Stopping gross behaviors

[Deleted]

Any tips to get your kid to stop gross behaviors?

DS is almost 4 and constantly picks his nose. I wipe a little crusted blood from his nose every morning, and 2-3x throughout the day. He already has hankies and knows how to use them. He's not congested or has excessive boogers that I can tell. He's just, I dunno, bored? I am constantly telling him to stop and moving his hand away. I am reluctant to discipline him for it, b/c I had a similar OCD behavior as a child and it was very upsetting to be punished for a behavior that I really would have stopped if I had been able to, but I couldn't. But his nose picking is getting out of hand, his teachers are starting to snicker when he does it. Any tips to get him to stop?

[bunch]

At least he doesn't eat them like my kids do? Idk. I might just come up with a code word that you can use to remind him of what he's doing without reprimanding him.

[CloudBee]

DS started picking and eating a month or two ago. Awesome.

He knows it's "wrong", so now he hides. I sometimes find him sitting in the corner of our living room, facing the wall, and going at it. Sure, little guy. I have no idea what you're up to.

[spanikopita]

I had to give DS an out. Basically, I told him nose picking was straight up not allowed except for ONE time/place (you decide). He conforms.

[closertofine]

At first, I was reprimanding, and she was getting worse, doing it all the time. Then I changed my tune. Instead of,"don't pick your nose, it's gross, blah blah blah," I changed to, "I don't care what you do at home, but don't do it at school. Your friends won't want to play with you." I don't know why, but her frequency dropped drastically when I started that.

God, when she was around 2.5 and doing it, I'd say something, and she would stop, raise her finger in the air, look me in the eye, and stick it in her mouth. Rage! Lol.

It does kind of make me sad that your child's teachers are snickering.

[Deleted]

Feb 12, 2016 21:16:02 GMT -5 closertofine said:

]It does kind of make me sad that your child's teachers are snickering.

I can't blame them to be honest. At pick up yesterday (the kids wait in an alcove for their parent's cars to pull up) DS was just going to fucking town on his nose, he practically had his whole hand up there. He gave no fucks. I was 3 cars back, watching him and groaning.

[CloudBee]

Feb 12, 2016 21:16:02 GMT -5 closertofine said:

God, when she was around 2.5 and doing it, I'd say something, and she would stop, raise her finger in the air, look me in the eye, and stick it in her mouth. Rage! Lol.

This is what DS has done. I realized pretty quickly I have to completely ignore, and walk away.

So listen to this. DH plays a game with the dog where he puts a dog treat in one of his hands, and puts both closed hands / fists in front of the dog. Dog lifts his paw and taps a hand, guessing which has the treat.

Naturally DH started doing this "game" with DS with marshmallows, goldfish crackers and such.

What do you think DS had in his hand the other day when he came up to ME to play this stupid game? "Haha, mommy, it's a boogie!" Giant, crusty...!

[lilac05]

I also told mine he could do it in his room. People think picking noses is gross, and you don't want people to think that about you.

At their Christmas program, DS2 (just over 2) was standing front & center. At one point, he had one finger from each hand up his nose...and then both fingers went directly in his mouth. I was in tears from laughing/dying of embarrassment. Seriously, kid?!? TWO fingers AND you eat it???

ETA:  When I went to stop DS2 another time, he said, "but I eat boogie!!"  Ugh ugh ugh.

Kids are gross.

[speckledfrog]

I think it ends up being a peer pressure thing. Mine eats his, too.