picking fingers raw

[vegma]

My almost-4-yo has started picking the skin off the ends of his fingers until they are raw ... and sometimes his lip. He started picking at his lip after a stomach virus a few months ago. I kept reminding him not to do it, and he seems to have transferred the "habit?" to his fingers. I've never heard of anyone doing this and have no idea what the cause is - bad habit, nerves, vitamin deficiency? I'm grasping here! Anyone? Thanks!

[VOW]

Poor baby! I bet he's miserable!

By all means, have a complete nutritional workup done on him, to see if he's missing anything. If you've been feeding him a healthy Vegan diet, though, the possibility is pretty slim.

Then schedule a complete checkup. He might have a fungus infection of his fingertips or nails or some other irritation!

The final possibility is that he is developing an obsessive-compulsive disorder. It's rare, but it happens. And it's nothing done willingly or deliberately. Kids (and adults too!) who have OCD are miserable, and if willpower alone conquered the problem, they'd be impulse free! OCD is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and is remedied by antidepressant therapy and sometimes even counseling to help the person recognize the triggers that can initiate the behavior.

Please let us know how your son is doing!



~VOW

[alexis]

Hey vegma, i notice that i tend to do the same thing too. Except my fingertips don't become raw, i get this really thick uneven ragged layers of skin on my fingertips. What i realize is that i tend to do this when i'm bored, in a uncomfortable situation like first day at work or school exams or when i really get irritated by the ragged bits of skin sticking around. Anyway i'd suggest you watch your son carefully and try to determine what causes him to do it and at the first sign of him starting to pick at his fingers, distract him or diffuse the situation.And a visit to a doctor might help if nothing else would. Good luck Ok? Tell us how it turns out...:)

[vegma]

After some observation and gentle reminders, I think the finger picking is a habit. It was mostly one thumb and one or two fingers that would get "picked on". Right now, all fingers are in good shape - hopefully this will continue! Thanks for your replies:)

[Krystal323]

I bit my nails a little as a child and as a teen had to start getting acrylics to make myself stop! Well I transfered the prob to my skin--I do the same thing your son does, still! Oer the years I've noticed that I only do it when I am in a stressful situation--confrontation w/friends, worrried about traffic, etc etc.. I'd look at his life and earnestly think about what he might have to be stressed out about... new school, rude friends, family conflict?? He could be much more sensitive then you imagine--don't forget to look for the seemingly small stuff too! HTH...

;) Krystal

[skinpicker08]

Your chlid might have Compulsive Skin Picking. this is not a habit. I'm 15 and have had this "habit" since I was in fourth grade; it' snot going away any time soon. it's almost certainly OCD. My fingers are all raw and pink and usually are covered in band-aids from this problem, and I suggest that you get your chlid to a specialist as soon as possible so you don't have to spend as much money on band-aids as I do.
If anyone tells you it's a habit, it's because they don't have this OCD like I do.

[dan_frazier]

I have a friend who picks her fingers every day. It is a habit she has had going back decades to her childhood. She has a sibling who appears to have OCD. But she herself does not think she has OCD. She does however have most of the classic symptoms pointing to PTSD.

My friend has been a vegan most of her life. She gave up meat as a teenager, but neither she nor I believes that this is related to her fingerpicking or PTSD. (I am also a vegan, and I share none of my friends health or habit problems.)

Some of the literature about PTSD refers to habitual behaviors such as fingerpicking, hair pulling, skin scratching, lip biting, and the like. These habits seem to be associated somehow with the high anxiety levels found in PTSD sufferers.

We notice that when my friend can temporarily stop fingerpicking, she often switches to a similar bad habit in which she bites the inside of her mouth. There seems to be an unconscious alternation between the two habits. She rarely engages in both habits simultaneously.

The other interesting thing is that she seemed to be a very sensitive child, and had colic as an infant. She says that she recalls picking at her lips as a young girl of 4 or 5, though she no longer picks at her lips. She is not sure but she thinks the finger picking started a little later.

I do not think there is much hope that my friend will ever be able to stop these habits as they are very deeply entrenched. They may even provide a necessary outlet for some of her nervous energy or anxiety.

I have yet to find any scientific or medical literature that directly discusses or examines these kinds of habits. I would be interested to know if any studies have been done to try to gauge the effectiveness of various treatment options, whether these be homespun remedies, or experimental applications of drug therapies.

[PikkuMyy]

Habit is a fine term, even if it is an obsessive habit.

I, myself, suffer from a variety of tics/habits that come and go.

However, it is possible to train yourself (or train another) out of a destructive one such as the skin picking by teaching them to do something else during situations where they would normally skinpick. This behavior therapy has been shown to be very effective in helping people stop stuttering as well as things like trichtomalia (spelling?) where you pull out your own hair as a habit.

I use it myself when I find myself getting into a more destructive, or socially inhibiting habit (like tensing up all my neck muscles so that I make this horrible grimace face and people notice it) to train myself to do something else instead. It goes away pretty quickly.

[dan_frazier]

The friend I mentioned in the above post shares some of the symptoms mentioned by Pikkumyy. These include a facial tic, though this has become much less frequent in recent years, almost non-existent, except perhaps during especially stressful periods in her life. The neck-muscle tightening is also something she has complained of. A weekly massage seems to help. Daily would be better but she can't afford it. Also, she stutters. She has mostly overcome her stuttering. But it was quite noticeable as a child. Her PTSD is partly the result of teasing by classmates on account of her stuttering. This led to a period in her childhood when she spoke as little as possible, and was shunned and teased for being too quiet.

But getting back to the bad habits -- she has yet to find any substitute activities that can keep her habits at bay for very long. She tried gum as an alternative to biting the inside of her mouth. But she soon grew bored with the gum, and something in her craved the more destructive habit.

I believe that there may be a connection between these kinds of destructive habits and cutting, or self-mutilation. Cutters use razors or other sharp instruments to cut their skin. These cuts are typically superficial and soon heal, though they may leave scars. These seemingly very destructive practices probably release some of the same brain chemicals that the less destructive habits do. Somehow it seems that these chemicals, or whatever goes on in the brain during periods of self-inflicted pain, may provide a kind of coping mechanism for some people dealing with stress or anxiety.

I am just guessing here, based on some information in books I have read about PTSD.

[vegma]

Since I started this thread in 2 1/2 years ago, and it has been getting some activity lately, I thought I'd pop back in with an update. :) The finger picking was (mostly) a temporary thing. Every few months, he might pick at a finger, but when he realizes it, he stops. Something that I think is related (and goes along with what pikkumyy said) is that he sometimes exhibits tics. They'll happen for a little while, then go away for months. I've read about Tourette's, compulsive behaviors, and childhood idiosyncracies. We don't make a big deal out of them and will see where they lead us.

Thanks for the input. :)