I cut my babies thumb (yes, her thumb) and made her bleed her second day at home! Afraid to do it again I moved to filing her nails, but it was hard to file the edges without cutting the baby with the file...
What is the best way to trim your babies fingernails?
Many suggestions were given by other new moms, here’s a couple that seem to work best for everyone:
Purchase the curved nail scissors but instead of cutting to the curve of the finger cut away from it. This way takes three cuts.
Use the nail clippers and stroke down over the nail until you hear the ‘click’ indicating that the bottom of the clipper is under the nail, then snip away. This takes two cuts.
File the nails.
Any way you do it, most new moms suggest to do the trimming while your baby is sleeping.
Now that my baby is a bit older I can hold her hand still long enough to trim with nail clippers and then I file them to soften the edges, if necessary.
I've actually had a lot more practice with this one, seeing as Ryan has gotten older since the first meetup where we started this age-old question amongst ourselves. And to be perfectly honest, I think I've found the best solution you could find, so I'll share it with you.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how it would work with babies that are bottle fed, but for the nursing baby, I have found the ideal time to trim their nails is while they are nursing. I start the magnifying finger nail clippers, although I don't use the magnifying glass part; just the regular finger nail clippers on it. These are kinda important because I have tried many different styles of baby nail trimmers, and these definately work the best. Next, I lie Ryan across my Bobby, and while he nurses one side, I trim his free hand that is nearest to me. Then, we he is ready to switch to the other breast, I trim the other hand, which is now nearest to me on top. That's it!
I've done his nails like this for about a month, after I bought the magnifying nail trimmers. It still takes a lot of care, but this way has proven to be FAR more efficient than any other way I've tried. And not once this way have I clipped his finger. It's worth a shot!
One last thing, I wanted to reiterate, that even though they are magnifying trimmers, I leave the magnifying part down. After trying with and without it, without it is much more do-able.
What works great for me is a long car ride, this puts Astro in a deep sleep so I can get to his finger nails and toe nails without waking him. With my thumb and forefinger, I pinch the nail that I am clipping kind of hard, so he doesn't feel the clippers as I am clipping. I am also able to push his skin back with this method to expose the nail a little more, this allows me to trim more closely.
ReplyDeleteFirst, an interesting story. My mom used to work in an emergency room in the LA area...a long time ago, before I was born. One night, Stevie Wonder came in with his wife and daughter. His wife had trimmed the baby's nails and cut her and he was so worried because he couldn't see what had happened he brought her into the emergency room to make sure she was ok. So, it happens to the best of us!
ReplyDeleteWhen Eli was first born, his nails were so long that he scratched himself within his first few hours of life! I was terrified to try to trim them with those big old scissors in the baby kit and so I resorted to a technique that I was surprised to learn is quite common. I bit his nails.
I know, I know. I can't believe I am admitting to this in writing...and I haven't even met you all yet, so you might think that was a little crazy--but, actually, the nurse said that was the right thing to do with a newborn if you don't want to risk cutting them or injuring them.
Now that Eli's nails are less papery, I wait until he is in a deep sleep and use the curved baby nail scissors. I pinch the finger between my fingers, pulling the fleshy part down and exposing the part of the nail to be trimmed and then I make sure to have the bottom of the scissor blade on top of the fingertip pad before I start cutting that way I don't catch any skin by accident.
I kept practicing on myself until I felt confident I could get it right.