Sucking your thumb or biting your nails, we've all done it, at least once in our lives. And we more or less quickly stopped under pressure from our parents or when we learned that it was bad for our teeth or our nails, and especially when we realized that we were going to have to wear dental braces or repellent varnish.
Well, it turns out those little reflexes aren't all bad! In any case, this is what emerges from the journal Pediatrics, which published yesterday the results of a study carried out by a group of Canadian and New Zealand researchers. The latter show that ultimately, these habits that are mainly attributed to children (and stressed people) would not be so harmful. And on the contrary, they could have a certain "positive" impact...
Indeed, researchers have found that children who suck their thumbs are exposed to all types of allergens early on (pollen, dog, cat and horse hair, dust or pollution, etc.). This means that the immune system can prepare for it earlier, and therefore react more effectively. The strengthening of the immune defenses has also been proven:of the 100 children who were followed for the purposes of the study, 45% showed a particular sensitivity to allergies at the age of 13, whereas those who sucked their thumb or bit their fingernails is only 40%, or 5% less.
Well, the results of this study are still to be qualified:sucking the thumb, a pacifier or a finger can create teething problems, particularly after 6 years. As for biting your nails, this can, in the long run, damage the end of the fingers and it is the door open to infections, viruses and bacteria... Not terrible! Clearly, if Junior sucks his thumb or bites his nails a little, we try to get him out of this habit, but we don't jump to the ceiling if we see him with his fingers in his mouth:we keep in mind that he increases his immunity.
