licks the pillow.  Then he sticks his thumb back in his mouth and rubs the wet spot with his other fingers.  I have no idea why he does it.  He doesn’t do it as much anymore as he did a few months ago, but I still catch him every once in a while.  A few times, I told him to stop licking and he would spit a tiny bit and rub that part instead.  I *think* we’ve nipped that one in the bud.

He picks his toenails.  Especially his big toes.  He basically peels the toenail in layers.  I keep them short but he picks and picks until he eventually gets some sort of satisfaction from it. 

I’ve recently caught him picking his eye boogers, and then putting his finger in his mouth.  Gross.  Regular boogers he presents to me so I can wipe them with a tissue, but eye boogers go in his mouth for some reason.

I don’t know what to do to stop this bad habits.  Is mine the only gross kid out there?  Please tell me I’m not alone.  What does your kid do that grosses you out?

Update 8/8/2011: 

He no longer licks pillows and points out his dry pillow at least once or twice a week. 

Also he's cut back on the nail-biting too, as long as I keep them short.  As soon as they grow just a little bit he bites them down.  But we make a big fuss over him if he grows his "whites" and he gets really proud of himself if he doesn't bite them.

He doesn't pick his toenails much anymore either.  Occassionally I have to remind him to leave his toes alone, but it's pretty rare these days.

The eye boogers are sort of a non-issue anymore, also.  And when he gets a regular booger, he has learned to let us know and we'll get him a tissue.  I'm still working on the whole don't-pick-your-nose thing.  He's three...what can I say?

5 comments:

Ms Jess said...

As a preschool teacher, I can assure you that he is NOT the only child out there with yucky habits. I just read that and thought "oh, that's it?" Trust me I've seen MUCH worse!

Fighting Mama said...

This is all payback for you picking his nose.

How you doing with that foot thing? That must be majorly grossing you out. :)

Fighting Mama said...

It's all payback for you picking his nose. :)

NG said...

As we always say in my house: Kids is icky!

We've been through many of these and more. My least favorite is the current ongoing need both of them have to put their feet all over everything and everyONE that enters the house.

But I have to say, the licking-the-pillow thing is completely new to me and made me laugh out loud. At least your kid has funny quirks. Mine just eat food off the ground. So boring!

Anonymous said...

Yeah the pillow thing is a little weird and new. Perhaps it has something to do with the different textures and how they feel wet?

Weird and gross for sure but not abnormal! He's a BOY!! They are gross!

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