How do you trim the fingernails and toenails of a 3-year old?

buy her some sparkly pink nail polish and promise her after you are done, you will put on nail polish on her toes, tell she is having a pedicure!

Simple..based on my experience, I do the cutting of my children's fingernails when they are sound asleep...I do it as quietly and as carefully as possible. Believe me, it worked fine with me...I had no problem with physically harming my kids because I do it only when they are sound asleep. Try it....

You trim the nails when they are sleeping of course. I trimmed my son’s nails when he was about a week old coz he was born with long nails and he used to scratch himself a lot and hurt himself in the process. I made it a regular habit of trimming his nails when he was sleeping. Of course you have to wait for the sleep to be very very deep and you have to have patience…like do each nail, then wait for sometime and start with another. You have to be very cautious of every small movement. However, as my son gradually grew up, I just trimmed his nails regularly and he kind of became habituated to the fact that nails have to be trimmed, its just part of hygiene that’s all.

Hello there. I do not have any children. But I've seen my auntie and uncle cutting my 4 year old cousin's nails when she is sleeping. I thins that's a pretty good idea. However, do be careful as kids tend to move around a lot when they are sleeping.

I know this is horrible to do to a child but it worked for mine, I bribed my kids to let me cut thier nails lol. Well it worked I used toys or candy or watching cartoons and stuff. I even let them trim my nails once, be careful with that one I let my oldest son do that when he was about 2 years old needless to say I was distracted and by the time he was done I was hunting around for a band aid. -Amber

I do not have any children and am not married and do know even have a lover yet! LOL! But my mother told me that when i was young she would either trim my fingernails and toenails when i was asleep or she would use a sweet to bribe me!

My daughter will be turning two years old in three months time. And the way I trim her fingernails and toenails is while she is sleeping, usually in the afternoon while she takes her nap. I have been doing this to her since her very first fingernail trim. I don't have much difficulty having her nails trimmed, except on some occasions when she would wake up, but that's not too often.

My daughter never cared if I trimmed her nails, but my son has always hated it!! He is two now and I have to physically hold himm down while he tries to get away, which is too hard. So I clip them while he is asleep. During nap-time is good so you can see what you are doing, because at night it is dark and harder to see =) I told my husband someone needs to invent nail clippers with a little flash light that would shine on the nails, so it would be easier for me. Tell her to try doing it while the girl is sleeping, sometimes my son will start to move around the bed so I wait a little while and let him fall back into a good sleep and do the rest of his nails. It is a pain!

My kid would do the same. She would cry and won't give her hands. I normally trim her fingernails when she's asleep. Until one day she saw me trimming my fingernails, she got curious and wanted to trim her fingernails on her own. I gave her the nail cutter, but with her little hands of course she cannot do it on her own so she let me do it to her. After that she started to come to me when her fingers are dirty. Little kids like to do grown up things. That's what I do when I want to introduce something to her, I do it first in her presence and then she would imitate. If she cannot do it on her own, whe asked my to do it for her.

I have a 2 1/2 year daughter and a 9 month old daughter. I try to make it fun. We sing songs, count down each finger (10, 9, 8). And it flies by no problem (well most of the time anyway). I also don't announce that it's time for the nails to be cut. I just quietly go get the clippers and cut away...