How do you stop a child from constantly picking their nose. She is over 4 and her finger is always in her nose, everytime I catch her here doing it I send her to wash she hands but it doesn't seem to stop her. She's been here 20 minutes and washed her hands 4 times already. They don't do anything at home to try and stop it she picks it so bad she gets a nose bleed and they never send her to wash hands. Please help.

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Hmm, make her stand next to the sink all day?
I really don't know. I have a couple that do it, then when I catch them, from then on they try to hide when they do it. Ugh, I don't know how to make it stop, other than keep doing what you're doing.

I've mentioned here before, the best thing that works for me is the peer pressure that comes along with it. Nothing like a buddy saying 'ew that's gross!' But then there's always that boy that loves making a huge funny issue out of it.

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I actually posted about this same issue with my 2 and 3 yo kiddos here. I finally either got them to stop or reduce the amount of picking here by saying "yucky! Wash your hands!" We talked about how we need to keep clean to keep healthy....which also led to everyone 2 and up finally remembering to cover their mouth when they sneeze/cough. They also all remind each other.

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For a fun experiment once, I let the kids color all over their hands and fingers with green washable markers and explained that the green represented all the germs on their hands. Then one at a time, we washed hands and they realized how long they had to scrub with soap to get the "germs" off. Germs are a crazy, invisible thing to kids and they don't really get the concept until they can see it. I have a chronic picker too.

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I have this issue as well with 3 year olds who not only like to pick their noses but proceed to wipe it on anything and everything Walls, furniture, books, toys....ewwwww its so gross!

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