October 23, 2007

How to Trim Your Baby’s Nails: Baby Tip by Babble Soft

Since I babble about business, babies, and parenthood here on this blog, those of you who come here to read my posts on entrepreneurship but do not have babies, please forward this post to your friends and family who do have babies. For those who have babies and dabble in business, these tips might be right up your alley. If you have babies and have no interest in business, then send it on to the folks you know who are knee-deep in business and encourage them to have a baby!

When our son was born we were told to cut his nails while he was sleeping in his crib. Being the sleep-deprived, paranoid mom that I was, following are the reasons why this did not work for me:

This boy barely sleeps and you are asking me to risk waking him and losing my sanity to cut his nails?!? No freaking way!
What if he’s lying on one side and I can’t get to the hand or foot I want to get to? Then refer back to item #1.
What if some of the little nail cuttings find their way into his mouth, ears, nose, or belly button, and he can’t breathe and he and I both go into shock? What if one of them simply pokes him…then refer back to item #1.
What if I accidentally cut too much of his nail and cut his skin…then of course refer back to item #1.
How do I lean over his crib or bassinet with a huge post-partum belly and conduct what to me seemed like minor surgery on my precious baby without breaking my back or having a let-down?

So being the resourceful parent/entrepreneur that I am, here’s what I did:

Put him in a reclining bouncer (with neck support if needed) and either a) wait until he fell asleep or b) put on a Baby Einstein video (back then it was OK to watch Baby Einstein videos). I also occasionally did this while he was still in his infant car seat.
If he fell asleep and I didn’t think he would wake up (usually from age 0 to about 2 months), I would get some ~~Kleenex~~ tissue and place is strategically under his hands or feet. I would then gently press the nail down so just the part that needed cutting would stick out over the end and commence trimming with the Safety 1^st nail trimmer, which we still use today, that you can buy here at Amazon.com. I would collect the trimmings in the tissue and throw them in the trash when I was finished.
If he didn’t fall asleep (2 months to present), I would do what I did in item #2 above but with a video (e.g., Baby Einstein) I knew he could not take his eyes off of. I would trim the nails on his right hand, take a break then move to his right foot. I would repeat on his left side.

To this day, I cut both of the kid’s nails in front of the TV. It is a much less nerve wracking experience for all of us to do it while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse than while they are asleep.

Happy Nail Trimming!

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Note to new readers: these tips are based on our experiences, as well as those of our friends and readers. Please always consult with your doctor before implementing any tip that might impact the health of your baby. If you have a tip you’d like to submit please send an email to blogger at babblesoft dot com for possible inclusion. Please check the ‘baby tips’ category to make sure your tip (in some form or fashion) hasn’t already been posted. If it has been, feel free to comment on that post and support the tip. We also welcome respectful challenges to the tips because as is noted in our inaugural baby tip ‘everything is relative!’ We will, of course, give anyone who submits a tip we publish credit and a link back to their site!

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