My 19 month old daughter picks and digs at her owies when she is upset or bored. She has a sore on the bridge of her nose from a carpet burn that happened weeks ago and can't heal because when she wants out of her crib and I am not responding to her in the timely fashion she would like she digs at it and when I come in she's all bloody. It isn't even a sore that has a scab she's picking off, she's basically digging a new sore. She did this before with one on her forehead that finally healed, and now she has another owie on her wrist she's started at. I trim her nails like every other day to try and keep them short, and I can't just get her out of her bed when she doesn't want to go to bed at night because we've always practiced cry-it-out and I know it is kind of a power struggle. Please help! I can't put a cone on my daughter! :)
Thank you to everyone for their help with the situation. The sore on her nose is almost all the way healed, I put neosporin with a circle bandaid over it, and I think because it was smaller it was less distracting. It took a couple nights but eventually she would leave it on and now she isn't picking at that owie at all. I also taught her we kiss owies so whenever I see her messing with it I say "yes, owie, what do we do to our owies? a kiss!" and she smooches herself and requests a kiss from anybody around.
I like the cone idea! LoL! Have you tried leaving a band-aid on it? Or does she just pick that off too?
Oh my I didn't think that there were other children that "picked" too. My son is almost 6 now and he has done this since he was like 1 1/2. I remember he had a sore on his forehead from falling face first onto concrete in the Summertime and when I took him to go see Santa months later he was still picking at it! By the time we got to sit on Santa's lap I had to pass because he had blood dripping down his face. It was horrible! I think that once they get older you can explain to them that it is not good to pick at scabs or sores. I think we had to come up with some horror story to tell him and when we catch him picking we just remind him not to do it. I guess we haven't figured out how to completely stop it but I'm sure there are some moms here with great answers. Good Luck!
My 3 year old still has a small sore from mosquito bites last spring. SIGH! *(at least we're only down to 1 sore!)She has really dry skin and the allergist thought it was related. Try to file her nails everynight (I know, it's a time-consuming task) instead of cut them, to keep her nails dull. I also found that doing something referred to as the "brushing technique" by my DD's occupational therapist helped. Basically it's just a small plastic surgical brush and i literally brush her arms and back and neck. It helps stimulate the nerves and the brain receiving the stimulus. I had to stop the brushing due to arm surgery but actually DID see results while I did it. Also I rubbed the antiobiotic LOTION into her skin so that she still gets something on her wound. It's frustrating, so I sympathize!
would love some help in this area as well. i have an 8 yo daughter that does the same thing and takes weeks, sometimes months, for one to heal. she just keeps re-picking/digging at the same spot and doesn't allow it to heal. have tried liquid bandage, and regular band-aids, nothing seems to help and the poor girl has scars already because of it. good luck to you, i've been trying since she was little too, i don't know if it's boredom, nerves or what? i'm at a loss.
My 12 year old is a picker and always has been. She can't wear a pair of tights more than once because she picks them full of holes. She now thinks she has acne and will pick her face to death - no pimples, a little bump and then the next thing you know her face is all bloody. She also picks mosquito bites all summer. I have no answer, I've actually taken her to a therpist and they said there's nothing to do, but understand it's a reaction to thinking about stuff (she internalized things), boredom, etc.
My 2.5 year old does the same thing. BandAids didn't work because then he would pick around the Bandaid and make new sores. What finally worked for me was putting the adhesive tape that you use for gauze directly over his sore(after putting on antibacterial cream), without any gauze. For some reason our son didn't pick at it like he did with Bandaids, and I was able to keep the sore covered long enough for it to completely heal.
My daughter picks at owies too. I started putting her to bed with stretchy gloves on. It reminded her not to pick.
