Younger Boy’s Picky Nose Syndrome

I cannot remember if I’ve even mentioned this bad habit Younger Boy has before. I want to say I have, but I really can’t remember. Anyway, he sucks his thumb. And the bad habit isn’t really that he sucks his thumb, in fact I wish it was just sucking his thumb. But no, Younger Boy goes beyond sucking his thumb. While sucking his thumb the proceeds to gouge out skin from his nose area. He’s been wearing band-aids on his nose literally for a little over a month now.

It started during the cold season, when his little nose was raw from the constant nose blowing. He got a pretty good, but little, chunk out. It was a battle because he was going to Jane’s on the weekends then. So all week long I worked so hard to keep Neosporin and band-aid’s on his nose. All of us also worked on keeping an eye on Younger Boy and reminding him that he shouldn’t be picking at his nose. Then he would go to Jane’s (if it was his turn in the rotation to see her) and would come back with a fresh, red, scab torn off or new skin scratched off nose.

Now that he doesn’t stay the weekend at her house I’ve been able to get it healed. Well, the initial gouges are healed, but he’s now been taken some good, but little, chunks off the tip of his nose. I’m rather worried that it’s going to scar. Despite my efforts, he sometimes will take the band-aid off and pick at the scab or the fresh skin.

Now, not to be selfish, but we have engagement photos and family photos in about two weeks. And I would love for his nose to be healed. Except yesterday he decided to rip the band-aids off not once, but twice. And that pretty little scab is gone and in its place is a bright red patch of raw skin.

At first I thought that maybe it was related to when he went to visit Jane and her mother. Every time he visited them he came back with raw skin, and this would be after his nose was just about healed. I thought perhaps he was regressing and this nose picking was a part of this regression. But now, I just don’t have a clue. I thought maybe he was just scratching and picking at the scab. But now I notice that when there’s no scab he continues to scratch away at it.

This has got to hurt him when he does this, right? Not only that but he had me in tears. Earlier this week I found that he had ripped the scab off. So I cleaned the area, dried it and put a fresh band-aid on it. My fiancé was washing dishes and the other boys were playing in their room. Well, Younger Boy went into his room and proceeded to tell Older Boy that I had hurt him. And seriously, the last thing I need is Younger Boy telling Jane or her mother that I hurt him. My fiancé had a little talk with him about all of it. Although I’m not sure how much of it soaked into his 3-year-old brain. I really try to be gentle when I do all of this, but raw skin hurts no matter what you do.

We’ve been trying to keep an eye on his fingernails and making sure that they don’t get too long. We've recently tried using liquid band-aid which worked well on the side of his nose but didn't last too long on the tip of his nose. My latest experiment in trying to get him to keep the band-aid on is drawing a cat nose and whiskers onto the band-aid. As you’ve heard here, he’s pretty fond of being a kitty cat. The last two nights of having kitty cat features on his band-aid have been successful. I’m hoping that maybe it will work. And I’m hoping that maybe it will heal up, and after it’s healed just maybe he won’t scrape the skin off.

Here’s to hoping!

Below is his nose almost healed after the cold season and when this behavior first started.


Below is what his nose is currently trying to heal from. This was from two weeks ago. Since then he has torn the scab and the new layer of skin off. He's also starting to pick at the side of the right nostril *sigh*