Baby nails

[Shmerlock]

Anyone else find cutting their baby's nails the most stressful thing!? I can only do it when she's breastfeeding as any other time she wiggles, squirms and whinges like crazy. I've just managed to catch her skin though resulting in her screaming and me feeling awful 😭 I dread doing it - anyone else?

Yes I hated doing my DS nails and caught him a couple of times. I bought a silent electric nail file on Amazon which is amazing. It has different pads for each age as the nails change as they get older and I still use it now as it's so gentle (he's 1 year old). Look up cherish baby care nail file on Amazon and you should be able to find it.

I use a nail file don't trust myself with clippers.

@kazzikaz that sounds amazing, thanks for sharing!

@Jayjayes I try and file them but it doesn't seem to work on her nails, will try again - I don't trust myself most of the time!!

My mum always use to bite them off with her teeth 😉

I'm not brave enough to cut my baby's nails!! But I was given a mechanical Emery board which has different strength buffers for use as the nails get stronger and thicker, which it much less scary to use! It's gentle and easy to use but gets it done quickly and efficiently!

I do my babys nails when he falls asleep on me during the day, he wriggles too much when he is awake.

I also have a baby nail file to smooth down any sharp corners.

I have caught his skin a little before with the nail clippers but he didnt wake up so it couldnt have hurt too much

@YouDoIDo I've given that a go a couple of times, but left them a right mess 🙈

@ShootingStar94 I'm going to have to look in to these!! I feel so awful, it bled a little when I caught her 😭

@Stade197 I feel awful, it was bleeding a little too 😭 she didn't cry for long but it obviously hurt her - poor baby!

I always cut them when he’s sleeping otherwise it would be mission impossible when he’s awake.

@Eri21 even in her sleep she pulls away, it's like she knows 😂 I only manage it when she's feeding! Going to look in to these nail files I think

[quote Shmerlock]@Stade197 I feel awful, it was bleeding a little too 😭 she didn't cry for long but it obviously hurt her - poor baby![/quote]
Try not to worry too much, babies are tougher than we think they are and once she has had a little cry she will probably forget about it 🙂 if it stresses you out too much is there someone else that can do it for you? My sister got my mum to do both her kids nails when they were babies as she was too worried about hurting them x

I used clippers once on DT1, caught her finger, it bled for ages from a tiny cut. I never ever did it again, DH actually but then for a while when they were tiny and then moved to a file.

Nail snail is brilliant, I ordered mine on Ebay as they are only widely available in Australia but it's impossible to cut babies skin with them and it's made nail cutting so easy. Why do babies nails grow so fast?!

The first (and last) time DH cut DS’s nails, he clipped his finger and it bled for ages. DH was a lot more traumatised about it than DS and I’ve done them ever since!!

Cheap baby nail scissors when they're sleeping. You get the hang of it eventually and your confidence grows and it becomes easy.

I used to do it during nap time. Now always do it after a bath to make sure nails are softened, often with some TV on or a book to read or snack to eat some kind of distraction and a lot of 'i know your not keen' when the protests start, I'm always as careful as I can be, sit as still as you can to make it as easy as you can.... Let's work together as a team' as much empathy as you can muster and the nail file sounds magic!

I've always used nail scissors on them, nail clippers are terrifying! I do them when baby is awake, there's no way I'm waking a sleeping baby just to cut their nails.

Nope. On baby 6, I use my curved nail scissors when she is sleeping. Baby nail scissors are rubbish.

It's much easier to cut their nails from the angle you see your own nails I.e. have baby sat on your lap facing out or come around behind them when they're lying down asleep. I also do it when the nails are soft after a bath so that I can make a little cut in each nail at the edge then peel the rest off.

@idontlikealdi it's awful, I felt so guilty before!!

@Pinktruffle not heard of that one, will see if I can find it. I know, they grow ridiculously fast!! My DD was born with long nails which she'd already scratched her face with!!!

@Doofas my little girl is only 5 months but that's such a good tip for when she's a bit older!

@soughsigh I find baby nail scissors even trickier for some reason!

@Luckyelephant1 that's a brilliant idea! I think I'd still have trouble keeping my girl still and calm - she's always moving!