Tips for trimming your baby’s nails
- By Dr. T Deepa Porkodi
Trimming the nails is important not only for the baby’s safety, it is equally important for the safety of other children if your baby is in a child care centre.
Cutting your baby’s nails is very important. Babies do not possess good muscle control. Overgrown nails can hurt and tear the baby’s skin as it waves it hands and legs about. Also, as most babies put their fingers in their mouths constantly, dirty long nails can be a source of infection.
- Make sure you have the right pair of baby nail trimmers. Avoid using scissors.
- Always involve a partner in the task. It helps if one of you is holding the baby and not allowing it to squirm while the other cuts the nails.
- Find a position that is most comfortable to you. You can place the baby in your lap, lay him in his crib or even cut the nails when the baby is asleep. Whatever position suits you is fine, just make sure that the place is well lit.
- Hold the palm and fingers firmly with one hand while you cut with the other.
- While cutting nails, make sure that the edges are rounded off and not jagged.
- Most babies are fidgety, so it is very common for a slight bleeding to occur while cutting the nails. Do not worry. Apply a sterile pad and press firmly till the bleeding stops. Do not bandage the cut.
- Nails grow very quickly in the first few years of life. So you may have to trim the nails as frequently as twice a week.
