Mittens.

Not gloves that have individual fingers. Actual Mittens, if they aren't available where you are, use oven mitts. If her fingers aren't available she cant possibly pick. Tell her she gets to wear them until she loses the habit. When she can't use the computer, can't play video games, color, text etc due to the mitts she might see the 'light' so to speak and stop doing it.

My own ds had this gross habit. Oven mitts and having to admit to people why he was wearing them broke the habit.

Good luck though, that disgusting habit is hard to break. I saw my father do it well into his 60's.

:sick:

She will stop when her peers see her doing it and start teasing her for it.

Oh I was going to suggest cayenne pepper on the fingertips, but with the issue of custody coming up, better not. }:)

If mittens are child abuse: 100% of the parents that live in states who get snow in the winter would have been arrested.

It is a physical reminder/preventative to keep her digits out of her nostrils. It does not hurt her, cause lasting marks etc.

Though, you could go with the gross out factor. My sister did it to break her son of biting his nails. Look online and you can find the information re: the human hands are filthy. Literally more sanitary to lick someones anus than to bite your nails.

Then point out to your SD "So your hands are already this filthy, THEN you shove them up your nose, pick up more dirt/germs/bacteria, then for good measure, you eat this filth."

The gross factor worked for my nephew. Kid is 16 now and has not bitten his nails since she showed him the information, sprayed his hands with a form of luminol and put them under a black light.

I googled this for you, because it's not been an issue in my family but it would gross me out too.

So. What I read is not particularly encouraging. Reasons for doing it range from being a habit to OCD to an early sign of schizophrenia. Who would have thought.

The only suggestions I found to do deal with were to address if there was a physical issue, like is it crusty inside her nose all the time? Then use a humidifier. Does she have allergies? See a doctor for meds.

One solution mentioned a few times was a reward. One mom, who son was about 4, started the day with some m&m's in a jar. Every time she caught her son picking his nose, she took away an m&m. After dinner he was allowed to have all the m&m's that were left. Another mom had a similar reward but added punishments if her daughter ate the booger, like no TV for the afternoon.

Most of what I read seemed to be along the lines that kids do it, it's a phase, they'll outgrow it.

In the meantime, ewww yuck.

Yeah, she'll be ostracized in school for this soon enough -- I think that will have more impact than anything you can do. But ick!

When my sd does it, I admonish her, not too much she's only 6, but I do make her wash her hands. Yuck your sd should'nt be doing this in public its disgusting, plus they tend to rub the bogies off on the furniture or carpet. So maybe if she realises that she has to wash her hands everytime she does it, that may stop her.

It's not going to change until you get the bm on board. Does the bm even know it's an issue? If she doesn't care then it's probably always going to be an issue.

I thought everyone did that.