To never again attempt to cut toddler toenails

[FrinkadelicA12]

And just let her run about on six inch claws until she is old enough to do it herself? The screaming....

I have only ever cut DD's nails (fingers & toes) once. She is 2.5, I nearly amputated a finger (ok it was a tiny little nick) when she was a new born and I refuse now to do it.

Luckily my Mum does it for me whenever we stay over which is about once a month. Volunteer someone else for the task and be done with it

Use nailscissors (nail clippers are bastards) and bribe her to keep still with chocolate.

I have to wait until DS is very deep in sleep, so last night I was doing his toe nails at 11pm (he co sleeps). I still have to be careful even then and gently work the nail off with my nail, never use clippers.

Have tried it all, chocolate, jelly bribes even the iPad which she would give her eye teeth for in any other situation, sleep cutting... That was exciting, of course we woke her and she stayed up for four hours as punishment. Currently what works is one of us holding her down while the other snips frantically. Not exactly the vision of parenthood I had imagined!

Clearly we need to delegate to a farrier or someone equally skilled.

Distraction. Do it mid peppa pig!

Have tried all manner of distraction and bribery with DS. Sometimes it's just easier to pin him down and do it - which happens anyway when he realises what you are doing with the distraction and bribery. Generally he yells things like "you're killing me" and "don't cut my legs off"

For an hour afterwards there is much sulking and declarations of "you made me bleed." And if you ask to see the blood in case he had a point he mutters "invisible blood you stupid cow"

I try to make DH do it.

I had one like that - then learnt that I could do it whilst he slept

My daughter is six and up until last year she'd scream the house down when I did her toenails, not sure why as no bad experience, she was fine with fingernails weirdly

DD loves to have her toenails painted. She knows the rule is finger and toenails cut then toenails painted. She used to scream but now asks for me to do it!

I do my three year olds nails while she is asleep. Now she has stopped napping in the day, this is harder as I frequently forget, but every couple of weeks when she is fast asleep, in I go with my nail clippers. I used to cut my sons hair with the clippers when he was asleep too, so much easier than him having a paddy about it. This was generally a two person job though and a bit tricky to get right but he always looked ok and has his hair cut fine now he is bigger.

I use an emery board/nail file on mine & play beautician, then let her do mine for 5 seconds

It works at the moment!

Oh sparkly nail varnish! Thank you Littlemisstax, a lightbulb has just gone on over my head. Will definitely try that, she is going through a revoltingly pink, sparkly, princessy phase at the moment.

With boys I used to do it like ponies- turn your back on them and pull the foot up between your knees

Dd is 18 months and turns in to a wild screaming beast if I go for her toe nails. Equally, she will throw up if I ever attempt to paint her feet

Have you tried cutting nails in the bath? The water softens them up and if you keep the clippings tiny, they go down the plughole.

My daughter hated nail and hair cutting. She solved it herself in the end. She learned to bite her own toenails!!! Trouble is at age 9 she uses the same technique and can't stop. Nail varnish sounds a better technique.

I cut her fringe once while she was asleep in car seat with her head to the side, when she woke up her fringe was on a slant.

Luckily I have a toddler who will let me de claw him whilst he watches dr who. I was a vet student (briefly) so apparently I'm better equipped to deal with a thrashing toddler than dp is. the bastard got himself out of nail duty by making ds bleed once

But if anyone can give me tips for trimming his hair I'd be much obliged. At the moment he looks like a tiny wild Matt Smith. I can't go near him with scissors without screams of 'NO MUMMY! MY HAAAAIIIIRRR!!! MY EARS!!'

I made DD1 bleed once, the same as MeepMeepVrooooom , you'd think I'd severed the whole finger the fuss she made, but in reality only a tiny nick. Any DH now uses it as a form of threat, while chopping both daughters nails, 'If you don't sit still Mummy will have to do it and she might chop your fingers or toes off.' Seems to do the trick and the bonus is I don't have to get involved.

Another one here who waited until toddler DD was asleep.

I tried bribing with chocolate buttons but she wasn't old enough to get the gist of the idea so she just got doubly upset that she had seen the buttons and then had them taken away when she wouldn't let me do her nails.

Always dd it in her sleep after that. By the time she no longer needed a day time nap she was old enough to understand the concept of bribery,

DS is 2.3 and only in the last month has let me cut his fingernails without much fuss. The toenails are still like some form of medieval torture according to him. We tried cutting them while he's asleep (always wakes up), bribery and distraction which immediately stop working as soon as we touch his feet, and attempting it in the bath resulted in a near drowning incident (me not DS).

Like with haircuts the only method is pinning down and getting the screaming and hysteria over with as quick as possible. I don't know why it's so difficult - despite all his thrashing about I've never once caught him or drawn blood. Always have the gin on standby for afterwards though

Another one here who can only do it when DS sleeps (he's 3.5). He screams his head off like he thinks I'm trying to cut his toes off if I even broach the subject while he's awake.
I'd suggest trying it in the first 1/2 hour after she falls asleep. That's when it's deepest.

Yep, we did the "wait until they're asleep" trick too. As babies they were ok, it was when they hit the age of 2 that the problems started... I have tried nail scissors, but could never get them to cut properly. Tiny mini nailclippers all the way!

Oh yes, I remember this. I used to think the neighbours would be reporting me to SS because she screamed like she was being murdered

I agree with the nail varnish suggestion. That seems to stop Dd2 screaming about it.