My poor poor little boy. I've just had to cut his toenails again and I swear this is the last time I put him through that particular trauma. He is patently in agony, as though it's his actual toes I'm cutting off. It's truly awful for him. But it's a double edged sword because with his sensitivity to sock seams/footwear in general, too long toenails just exacerbate the problem tenfold.
The way I've always handled it up until now is to just use brute force (awful I know) to get it done as quickly as possible, with lots of reassurance and cuddles before, during and afterwards. He's properly screaming and crying tears of acute distress all the way through. I always try to do it gently but he always pulls his feet away (a sort of reflex reaction) so holding his feet is the only way I can get anywhere near the toenails to cut them. But as he's getting bigger and stronger I'm not sure this is going to be possible any more (he's 4.11), and anyway I can't bear how distressing it is.
I've tried scissors/files/nail clippers but they all seem to be equally as torturous. He always recovers pretty quickly, and seems to understand that it has to be done but it's the utter terror of it for him at the time. There just has to be another way. Special numbing cream? Sedation?! I just can't wait until he's old enough to do it himself but he's quite a late developer in the motor skills department so wouldn't want to risk letting him loose with a pair of scissors for the time being!
If anyone has similar experiences and can let me know what worked for them I'd be so massively grateful.