bad habit resolved

So I really tried to listen to my wise sister in law and follow her guidance to ignore the nail biting but when Carina's nail beds starting getting infected I could no longer cringe the other way. I went to the drug store to get a product called Thum. The lady at the store explained how it is superior to the other products because it doesn't contain formaldehyde and it uses natural oils. Yeah that sounds good natural and effective; she did warn that sometimes kids like the taste of it.
So went went home and I painted it on and waited. Within 5 minutes the familiar chomp was followed by an ouch while she stuck out her tongue. I explained that she could no longer bite her nails. Quizzical blue eyes stared at me then she went back to watching her movie. Then I hear her gagging, I look over and she is red faced and ready to throw up with tears streaming down her face. I rush her to the sink where she throws up, my immediate response is to get that S*%t off of my baby girl as quickly as I can. I then notice the first ingredient is Cayenne pepper followed by isopropyl alcohol and acetone and then the warning In case of accidental ingestion contact poison control. They have got to be joking, the product is designed to be painted on children's fingers so that when they put their fingers or thumb in their mouth the taste deters them from doing it again. Kids can have serious allergic reactions to Cayenne pepper like swelling of the throat and generally it is thought as child abuse to place it in a child's mouth as punishment. But slap a corporate label on it and put it in the baby product aisle and it is perfectly acceptable.

So I decided to immediately implement a positive rewards based approach to this nail biting problem. Then I remembered how excited she got at the drug store when she saw all the pretty nail polish and embellishments. So I explained that if she could let her boo boos heal by not biting her nails then we could paint her nails. By Monday Carina was no longer a nail biter. I can't say whether it was the physical abuse or the promise of a reward. Ohh and by the way she totally put it together that I was the one who painted her nails with the ouchy stuff that hurt her. That goes in the mother's guilty bank.

I decided to really do up the nail painting and gave her the full manicure experience ( did I mention the guilt). I soaked her hands, used a nailbrush, filed and painted her nails. I put a couple of jewels on her nails but they did not stay past the pictures being taken
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