Children, stop biting your nails.

This is the 4847th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Today, a child came to the clinic. He was probably in the third or fourth grade. His mother brought him to the clinic. The reason for the visit was that the middle of the nail of the child's right thumb was broken after being bruised. It was suspected that there was an infection and it had not healed. The mother was very worried. I looked at the child's hand. There was indeed a break in the middle of the thumb nail, but there was no fluid under the nail, the finger was not red or swollen, and there was no pain when pressing it. There was no big problem. She just needed to wait patiently for the nail to grow out. However, when I examined the child's hand, I noticed that the nails on each of her fingers were very bald, and there were barbs around the nails (it hurt to see me). I asked her to stretch out her other hand, and that hand was the same. So I asked the child, "Do you like to bite your nails?" The child nodded timidly. The mother did not see her nod, and said to her in a very strong tone, "The doctor is asking you, do you bite your nails?" It can be seen that the child is nervous and unconfident at home and at school. So I patiently explained to her the role of nails and the correct way to deal with barbs.

The structure and function of nails

Nails are tight and solid keratinized cortex, located at the end of the finger or toe. The main function of nails is to protect, protect the soft nail bed below from damage during work, and help the fingers complete more delicate movements. Nails are divided into the nail plate, nail bed, nail fold, nail groove, nail root, nail epithelium, and hyponail skin. Nail growth is the proliferation and keratinization of methyl cells at the root of the nail and their forward migration across the nail bed. The nail bed controls the growth of nails in a certain shape. The nail bed and roots are rich in blood, which provides rich nutrition for the regeneration of nails. I told the child that her nail roots were not injured, so there is no need to worry about the nails not growing out. The average growth rate of human nails is about 3.5 mm per month, and it takes 3-6 months for nails to grow out completely.

The harm and treatment of barbs

Although I am not worried about her nails growing out, her bad habits still need to be corrected in time. Biting nails can cause the cuticle to be too dry and lack of oil to separate, resulting in hangnails. Many people feel that hangnails are in the way after they grow on their hands, so they tear them hard with their hands. This is actually not a good practice. Casually tearing the hangnails often causes further tearing of the hangnails, which will become bigger and deeper, causing skin inflammation and further damage to the deep layers of the skin. The safe method of removing hangnails is actually very simple. We can first soak the nails and the surrounding skin in water to soften them, cut them off with nail clippers, and then apply hand cream. Remember not to use hand sanitizer or soap, which are alkaline and will aggravate skin dryness. If the area around the hangnails is red or suppurated, it may be infected, and you need to apply anti-inflammatory ointment, such as erythromycin, Bactroban, etc. If necessary, you need to go to the hospital for treatment in time.

Trimming your nails properly

Long nails are prone to harbour dirt and breed bacteria. Therefore, many people are used to cutting their nails very short. However, this not only fails to protect the fingers, but also has the opposite effect. If the nails are cut too short, it is easy to injure the nail bed during work or housework. The soft tissue at the front of the finger is not covered by the nail, and the tip of the nail will grow inward. In severe cases, it will induce paronychia and be vulnerable to fungal invasion. The correct way to cut nails should be to cut the middle first and then trim the sides, so that it is easy to control the trimming length and avoid cutting the corners too deep. Otherwise, the newly grown nails can easily embed into the soft tissue and become ingrown nails, damaging the skin around the nails, causing suppurative infection of the subcutaneous tissue, and causing other inflammations. When cutting nails, cut them flatly, and do not force the nail clippers into the nail crevices to cut. If the nails have sharp corners, they should be rounded.

The child's mother was very surprised. Why would the child bite his nails when there were nail clippers at home? I told the child's mother that there are usually the following situations when a child bites his nails:

1. If the child feels bored or hungry, this situation is relatively good as long as the parents stop it and educate the child in time.

2. Imitation by peers. Some children develop the habit of biting their nails by imitating their peers. At this time, parents should stop it in time.

3. Mental stress is the most common reason for children to bite their nails. If a child enters a new environment, such as moving, going to school, or getting sick, there will be mental stress. Generally, the more sensitive and fragile a child is, the more likely he or she is to bite his or her nails. I hope mothers can observe what causes their children to bite their nails and help them correct it in time.

Author: Emergency Department, Shanghai Eighth People's Hospital

Liu Lifang