Babies who need a good manicure!

[torontokids]

I have one 15 mos old who seems to always have long nails and the worst part is, she's a swatter! I will tell the parents when they need to be clipped and they do it but they also need to file them as she will be left with jagged/sharp edges. I am at the point now where I will have to tell them her nails need to be kept short and filed in order to come back in as it's becoming a bit of a liability for me. She is always swatting some kid in/near the face and I don't want to deal with a serious eye injury.

[Cadillac]

I know its not EXACTLY you job . . . but why don't you just do it? its better than having her scratch and hurt someone

[zoomama]

I've had to clip nails on several occasions and I don't really mind doing it...especially if it means avoiding scratches or other injuries that I will need to tell parents about. I always let the parents know I did it because of the potential safety hazard and find for the most part that they try to keep on top of it once thry realize. We all have those things that cause us frustration, for me clipping nails once in awhile isn't one of them. But if it was I would just make it very clear to all parents that nails must be kept short.

I find that group emails comes across less personally, and I feel it makes parents somewhat accountable to the other parents. If an incident does occur it looks less like a lack of caring on your part, and more like negligence on the part of the dcp.

[Robyn]

all my parents were warned that i cut nails if they are even a tiny bit long. my son cut my eye so badly that the optometrist insisted on seeing me every other day for a week until she thought it was healed enough. i have no qualms about cutting nails and i figure if they sit for the fingers i might as well do the toes too

[Play and Learn]

If a child comes to my daycare and their nails are not kept trim, I tell the parents that they need to be trimmed by 'set' date. They're scratching me and the other kids in care. IF they can't do it at home, I get a written permission that I will be cutting the child's nails when I deem necessary.

In the past 3 years, I've had 4 children that I had regularly trimmed their nails. It's pretty sad IMO. BUT...I don't get scratched!

[sunnydays]

I wouldn't trim nails without parents' permission because there is always a small risk of the clippers cutting the child's skin if they move suddenly. But you could ask them to sign a permission form to cut nails when they are long and that might push them into action

[apples and bananas]

I once sent a text to a parent in the middle of the day. "suzy just scratched johnny in the face. Her nails are too long to be in care. Please let me know if you'd like me to clip them or if you'd like to pick her up early."

yup, that nipped it in the butt really fast.

[playfelt]

I have often trimmed corners or at least taken a nail file to them. I find those are worse than the nails themselves being long.