Is eating boogers a problem? (and how can I respond?)
My four year old son eats his boogers. I think most kids do. But it is not socially acceptable.
I asked him to stop and he asked me why - and told me that he liked how they taste. So I told him that I did not like to watch it and many people did not want to see him do it, and that he should at least do it in private until one day, most likely, he will grow out of it.
I presume that, like me, most kids do this and grow out of it. Is this accurate? Is there a more rational, healthy (in terms of not shameing) approach to this issue?
Although this question is similar to parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/212/how-do-i-get-my-child-to-stop-picking-his-nose, it does not start with the presumption that the act itself is 'bad'.
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The health factor is that mucus (a.k.a. boogers) is a primary vector for many infectious diseases, including the ever-popular colds and flus.
Using your fingers to remove mucus means that your fingers are then coated in contagious pathogens ("germs").
You use your fingers to touch everything from food to toys, and also for direct person-to-person contact like hand-shaking.
Everything you touch then potentially carries those germs, and transfers them to the next person to touch them.
By eating them, he's merely adding his own saliva (another primary vector) to the mix.
So there absolutely is a health issue involved.
Using a tissue helps reduce contact with his fingers. At the very least, you should tell him that he needs to wash his hands each and every time he does this, immediately after. Either it will teach him rigorous hygiene habits, or the hassle of having to wash his hands so frequently may teach him to use a tissue :P
Current studies actually show that nose-picking has positive health effects, by introducing weakened pathogens in a way that the immune system can develop a response without getting sick.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose-picking
Why not try to eliminate the supply? If there are no boogers to eat, there is no problem right? You could try using saline spray/drops and having him blow his nose frequently to get rid of the mucous. If he's got the dry type try a humidifier. Eventually, if there's nothing up there to eat, he'll stop digging.
Another suggestion is to ignore it altogether. I know it's gross and embarrassing but sometimes the more you try to stop a behavior the more you enforce it.
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