How to Cut Your Baby's/Infant's Toe Or Finger Nails Without Pain

How to effortlessly trim your little one's nails. No tears guaranteed!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Either baby nail trimmers or a good pair of curved adult nail scissors.

1. Gather your supplies. Get a pair of infant nail clippers from the baby section of a store or you can use a sturdy pair of curved adult nail scissors.

2. Wait until your baby is super relaxed. You can choose his/her nap time or simply wait until they are absorbed in a feeding and relaxed. If you choose feeding time, you will need someone to help you. Have them either feed the baby the bottle or do the trimming while you breast feed.

3. Take one finger (or toe) at a time into your hand. Make sure the baby is not going to fight you and is still relaxed. Gently push down on the finger pad so the nail is exposed. The nail that is grown out will be white-ish in color and you will easily be able to tell that it isn't attached to the skin.

4. If using curved nail scissors, turn the point toward yourself. This will help prevent you from cutting too far down and into the quick. When using curved scissors, cut the first half, then second half. Quickly snip off the two sides. If a little point is left in the middle, you can always go back and trim it off a bit.

5. If using infant nail clippers and they are big enough to cut the whole nail at once, do so firmly and quickly so the baby won't jerk in the middle of it. If the clippers are small, cut one side of the nail, then the other.

Tips & Warnings

• If your baby becomes active in the middle of your clipping session, don't sweat it. Stop right away so that the baby won't be injured by jerking his/her hand while you are cutting. Just store your clippers/scissors near where you were working and try again at your earliest convenience.
• It usually takes two feedings to trim all of my baby's fingernails and toenails.
• Be careful to check to see where the fingernail bed separates from the nail by pushing the pad of the finger or toe down and away from the nail. This will prevent you from cutting the skin.