Find out how you can help your kids curb and even reverse unpleasant or unhealthy behaviors.

Thumb sucking. Eating nothing but chicken nuggets and lime green Jell-O. Leaving so many toys strewn about that your floors resemble mine fields. Completely omitting "please" and "thank you" from their vocabularies. And every parent's favorite, whining.

Despite your best efforts to set a good example, young children can develop a variety of unpleasant habits, ranging from the slightly annoying to the downright nasty. The good news is—with three basic strategies and some expert advice—you can rid them even the most boorish behavior.

1. Stay Positive
   Lauri Berkenkamp, author of Teaching Your Children Good Manners, encourages parents to praise good behavior when trying to help their child break a bad habit. "Kids respond incredibly well to positive feedback. They want to please and do the right thing, so notice it when they are doing the behavior you want them to be doing, comment on it, and they'll try to do it again," she says.
2. Be Patient
   Kids will try, but naturally they won't always succeed in doing what you want. When you see that your child has slipped back into a bad habit, point it out to him gently. Experts suggest using the "sandwich method" when correcting children: Say something positive about how hard the child has been trying, correct the slip-up, and then finish with positive encouragement.
3. Give Rewards
   "The goal is to change a bad habit into a good habit," Berkenkamp says, "and if you can find a reinforcement or reward that's really effective, use it. The key is to continue to reinforce the positive behavior and minimize the negative."