My 13 month old son is very active and the moment I try to trim his nails he pulls away. His nails are way to long and need to be cut, they are scratching me. He doesn't nap much in the car at all -- tried to drive around for a nap so I could cut his nails when he sleeps. He wouldn't go to sleep. I would try and cut them when he sleeps but he sleeps on his stomach and he holds a teddy bear. Any creative ways would be great.
Thank you all for the advice. At first I didn't believe I could distract my son enough but it worked! I had dad hold him and bribe him to sit for goldfish. He pulled at his hands a bit but in less than 2 minutes all nails were cut.
What I do is actually hold my 12 month old's hand while I cut them when he's wide awake. The trick is to hold all or most of his fingers at the same time. it's much easier than just trying to hold one finger at a time. I've never cut him and although he definitely gets angry about it at times, I can get them trimmed very fast. Hopefully this helps. Good luck!
I have a sister in law that has 4 kids. My godson moves around alot when shes trying to cut her nails. Basically she holds him while i hold his arms and he does good with me. that might be the best way to do that one person hold him and the other person cuts the nails.
I take my daughter's high chair outside and then put her in it. Tray off, but belted in. Being outside helps distract her from what I am doing. Then I just grab a hand and not let go - even if she pulls. When I first started doing it this way, she hated it, but now she holds out her hand for me because she knows it's going to happen. I usually sing "The ants go marching" since there are 10 verses and I sing each verse for each finger.
Good luck!
Got a few things to try:
*sit him in his high chair and give him some snacks and clip him while hes eating
*put on his favorite show and clip away
*clip them first thing in the morning while hes still waking up (maybe even wake him up before he wakes you up)
*say or sing stupid things while clipping, like i say Ready? clip clip clip
Like the other poster said, distraction is the key. If it comes down to it get dads help and hold him down and get it done fast! He will live and it will keep him scratch free. Good luck!
When my daughter was that age I just had to hold her in my lap and get a death grip on whatever hand I was cutting. She didn't like it, but it was necessary, like taking medicine. It's necessary for them too b/c it can be very painful when they tear off a nail, and it can get infected. Maybe someone else will have a more creative solution, but sometimes you just have to hold them down.
Incidentally, within a few months of her first birthday she was OK with it as long as I let her handle the (closed) clippers first to "do it herself" and also just doing a few fingers at a time seemed to be helpful.
For my 2 daugters, nephew and grandchildren, I bite the nails off. Less chance of cutting the skin. Asleep or awake.
Try painting your nails in front of him. My oldest and youngest (I have 3) would fight me when I cut their nails and ODS would chew them to infection. One day he saw me painting my nails and he wanted his painted too. I told him I would have to trim his nails to do it. He let me and I put a very light pink on his nails. DH was not happy, but when I mentioned nail polish or antibiotics, he shut up. Never had a problem after that. We had mini manicure sessions. We eventually moved to clear polish and now no polish.
Good Luck!
Cut them after he has fallen asleep and has been asleep for awhile. You should be able to manipulate him enough to get his nails cut.
This may seem ridiculous but maybe make some sort of game out of it.
You could take his Teddy and have him pretend to cut the bear's "nails" or maybe let him watch Daddy do his nails or you. Then it's his turn. Kids like to imitate, kinda like how they get in your makeup or put on your shoes. They like to do what you do.
Otherwise, kids to go into a pretty deep sleep. Even though he sleeps on his stomach, you could probably roll him over and do a quick snip without him waking up.
My husband would hold my son and read him a book or put on Baby Einstein and hold the hand I was working on. I could then use both hands to work on the nails. Distraction was key at that age.
"Team work". Nail cliping is team work around here. One of us gets ahold of toenails first then we go to the hands. The other one distracts our son. We usually do this on the changeing table. We hold his had firm but let him have it back after a nail has been cut. We make fun noises when we clip them too like " whoop, beep beep" things that we dont often make but he knows its a happy time. He has recently let us clip them with just one of us. Also a intreasting toy to DISTRACT him helps a ton. Something he dosent get to see often. ( the rattle from the first aid kit) Good luck. Hold firm you wont squeeze his hand off.
