Please help. My son can't stop picking his fingers.

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Hi everyone,

Thank you very much for sharing your own experiences, as well as your advice.

I have asked my son on several occasions if something is stressing him out, but he says no. He just tells me that it is hard for him to stop the picking. He has even told me that he really likes school, so I don't think that is a factor in this.

He used to chew on his shirt collars a lot, and would sometimes bite me randomly. Both of these behaviors have pretty much stopped. Only thing is, he replaced these behaviors with biting/picking his nails and skin.

I have tried giving him putty and squeeze balls. They didn't help. Last night I gave him a musical keyboard. This does seem to keep his hands busy, although he can't play a keyboard all day long.

As far as meds, he is currently on 10mg of Celexa which has helped to control the violent thoughts. I am also currently weaning him off of 20mg of Ritalin LA. It's not very effective for his ADHD. He also sees a therapist and psychiatrist on a regular basis. Perhaps the suggestion on out-patient OCD therapy will work. I will see if his psychiatrist can recommend somebody who specializes in children with OCD.

Thank you all again!

My ASD son used to chew on his fingers, not pick. The nasty tasting stuff that you put on the fingers (like nail polish) helped, then the medication helped more.

My NT sister, who is now 38 years old, had a horrible skin picking problem since child hood. She was never able to stop, even to this day. She has what she considers to be terrible scarring and will not wear clothing that reveals her skin at all due to the scars. I don't think the scarring is bad, but she does.

Have you talked to the doc about this? Maybe behavior intervention?

Hi bjtao and chronos,

I did speak to his psychiatrist about it. She thinks it has to do with all of his excess energy. I think that may be part of it, but like chronos, I am thinking the Ritalin also plays a part. I also emailed his therapist and she is talking to some of her colleagues about my son. We want to try and approach this carefully, so as to not cause him to pick more.

He should be off of it completely by Friday, so I will be able to really tell if the picking decreases.

Thanks..

Hi kattoo13,

I have been doing this since I was five years old--both picking and biting at fingers, nails and lips. I sometimes pull at my eyebrows, too (a form of trichotillomania).

Sometimes it's just habitual/stimming, but it does get worse when I'm stressed out. And yes, it can get to the point of bleeding, unfortunately, so infection could be a problem. My mom used to put bandages on all of my fingers before I went to school, but they always fell off within an hour or so (or the first time I washed my hands).

I've never been on psychiatric meds, so I'm not sure if that would or would not affect this.

Keeping my hands occupied with something else sometimes helps (rolling/tossing a ball, worry beads, or even doodling). Using lip balm helps with the biting there.

Please let us know what the psychiatrist says.

My son is also a picker. He used to pick his nose obsessively until we got a PECS card sign for "no nose picking". Then he picked his lip, then his bottom, then chewed his fingernails down to the quick. Next he moved to chewing the skin around his nails. We put him on N-Acetylcysteine (over the counter supplement) at 60 mg/kg and a lot of his OCD and anxiety went way down. He still picks, but only if really stressed and not constantly like before. They have used this supplement with great results for a lot of OCD and compulsive behaviors.

I think the key that one picks up reading all the responses is that this sort of stim (and I do believe it is a stim) must be redirected. You won't have much luck saying, "stop." Shame he stopped chewing and moved into picking, however; chewing seems to be easier to redirect onto appropriate avenues. Experiment with objects and tools that might give him the same satisfaction as picking on fingers and see if it works. Maybe he could even wear some version of puzzle rings? Something that would be right "there" when he starts going for the fingers? Even if you don't succeed in redirecting all of it, if you can redirect some of it, you'll reduce the danger of serious harm.

Sounds like a stim. Some stims are physically harmful. Attempting to stop them should always be the individual's unforced decision. Lately I've been hurting annoyingly from one of mine (also involves picking at my fingers, but in a different way) but personally I'm not going to try to quit. Then again, though it does noticeable damage, it's not nearly as bad as you describe, so it's less damaging for me to just deal with it.

My daughter used to pick at her fingers then she started to bit them and strip the skin off the whole top portion of the finger. We tried everything band aids didn't stay on long and tried all sorts of different creams and potions but most stung and made her feel worse. I found a cream called 'Glaxal Base' by Wellskin which didn't sting and she knew she had to change as she was so bad she couldn't used her fingers to hold a pencil and even had trouble eating. We clipped off the loose bits when needed but not excessively and used the cream, it was a slow process but she rubbed the cream on many time per day and it worked. Try looking for a hypoallergenic, purfume-free, lanolin-free cream and keep the skin around his fingers moisturized as the temptation is to bite the small pieces of ragged skin.

I bit my knuckles excessively for years, up to age 16, my fingers were a mess cracked, swollen and bleeding. I stopped when my mom promised me a special ring that I really wanted, but it still took me 1.5 years to get there.

Both my kids do this too (one AS and one NT). My little one picks at her hangnails and my older one is sort of obsessed with "new skin." He loves to peel skin whenever and wherever he can. Band aids work sometimes, but mostly we try for the redirect. Thankfully no one has had an infection, but it's a constant effort.

I was just about to post about this myself. Abi has been picking at her nails for some time now, but in the last month she has started on the skin around her nails. 3 of her fingers are really swollen now and look so painfull and one is infected. She will not take her antibiotics either and she vomited over me when I tried to make her take them. So off to the doctors again tomorrow.

Sounds like no one has any real way of stopping them doing this

I will try redirection and creams.

Feel very sad about it.

My 3 year old son (no diagnoses) has been picking since he was able to. He prefers his feet, though. I've tried all I can think of to get him to stop, but he just finds ways around it.

He's recently started using his teeth to pick, too.

Can't say I'm all that surprised. I've always been a picker, too.