Don't cut baby's nails

[snopes]

Comment: I could not find any
information about a rumor I recently heard and had never heard before
this. Someone said it is better to bite off a baby's finger nails than to
use baby nail clippers. I, personally think that's grose & spreads germs,
but I was just wondering if this is true or not.

All I have for that one is . I can think of no reason why it would be better to bite their nails. And you'd better cut them or the kid will scratch their face off (often mistaken for the cat licking off the baby's face).

Yes, my kids have been called scar face now & then, but from what I can tell, they heal....

[Little Pink Pill]

Clippers leave sharp edges that babies scratch their face with, and they have a bad habit of wiggling and getting nipped when you are cutting their nails. I pealed my newborns' nails when they were tiny for that very reason. It leaves a soft edge.

Biting does seem kind of gross, but no more so than sharing a spoon, which most moms do.

[Arriah]

My doctor just told me not to cut DD2's nails because the skin at the fingertips is so thin that it's easy to make a mistake. She said to use a fine file to file them a little instead. I've been using the roughest side of a buffing block (which is still pretty fine) to file them and it's working fine, with no danger to fingertips.

My mom told me once that she bit my and my sisters nails when we were little because she worried about cutting us. We grew up ok

[Kahdra]

I am a nail biter, and as such was advised by the nurse who assisted in the delivery of my first baby to bite my baby's nails. She said it usually resulted in few cut fingers if all parents bit the baby's nails instead of using clippers, but parents who were nail-biters were especially good at it because they could feel how close to bite easier (from experience with their own nails).

I did it will all four of my kids and it was great. I never had to find the clippers, and I could do it while they nursed because I only needed one hand to hold their fingers. None of them ever had any problems. As they got older and had stuff under their nails I didn't want in my mouth, I switched to clippers.

[Auntie Witch]

I bit my girls' nails when they were little. What Kahdra says about feeling where they need to be is correct - I could feel where they needed trimmed much easier. The few times I tried a clipper on them when they were still tiny, I drew blood. That, and biting did leave a softer edge than the clippers did.

[Hero_Mike]

My friends had their first baby wearing mittens because her nails were, according to them, long enough to be dangerously sharp, yet still too soft to cut reliably.

[Chickee Daizy]

I did it both ways. If the clippers were handy, I would use them, and I never cut his little fingers. If the clippers weren't close by and I saw that his nails were getting long, I would bite them. I did kind of feel gross at first, because I'm not a nail biter myself, but it got the job done.

Originally Posted by Little Pink Pill

Biting does seem kind of gross, but no more so than sharing a spoon, which most moms do.

I just have to say that the thought of sharing spoons or cups or any other utensil with either of my children just grosses me out to no end. I get nauseated so easily over other people's saliva, that it's really out of the question for me. In fact, several years ago DH and I were having dinner with some friends who had a small child (maybe 6 or 8 months old). The other mom was feeding the baby really soft foods off of her plate and sharing a glass. The baby took a drink and left moist chunky residue on the side of the glass and the other mom just kept right on drinking out of it. I'm making myself queasy just thinking about it.

[mags]

Originally Posted by Elsie

The baby took a drink and left moist chunky residue on the side of the glass and the other mom just kept right on drinking out of it. I'm making myself queasy just thinking about it.

Ugh, I nearly vomited a little bit just hearing about it. If I had been there, I certainly wouldn't have been able to keep eating. I have issues about sharing drinks, too.

[Little Pink Pill]

Originally Posted by Elsie

The other mom was feeding the baby really soft foods off of her plate and sharing a glass. The baby took a drink and left moist chunky residue on the side of the glass and the other mom just kept right on drinking out of it. I'm making myself queasy just thinking about it.

I can't think about that too much.

Too late, I just gagged.

I don't personally like to share utensils with anyone either, even my kids. But you know what else grosses me out? When moms lick off a dropped pacifier and pop it back in the baby's mouth.

[Arriah]

Blech. I carry 3 pacifiers with me when we leave the house just so that I can offer a replacement if she drops one when we are away from water. If it's icky enough to not put in her mouth, why would I want it in mine?

As for the drink sharing, DD1 is almost 10 now and it's only been the last year or so that I've even let her have a sip of my drinks because she's finally old enough that I'm confident she won't backwash. ick!

[FrogFeathers]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: I could not find any
information about a rumor I recently heard and had never heard before
this. Someone said it is better to bite off a baby's finger nails than to
use baby nail clippers. I, personally think that's grose & spreads germs,
but I was just wondering if this is true or not.

My MIL's father was utterly convinced that if you cut a baby's fingernails, they would "grow up to be thieves". He was appalled when he saw me trimming my then 3-month old baby's fingernails.

I said, "Its no big deal, I went to beauty college, I'm a nail tech."

I was sternly lectured by this man about the fact my child would grow up to be a thief. My MIL said, "It isn't true! I bit Lil' Jerry's fingernails for two whole years and he still stole stuff when he was a little kid!"



Oh, and she didn't grow up to be a thief. Just your run-of-the-mill honor roll student.

[1958Fury]

I keep reading this thread title as "Don't cut baby snails."

I just tried to cut my 11-week old's nails - I couldn't do it. I think I maybe got 1/10, and that one not very well. I will resort to biting them from now on.

I feel kinda stupid here - I never heard of biting the kids' nails!

I do remember that my mom cut my brother's nails when he was a newborn, and she did draw blood (panicked the hell out of her too.) With my own babies, I just pretty much saw when they got long, took some clippers (baby clippers I think) and gently cut them. You can see where the "quick" is. Naturally you don't want to cut too far - just clip off the excess, and then gently clip off the sharp edges on the corners because they really are sharp. Never did draw any blood. Same with bunnies - unlike cats, bunnies have very easy-to-cut "quicks" and you have to be real careful. Just tip the little sharp edges and no more.

Having had a very nasty overbite, I just couldn't "bite" them. If you're careful, you can cut them just fine. Or at least I guess I could. But then I had babies who didn't really scratch their faces either. So maybe I was just lucky.