Max's finger

Max is a nail biter and a finger sucker. He used to be a binky baby then a binky toddler. Once he was in Pre-k though (3 years old) I slowly started to take the binky away. He replaced this with his finger. Around this time he also started chewing his nails.

Max has had infected fingers before because he sucks them so much and he chews them down to nothing.

A couple weeks ago I noticed his finger is infected again. We kept it cleaned and then wrapped a band aid slathered with Neosprorin on it at night time. If he has a band aid on he thinks half his body is paralyzed so therefore he only wore it at night. I put it on after he was sleeping. Well it got worse then got better then somewhere in the middle. Finally it is starting to heal. I almost would take him to the doctor, for a pure torture treatment on us both, but then it would look better. I did get him to finally wear a band aid during the day as well.

For your enjoyment I have a couple pictures for you.
Yeah, nasty, I know! But that looked better than days before.

I decided I would try the no biting nail polish. One was recommended a few month back to me. It is Mavala Stop. I read reviews but was scared to try it. Most of the reviews said it worked but it made their child throw up. Yeah, I want him to stop but wanting him to throw up? Not so sure. But now since his finger is infected I might as well try it out.

I applied to his fingernails. I also put some on mine to try it out. It does appear to work. Thankfully, no barfing was involved. I never saw him put his fingers to his mouth the whole day! Wow. The next night I did notice his finger in his mouth. The polish should be re-applied every other day. It wasn't time yet but apparently it had worn off or he got used to the nasty taste. The following day it was reapplied.

Like I said, I tried it out too. The taste is similar to earwax. It is nasty. Every time I put my finger near my mouth, I can taste it. So for people who eat with their hands I guess they get to taste this even more! Eating popcorn? yeah, your gonna taste it.

It'll be a while I'm sure before I can see if this stuff really works in the long run. But hopefully we can break Max's habit of chewing his nails and sucking his fingers to infection!