Trim fingernails during bathtime to minimize cleanup

Jenn's practical bathtime hack:

The other day I had the kids in the tub and upon closer inspection, saw that they needed their nails clipped. I decided to trim their nails right then and there, in the tub. Not only were their nails softened by the water, but the bits of trimmed nails went right down the drain. No cleanup!

The only potential problem I can see here is that the fingernail clipper could get slippery. This Safety 1st clipper is nice and grippy and looks easier to handle.

Related:
Cut baby's fingernails while she's in a front carrier
Zinc oxide "highlights" where to trim tiny fingernails

Comments

[Amy]

My kids HATE having their nails cut. I bite them! Hahhaa...

[magpie]

I cut my kindergarten's fingernails at the bus stop the other day...I supposed someone could have called me on it as being gross, but we were alone.

[andrea from the fishbowl]

Ew! And have them rot in the drain along with our (collective) hair? There are three long-haired gals living in our house. My husband (the drainunclogger)would be very unhappy to read this hack. ;)

[andrea from the fishbowl]

.... which reminds me, my youngest daughter used to call the plumber the "plugger." Little did she know, that little moptop, that she was the biggest plugger around. :)

[Ethel]

I absolutely have to dis-recommend the clipper here. Safety 1st makes shoddy products. I cut my babies' fingers several times with this clipper before I gave up and started using a normal cheap metal adult nail clilpper. I simply couldn't get a good angle to cut due to the weird shape - which looks well-engineered, but is really just weird. Plus it was hard to hold - my wrist ached while using it, and sometimes my fingers slipped because of the awkwardness. On the bright side, I haven't clipped their fingers by accident again since I switched. Even in the tub(which I have done, but not because of the hack above - although clipping did go a bit easier, maybe this is why).

We've had similar luck with other Safety 1st products. The best ones were merely unusuable for their original intent - the nasal aspirator, for example, went straight into the bathtub as soon as the girls were old enough for bath toys and made a good chewing toy for young mouths before that.

But it does look good - that was why we bought it. They have some great marketing minds designing these.

[Alyssa]

I don't like to trim nails during or after the bath. The softening of the nails makes them tear rather than cut. Also the skin under the nail bed gets kind of swollen from the water and I've cut too short or cut into the skin because of this.

[Brenda]

To avoid the drain-clogging, we've started cutting toddler nails on the bed and then using a lint roller to pick up the pieces. He loves to use the lint roller and sometimes he's so excited to use it that he doesn't sit still for all 10 fingers!

[karen]

I've never tried the bathtub trick. I always just made a funny noise with every click of the nail clipper and that was enough to keep the kids from screaming in hysteria. I have these Korean nail clippers that collect the clippings in the body of the clipper, and when I'm done I just dump out the contents into the toilet. Why not the trashcan, I don't know. But I figure nail clippings softened by sitting in the toilet can't clog the toilet, right?

[NikiGee]

I've had the best success clipping my daughter's nails while she's strapped into her car seat. There is no wiggling and I found her little nails are so much easier to see in daylight. A bonus is when she fallen asleep on the drive.

[Michael Campbell]

For those with septic tanks, this is just another un-decayable piece of "solids". (Granted, a very small insignificant one...)