My 3-year-old daughter bites her nails, and it drives both me and my husband crazy.

I keep her nails as short as possible, but apparently, there is always something left for her to bite.

The good news is that she doesn’t bite them until they bleed or anything. But they still look sore, and sometimes they look like they hurt.

At first, I was mostly bothered by the fact that she kept putting her fingers in her mouth. Obviously, a three-year-old’s hands are dirty most of the time.

Then I started worrying that all the biting might change the shape of her nails or make them grow strangely.

And later, I started worrying about something else.

Is she doing this because she has anxiety?

Is biting her nails her way of comforting herself?

What I Tried to Stop the Nail Biting

First, I tried talking to her.

Didn’t work.

Then I tried bribing her.

“If you don’t bite your nails for two days, you will get to choose movie !”

It seemed to work.

But not really.

Then I tried the other parenting method.

Getting upset and raising my voice…

Sometimes I put her in time-out when I saw her biting them.

(She was looking me right in the eyes while biting her nails. She was challenging me. I was furious…)

That didn’t work either.

Eventually, I started searching for something else to try.

That’s when I found Mavala Stop, a bitter-tasting nail polish that is supposed to help people stop biting their nails.

I hesitated.

The reviews were great, but I was not sure if this is really ok to use for my little child.

After thinking about it for a couple of weeks…

I ordered it. I had to order it.

I had to try something because I was getting too frustrated every time I saw her biting her nails.

When it arrived, she was SO excited.

She thought she was getting pretty nail polish. I was being mean and telling her, “This is yucky nail polish.”

She didn’t mind it. It made her nails shiny, so she was happy anyway. 🤦‍♀️

CHECK IT OUT ON AMAZON CANADA. <MAVALA STOP NAIL BITING POLISH>

I also bought a kids’ nail polish called Piggy Paint. The company describes it as non-toxic, water-based, and safe for all ages, so I felt comfortable using it for her.

I put the bottle on the top shelf where she could see it and told her,

“If you stop biting your nails, you can have THIS on your fingernails one day.”

I forgot to mention how completely OBSESSED she is with pink.

She was practically drooling over the bottle.

She called it her “Elsa nail polish.”

CHECK IT OUT ON AMAZON CANADA. <PIGGY PAINT NAIL POLISH>

Did Mavala Stop and Piggy Paint Work?

Did all these baits work on my little baby shark, doo-roo-doo-doo?

Not completely.

Yes, she still bites her nails.

But she bites them way less than before.

I would say the biting has gone down by about half, which is still something.

She still wears the “yucky” polish on her fingernails, but she has already earned hot pink toenails as a reward.

And she LOVES them.

I’m still hoping that one day she’ll have shiny hot pink fingernails instead of little bitten ones.

Hopefully soon.