Recently, some parents have reported that their children still eat their hands, bite their lips or bite their nails after the period of appetite, which is very worried, so they want to know how parents should guide them correctly to help their children easily change these small problems.
First of all, we need to figure out why this happens to children, and in general, there are two main reasons:
1. The child is not satisfied during the period of oral desire
The oral phase occurs 0-18 months after birth, during which the baby focuses on what is in the mouth.
For example, the baby will suck the breast milk to get the pleasure of the lips, or the child will bite when he gets something, and if the child's activities are restricted at this stage, it may leave a negative effect of sequelae.
If the child still likes to eat hands, bite his lips or bite his nails after the oral period, it may be because he has these normal behaviors during the oral period but is forcibly stopped by the parents, and the oral desire is not stimulated and satisfied enough, so even after the oral desire period, the child will continue these behaviors.
2. The child is insecure
From a psychological point of view, some children will be very nervous and insecure when they encounter things, and the external performance may be biting their lips, eating hands, etc., and in many cases, he does not deliberately do these actions, but unconsciously does these actions.
So if this happens, how can we help our children correct it? Specifically, you can start from the following aspects:
1. Do not interfere with the child during the oral period
When the child is in the oral period, there will be eating hands, biting lips, biting nails, and these are very normal, some parents feel that the child eats unhygienic hands, so they will interfere and stop them, do not know that such a practice is actually hurting the child.
The correct approach is that in the face of children in the period of appetite, parents let them eat their hands, bite their lips, without interfering or forcibly stopping their behavior, under normal circumstances, after a period of time, the child's behavior will naturally disappear.
2. Attention transfer
After the oral period, if the child still has these behaviors, parents do not have to always emphasize and remind the child, because doing so is not conducive to the child to change these bad habits, but also may increase the child's psychological burden, thus making these behaviors more difficult to change, and even a vicious circle.
The correct approach is that parents can use the method of attention transfer, such as when the child eats hands, bites the lips, bites the nails for some reason, and then the parents can say to the child "Baby, you help me to get something" "Baby, you see this is not fun", through this way can divert the child's attention in time, so that they naturally stop biting their lips.
Here to remind parents, these behaviors can not be changed through one or two attention transfers, so parents do not have to worry and worry, to try more, so as to slowly see the effect.
3. Have a positive attitude and encourage children
Some parents will use a very negative emotion to face the child after finding these behaviors, such as saying to the child: "Always bite your lips, bite your nails, what is your bad problem, hurry up and change it for me!" ”
This attitude and this way of dealing with it are not advisable, the correct approach should be that parents should use a positive attitude to solve the problem, while not strengthening the child's awareness of these behaviors, to weaken as much as possible, so that the child can unconsciously change these bad behaviors, and at the same time will not leave a psychological shadow on the child.
In addition, parents should also encourage their children to become confident and secure, which is also conducive to helping children change these behaviors.
4. Parents should insist
The situation of each child is different, perhaps some children can change these habits in a short period of time, and some children need to change these habits for a longer period, so parents must be patient with their children, and persist, only in this way can they better help children change these bad habits.