Oh, poor Little J.

He has gnawed the entire nail off one finger and chewed the tip of his other finger. I've spoken to his ADHD doctor about it and she thinks his meds have exacerbated it...but the only thing she could really do is give him an additional med and she thinks he's too young for that.

Here's my first post on this problem.

I tried magnesium sulfate (by way of an Epsom Salt bath), as suggested by our Parenting Special Children blogger and I didn't see any difference in his nail-biting, but it's a guarantee that the kids stays up all night when he's exposed to it...we'll keep trying it, though. Maybe we've put too much in, or maybe a bath is too much stimulation right before bed.

We have come upon a sort-of solution, however: gloves. Little J started with the gloves 3 days ago and he's been wearing them non-stop ever since (he's also done mittens at night - mittens are pretty impractical for daytime wear). I can tell a real difference to his nails already - they haven't grown much but they're much less swollen and red. Plus, he doesn't seem to mind the gloves. He really want to stop biting, I think. Maybe the gloves are giving him a certain kind of stimulation that he craves?

I've also encouraged him to chew on a toothbrush and I've allowed him to take it to bed with him at night. I just ordered Chewlery as well - this is chewable jewelry that's made out of nontoxic plastic.

At school they aren't going to let him wear the gloves, but they will let him put them on at naptime. That's when I think he has the biggest problem, anyway. Since he started taking his ADHD medication he's not been sleeping at nap and I think instead he just gnaws on his fingers. That's when the fingertip got bitten off.

We have used the stretchy mittens that fit everyone - once put through the washer they shrink up really small and they are working for him. I've just ordered 12 more pairs from a seller on ebay. As you can imagine, a 4-year-old boy gets a pair of gloves dirty very quickly.

I'm really hoping this works for him! It is so painful to look at his poor little fingers.