Infant Care Class and Fingernail Cutting?

I am doing an Infant Care and in the book they give you (all at my hospital) it says not to cut their nails for two weeks after birth. Why is this? What did you all do? I have quite a bit of those scratch mittens on hand, but it would still be nice to cut her nails right away.Infant Care Class and Fingernail Cutting?
I never heard of that. I can't think of any reason why not to cut their nails if the nails are long and will scratch. My younger son was born with the fingernails of a supermodel, so the nurses cut them when they gave him his first bath. Infant Care Class and Fingernail Cutting?
You can bite them off I guess they tell you not to because it's very easy to cut the baby while trimming their nails when they are so young and you don't really know when they'll move. At the hospital a nurse told me about this lady who was told not to cut the baby's nail and she cut them while in the hospital she cut the baby's finger and it was hard to stop the bleeding just from a little cut on the baby's finger. It's better to be safe than sorry I put mittens on and waited at least 2 weeks if you need to trim they earlier do with your teeth.
I did wait at least a week or two before I did anything to her nails because I had read that somewhere. I believe it's because their nail beds are still so fragile, that it could mess their nails up of they could come off. For awhile you can just peel them because they are so thin. I really suggest getting the small swiss army knife (like $10 at WalMart) and using the scissors to cut the nails. My husband had done this with my stepdaughter, and he suggested it. I thought he was nuts, but it's wonderful. I can see exactly where I'm about to cut. It goes from the side instead of coming from the top.
Honestly, babies finger nails dont have to be cut in the first two weeks. They are not hard, they are very thin and soft - the actually peel right off, so they arent in any danger of scratching because the nails arent hard enough (they'll just bend against their skin). If the nails get long, you can just peel them off.
I took a class and they said the same thing, not sure why. We used a small nail file for a few weeks, then the nails seemed big enough to actually warrant using nail clippers.





We didn't use scratch mittens, baby's like to suck on their hands for comfort (they do so in the womb too). I didn't want to take that away from her by covering her hands.
This might sound gross, but I just bite my babies nails. The clippers are so big for their little fingers, and the nails are so soft it was difficult to file. While he's nursing, I nibble the nails, and then when I switch breasts (or positions) i get the other hand.





Good luck to you!
in one of my kits i got the baby nail clippers and a small slightly rounded pair of baby scissors. i cut my sons nails with the scissors until he was 3 months old. their nails are super thin and brittle i wouldn't use the clippers till they got a little stronger.
We cut Sophie's for the first time at like 7 days. They were not that long when she was born. We tired to use the mittens but she would NOT keep them on. I cut them because they needed to be trimmed, she was scratching herself.
Not sure, I've never heard of this. We had to cut Noah's nails a couple days after bringing him home because they were just too long. Can you imagine babies that go past their due date and not cutting their nails for two weeks? Yikes!
i cut my babies nails 5 days after coming home they get really long like quick they say the best time to cut is when there dosing off/sleeping...and u have to be really careful i was cutting my daughters nails today i cut her (tear)
If the baby gets a little cut when you are trimming there nails they are to little to fight off any infection. I trimmed my daughters at about 1.5 weeks because she was tearing her face up and she managed just fine.
thats crazy you have to ,,, its like little razors on their hands and they will cut themselves,,