Battle of the toenails

[birdbrain]

My three and a half year old hates having his toe nails cut and becomes hysterical at the suggestion. For a normally sensible little boy this reaction seems extreme to say the least. He has always been touchy about this but has become much worse recently. We are at our wits end. Has anybody any advice or tips?

Dd's 18 months but is also terrified about it. I think they must fear that it's going to hurt them. I don't like someone else cutting my nails. With dd I try to do it when she's v. tired and in front of a video, just a couple of nails at a time. Occasionally me and dp have resorted to brute force but I don't like doing it that way. At 3 can you explain it to him more clearly or get him involved in it?

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My dd (3.2) also hates having nails clipped. Oddly enough, she'll let her nanny do fingernails, so I have delegated that task. As far as toenails - we file. I give her her own file so that she can "do" the nails on one foot, while I file the other one. Then we switch feet. She won't let me come near her with clippers or scissors, so have found this compromise works........for now......

Would he wake up if you tried to do it when he's asleep? The other thing is to do it when he's in the bath. The water seems to make my dd's feet less sensitive, though I have to be very careful not to accidentally nip the 'froggy feet' skin.

DS is four and isn't terrified, just refuses to let me cut his nails. Like Suedonim suggests, I've always cut his nails when he's asleep, with clippers, and they grew at such a rate I have to do it once a week.

I have this problem dd (22m) will happily let me cut her finger nails, but goes mental when I try to do her toe nails. I think this is because the toe nails are tighter to the skin than fingers. So I have to get the clippers under the nail before cutting, i think this might be a bit uncomfortable. Her toe nails seems to grow over the top of her toes and seem to press downwards. I cut them after a bath when they are softer and have to use distraction techniques involving daddy being stupid or something along those lines. Hopefully it's a phase!