Fellow Mum’s and Dad’s I need your help and advice. Burton is scared to have his nails cut with the nail clippers, to the point where he screams and cries and gets hysterical. The worst thing about all this? It’s my fault 🙁
When he was very small keeping his nails short was easy, because his Daddy or I were able to clip them quite easily with his little baby nail clippers. However, once he got older, probably around the 9 month stage, he became aware of what we were doing and wriggled more and tried to remove his hands from our grasp. As time went on it became harder and harder to cut them through his constant moving about to get away from us. On a couple of occasions When I was in charge of trimming them, in my haste to get them cut as quick as I could before he wriggled to get away, I accidentally cut a nail too short and it would bleed a tiny bit. This obviously stung a little and would make the next nail cutting experience worse. It has happened a few times now 🙁
It is just terrible now. We have tried bribing him with chocolate buttons, in that for every nail we cut he gets one; the OH even pretends to cut his nails so he can see it doesn’t hurt but he just gets hysterical whenever he sees the nail clippers coming! Once the fiasco is over, he won’t even go near whichever one of us tried to cut his nails (usually failing) because we have upset him so much.
I blame myself for his new found phobia, due to hurting him a couple of times but it was only because he wriggles so much that I did it. It wasn’t intentional, obviously.
The thing is, where do we go from here? His nails grow so quickly that they need cutting every couple of weeks. If anyone has had any experience of this or something similar and has any advice to share, I would be extremely grateful.
Thank you xx
Thank you xx
Any chance you can do it while he’s asleep? x
I haven’t tried that, so thank you that could work as long as he is in ak deep sleep x
Try doing it after bath when nails soft – although you get hysteria before bedtime so maybe give yourself extra space. My son is hysterical about hair wash and cutting but also went through phase of this- just perserve, maybe a few successful attempts and the realisation will dawn that it doesn’t hurt. We have moved through nail cut phobia, hair wash is improving v skowly. Ps. It’s not your fault. It’s not easy I bet most people have nipped fingers at sometime.
Thank you for your lovely comment. I am open to any suggestions. B doesn’t like his hair being trimmed either but washing it is fine! I hope your little man gets over his hair washing fear soon xx
Jennypaulin
0 minutes ago
Thank you for your lovely comment. I am open to any suggestions. B doesn’t like his hair being trimmed either but washing it is fine! I hope your little man gets over his hair washing fear soon xx
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I have seen novelty cutters which may help as they would distract him while you’re busy, link below is for racing cars . . .
http://www.amysgifts.co.uk/gifts-info.php?products_id=208
Thanks Alethea they look fab, as his Daddy is trying to get him interested in rally cars at the mo these could work! Xx
Jen, some good advice already given, especially doing them when they are soft from being in the bath. Also we always recommend nibbling little nails for newborns, this prevents you from cutting the nailbed because you will feel it in your mouth. Another suggestion I think may work is to bring some fun into it for Master B. After he has had a bath and they are soft, why not massage his hands and arms with some lotion, then he will get use to you holding his fingers. If he isnt happy about you clipping his nails, why not file them, you could get a funky nail file to distract him. Perhaps then, keep the nail clippers nearby so he gets used to seeing them as not hurting him, even let him play with them if he wants. Once he tolerates the filing, you could probably reintroduce the clippers, but perhaps just a couple fingers at a time? Hope this helps 🙂 Love, Kxxx
Avoid cutting his nails at all costs….I suffered this fear as a child and resorted to biting my nails so my mother would not cut them….It has taken me over twenty years to begin to break this habit