2.6yr old DD has phobia about having toenails cut. Any suggestions?

[matildawormwood]

She's never liked having her toe nails cut but it's got to the point where she won't let me go near them. I've tried bribery, making it a game, offering to paint them as a treat afterwards,cutting her dollies and other peoples' nails so she can see it's not scary, getting other people to do it but nothing works. It's got to the point that the first thing she says when she wakes up is "don't cut my toenails today mummy". They badly need a trim, please can you share any tips or advice if you've experienced similar.

Just do it when she is sleeping! That's my cheat.

Or if that's not an option you could file them gently.

Don't mention it any other time.

Don't negotiate, just tell her it is one of those things that has to be done.

My DS1 was like this, and on one memorable occasion I wrapped him in his fleecy blanket so he couldn't flail his arms and just did them. He howled throughout, but has been getting steadily better since then. I found that the more I bribed, persuaded, negotiated etc, the worse he was.

Have you tried explaining that her shoes will hurt if her toenails get too long? That works with DS1 now that he is a bit older (3.6)

If you use clippers try scissors or vice versa. Can you do it when she is asleep till she gets big enough to realise it doesn't hurt? You could spend time moisturising and filing nails so she gets used to you doing things with her hands and feet?

Thank you. Some good suggestions there...I've thought about doing it while she's asleep but we're having some big issues with sleep at the moment (another story!!) and am terrified of her catching me and then using that as an excuse not to go to sleep!!!. Alibaba, you're completely right. The more I explain and persuade the worse it seems to make it. It's just become a really big deal. I even asked her childminder to do it as she does things for the childminder that she won't do for me (like sleep, eat, behave!) but she was in floods of tears as soon as she took her socks off.

Have you tried operant conditioning while breaking the activity down? Instead of going directly for cutting, go first for touching with a finger, as soon as she lets you reward, repeat. When that works well introduce touching with the scissors, but always go back to the finger. Keep working up to cutting but always take step backwards. The main idea is to break down the activity into more manageable bits and reward instantly for each tiny bit tolerated. If you possibly can get her to touch your finger/scissors rather than you touching her.

My dd is 2.5 and has massive issues with nail cutting- until yesterday! I gave her my electric toothbrush to play with and the sensation of that buzzing must've overruled everything else! For the first time ever she sat totally still and had her toes done with no screaming, biting or hitting!

Thank you so much - good to know my DD is not the only one with a bee in her bonnet about this. I will work through this wonderful list of ideas until I find one that works. Chundle, how funny that the electric toothbrush was what worked in the end. Random, but I can see how it might just work!