Chop chop!

Last month, we had quite a bit of drama attempting to cut Little Man’s toenails. I put a request (plea!) for help out to other parents looking for tips and tricks to help us cut his nails without causing a total toddler meltdown.

I got lots of great suggestions on ways to got the job done:

• singing a silly song to him to take his mind off it
• sitting him in front of his favourite tv show to distract him
• giving him a bottle of milk to calm him
• desensitising him to people touching his feet by regularly massaging his toe with almond oil
• or the overwhelming winner, waiting until he’s asleep!

Distraction doesn’t work yet – he’s on to us the minute we so much as look at his toes. Desensitising him by playing games with his toes is definitely having an effect. We sing “This little piggy went to the market” and rub his toes with almond oil, and although he was wary at first, now he’s starting to enjoy it. In the past week or two, he’s even started offering up the second foot, as soon as we finish with the first one.

We haven’t managed to cut his toenails while he’s awake yet, since that traumatic night, but we have managed to cut his fingernails without too many complaints, so I count that as progress. And in the meantime, we are following everyone’s advice to cut his toenails while he sleeps – and we’re all a lot happier as a result!

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice! I’ll keep you posted on our progress! 🙂