by Vicky Smee

Created on: February 23, 2009

When my daughter was born one of the first things I noticed, was what long finger nails she had. So one of the first things I had to do was cut them. Having never had to trim a babies nails before, the thought of accidentally hurting her terrified me. What if I snip too far? What if catch her skin?

I was terrified of hurting her with scissors or clippers. I had to cut them though. It was one of the first things I had to do as a mother. It wasn't something I'd ever given any thought to during my pregnancy. I'd never thought to ask advice on this subject from other mothers. I didn't have a clue!

Due to my fear of accidentally hurting my daughter with scissors or clippers, I ended up getting hold of her little fingers one by one and biting her nails down. Obviously this is not an ideal solution as it leaves sharp jagged nails which you want to avoid.

So next time I tried baby clippers. They were covered in plastic which prevents you from trimming too far down. A great idea I thought. Till I tried to use them. Unfortunately the plastic prevented me from cutting down far enough, leaving her nails too long. So long in fact she was still able to scratch herself quite badly.

Have you ever tried to trim a newborn babies finger nails with normal nail scissors? It's almost impossible not to jab them occasionally with the pointed tips. Obviously this is something that we want to avoid. So what next? Baby scissors! You can buy them in most pharmacies. They are small scissors with rounded tips. They cut just as well as normal scissors, but without the worry of jabbing babies delicate skin.

So with baby scissors in hand I felt ready to tackle the job of trimming down my daughters nails. I sat down, held her little fingers out, and attempted to trim her nails. She didn't like it one bit! She wiggled and squirmed trying to pull her hand back. She wriggled so much I was too scared to try cutting them. What if she moved just as I was cutting? I couldn't bear the thought of accidently trimming down to far, or snipping her skin if she pulled away at the wrong time.

So how do you trim the nails of a wriggler? This is where we need to be a little sneaky. I waited till she was napping, gently held her little hand, and snip, snip, I was free to trim away without the slightest bit of resistance.

Nail trimming is no longer something I have to be scared of. The only part that worries me now is being careful not to wake her up!

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