Conference moira::parenting_v3

    I was never able to cut Steven's nails while he sleeps...
    gee, we can't even tip toe in to cover him up without waking
    him and getting trapped in the room!
    
    The method that works for me is cutting his nails during wash
    up time after meals.  I sit him on the edge of the sink and
    let him play with the soap (we have small decorative soaps...
    kitties, ducks etc).  I also let him look in the mirror
    while I sneak in a few clips here and there.
    
    It took 13 months for me to finally find a method that works!
    
    good luck!
    Linda
    

I clipped Kati's while she slept for the first 20 or
so months of her life.  But it was always in the car,
not in her bed.  During the weekends, her only chance
to catch a nap is in the car, between Mom's errands.
No way would she have ever let me clip them while she
was awake!

One day she saw me "snipping" my hands and feet, and
thought it would be great fun, so she asked me to "snip"
hers.  It was a game - I snipped one of hers, then she
could snip one of mine.  I was able to snip about 2 or
3 nails a day that way.  Just last week she finally
let me snip them all, but I had to bribe her somehow...

Kristen

    I also wouldn't dream of cutting a toddler's nails while he/she
    sleeps.   My current method is to allow Jason to play with the 
    rest of the stuff in my manicure set while I cut however many 
    nails I can get before he's had enough (usually 1-3).   Sometimes 
    it takes me several days to get them all!!  He acts like it hurts 
    him when I cut his nails, I can't figure it out...I hardly take 
    anything off.
    cj/

    What's better?  Clippers or scissors?
    
    Nancy

    My son, Shane, is 5 1/2 months old and I've been cutting his nails
    since the day I brought  him home from the hospital.  I use a nail
    clippers that is made especially for a baby (it's a lot smaller
    than an adult clippers).  He has never cried when I cut his nails
    (even the first time I tried and I accidently cut him) and I'm able 
    to cut all of them at one time.  Maybe he just isn't aware of what
    I'm doing.
    
    Lori B.

	Remember me from the potty note and the child who has tantrums when you 
make her get OFF the pot?
 

	Well, my daughter must think that she is Miss Hygiene South Carolina.
We have to hide the clippers because if she sees them, she insists on my 
clipping all her nails (fingers and toes) even if they were just cut earlier in 
the day and are already cut to the quick!  She's almost 20 months old and has 
been this way since she was about a year old.  (Before that her nails were so 
fragile that I hardly ever bothered to clip them, they always broke off on
their own...)

	For what it's worth, I like the clippers much better then the scissors.

Tracey

    For the longest time (well, maybe only a few months, but it seems like
    it was a long time) I could just peel Eric's nails.  Or if they
    got long enough they would start to peel off themselves and I'd
    just pull the rest.  Now (he's 17 months old) I give him the regular 
    clippers to play with while I use the baby clippers on him.  
    I can cut them all (toenails included) at one fairly quick sitting. 
    He might start to notice what I'm doing and try to squirm away, but 
    if I say, "ooh, shhh, watch mommy", he'll calm down and let me clip 
    a few more.  The toenails are tougher because he is so ticklish in 
    his toes that it's torture for him when I grab hold of them.
    
    Donna

    I prefer the small clippers but when Joshua isn't up to that (he's
    18 months) a file works great.  Josh thinks it is great fun to have
    his nails filed like Mom does.  As soft as his nails are it only
    takes a few easy strokes with the file and the job is over--plus
    no snags.
    
    Pam

    Sometimes it helps to have two people available when clipping
    nails...one to clip and one to distract. Even now, our older two (5 and
    3.5) don't particularly care for clipping, but tolerate it okay. They
    do better if we let them watch us working. I can remember my wife
    literally laying across our sons legs when he was about 18 mos. -24
    mos, in order to cut toemails...he screamed and thrashed like he was
    being killed! And he was a big toddler! He hated being held down, but
    we were so afraid of hurting him inadvertently, that it seemed the best
    way (actually, it was the only way!). He just sort of eventually grew
    out of it. We suddenly noticed he fought less and less. Now our 21 mon
    old now, has never bothered about nailcutting time, and seems as if he 
    could care less. Funny how they're so different.
    
    We always use a scissors when they're little infants, but clippers as
    their fingers and nails get bigger ant tougher to cut. Never tried a
    baby clippers....anyone used both an adult and a baby one and care to
    give a comparison? Maybe we'll pick one up before this next one is
    born!
    --dave--

We just cut as many as we could at a time and left the rest 'till next time!
On average they didn't get "long".

Our first was the worst ... still is at 9!  

I prefer to handle scissors ... I don't like clippers too much personally,
because I've had too many where the cutting edges were offset enough to
"bite" when they cut and that HURTS.  So, if you use clippers, try 'em out
yourself first !

Stuart

Thanks for all the replys!!  Misery loves company you know!  I will try some of
these suggestions, and hope for the best!  I use a baby clippers and had to use
an adult one once when at my moms.  It worked fine, but adult clippers are not
as BIG as toenail clippers, so make sure you don't use those.  I think I'll try
the file and the bathroom sink technique.  

    We've always used clippers.  I didn't like the baby ones cuz they were
    too small, and I could never get the baby still long enough to get any
    piece of nail to stay in the clipper.  
    With a 5 1/2 and almost 3 year old the way we ever could (and still
    can) get them to let us cut their nails is if we sort of 'sneak' it in
    while they're engrossed in T.V.  We'll usually get a whole hand done
    before they even realize what's going on.  Feet are definitely the
    worst though - they're feet are terribly ticklish, and this has only
    been getting worse, not better.
    re: The screaming .... once in a while they'd cry when I cut their
    nails - I later found out that they reason that they were crying is
    because one of my nails would be hurting them while I was trying to
    hold said hand/foot.
    
    RISK WAKING UP A CHILD TO CUT FINGERNAILS?????  ARE YOU *NUTS*??!! (-:
    

    The summer that Ryan turned a year old, the best diversion we found for
    clipping nails was the lawn mower! As soon as my husband started mowing
    the lawn, Ryan was glued to the kitchen door to watch him, and I'd take
    out the clippers and do his nails in 5 minutes flat, with nary a sound
    from Ryan!
    
    Lynn
    

    We've ALWAYS used an emery board.  As a newborn, I could very
    effectively file JA's nails "just after" she dozed off in my arms in the
    rocking chair.  When done, I'd move her to her crib.
    
    This process went down hill 'round about 10 months!  Now I still
    attempt it in the lazy-boy rocking chair, HOWEVER ... I now bring
    along a stack of kid's books (which JA loves) and since I know the
    stories fairly well, I ab-live while JA turns the pages and I can
    successfully get at least one hand done and if lucky, both hands. 
    Worst case, it becomes a two-attempt (two-day) process.
    
    Toe nails ... if we're having a super great session, during storytime
    ... if not, a few toes here and there over the course of a few days,
    usually on the dressing table where I can get a better grasp on them.
    
    Just my two cents!
    Dottie
            

 
 You guys are beginning to get me worried that I've got wierd kids, as 
 neither of them has ever put up any fuss about nail trimming (or hair
 cutting).  Now, _cats_ are a different matter!
 
 		- Bruce
 

>    We've ALWAYS used an emery board.  As a newborn, I could very
>    effectively file JA's nails "just after" she dozed off in my arms in the
>    rocking chair.  When done, I'd move her to her crib.


Dottie,

You must have been a very talented little girl :-)


Bob

    I've never had a problem cutting Danielle's nails. I always do it while
    she's awake.(BTW, she's 4 months old) I just give her a teething ring in
    the hand that I'm not trimming and she knaws away on it while I do the
    cutting. She doesn't squirm much cause she's too busy chewing on the
    toy. Don't ask me what she'll be like in a few months or years for that
    matter, that's another story!
    
    
Sandy

    re: .17
    
    Bob, Bob ... see what a kid does to your mind AND COMMUNICATION skills!
    
    Hey, are you still flying?
    
    Dottie
    

Peeling does work good for the first months.  Now I use
the baby clippers and have always had to do it when
Michelle (now 6.5 months) is sleeping.  Bob and I tried
to do it once a couple of months ago when she was awake
and it took forever because she is super wiggly even 
with the hand she is not using!  But then this
morning we tried a new method, cutting them when she
is sucking on her bottle!  That worked great but we
didn't think of it til she was almost done so only
got 4 nails done.  Well then Bob sat her on his lap,
facing him, and proceeded to cut all the rest without
her squirming a bit!  She seemed very curious about
the whole affair and so sat quiet.  Maybe it was also
due to the fact that she just ate.

I have tried to do her toes while on the changing
table while she is playing with a toy.  But her toes
are constantly bending/straightening, especially when
I try to grab one and hold it still.  I think I might
try the file, as suggested, on the toes.  At least if
I miss the nail, the file won't hurt.

Kyra

re: .18

Yep, still flying.

Bob

Just an update.  I tryed to clip when my son was watching his favorite Disney
Sing A Long videos and success!  All 10 in one shot!  He didn't move a muscle!

Barb

    The earlier cat owner made put me in mind of this -
    You think a child is bad, try a squirming, unhappy, fearful 90 pound
    (NOT obese) dog!  No need to watch wrestling on tv.  Just watch Hubby
    and me down on the kitchen floor with Pups.  We can barely hold him and
    Hubby is an unusually strong guy.  We now have the vet do it.
    Hey that's a thought - manicurists for little kids. 
    Strawberry-flavored nailpolish, anyone?
    
    Signed,
    in frivolity,
    L

    no time today to read all 22 replies, but here's what we've
    experienced...
    
    AJ fought us when he was little, so we'd let it go and maybe even do 2
    nails per day until they were done.  One day I knew his nails were
    getting long, and when I got him home that night I noticed they were
    neat and short.  (No I'm not trying to start a rathole about sitters
    doing what they're not supposed to I was truly *greatful to her*)
    So I asked the sitter the next day, she said she was cutting her own
    children's nails and the next thing she knows she's got my son's 10
    fingers AND 10 toes in her lap, looking for a trim too!
    
    We have since invented a game at home called "1,2,3's"  I take his
    finger or toe and say ready 1-2-3, and then make a big deal of
    "little-snips" on the nails.  Now that it's a game it's no longer a big
    deal.  We found when he was younger sitting in the high chair to be ag
    good place, he was not able to squirm too much, and the tray caught the
    clippings.
    
    Lyn
    

    After reading ALL the replies I have to agree, my FOUR legged children
    give me more hassle cutting nails than my son!!  At least I can get
    away with not cutting their nails for a month or more!!
    
    Lyn