Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

This Friday, DS had his first trip to the ER. DH was home from work, and while DS was napping, we decided to trim his nails. We used a baby nail clipper and moved him to an area with good light. I was holding his hand while DH trimmed, and when he got to DSs ring finger, he snipped a bit of skin by accident.

At first we felt bad, but we thought oh well, we'll have to put some pressure on the finger, bandage it, and that's that. Well, it kept bleeding, and bleeding. AFter half an hour of this, we called his doctor, who advised us to go to the hospital just in case he needed a stich or help clotting (it was after office hours). When he got to the hospital, the finger was still bleeding, so we registered him and waited to see a doctor. By the time he got to a doctor the finger had stopped bleeding. He said the wound was superficial and basically just needs to be covered and kept dry. As luck would have it, the finger that is hurt is on the hand he likes to suck on, so we basically need to keep a mitt or sock on it till it heals.

Funny, the little guy LOVED the doctor who took care of him. For the first time in hours, he stopped crying and was smiling away at him. It was good to see him happy again.

So, please be very, very careful. We never thought something like this would happen, and I swear until his fingers are much bigger, I am filing his nails. I just can't bring myself to trim them again, and neither can DH. We both felt awful!

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Glad everything is okay. I think it happens more often than you think. I cut DD's skin once when she was about 3 weeks old. I felt terrible too. You should have seen what we had to do with cutting band-aids and wrapping her little thumb to get everything to stay.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

I know, it's hard to find bandaids that will stay in place when their fingers are so tiny. We bought some finger bandages, but we still need to cut them.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

I am too afraid to cut DS 's nails for this very reason. I just file them with the baby file every other day.

Glad that your DS is ok.

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I'm glad he is okay

Babies bleed for a long time, so just in case it happens to someone else..it's perfectly normal

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Posted by Lucky

Glad everything is okay. I think it happens more often than you think. I cut DD's skin once when she was about 3 weeks old. I felt terrible too. You should have seen what we had to do with cutting band-aids and wrapping her little thumb to get everything to stay.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

We did the same thing with DD last week. I nipped two fingers. I quickly washed them, put some ointment on them and put her little mittens on so she wouldn't put them in her mouth.

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It happens so much. The first time I cut DS's nails I cut his finger and it bled for over 45 minutes. SOOO much blood. The Dr said any cuts on babies are going to bleed that long b/c of the lack of clotting factors.

I have to say Im surprised your Ped had you go to the ER , b/c this is common.

But Im sooo glad to hear no stiches etc were needed.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Happens to the best of us.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

I used a nail file up until about 3 weeks ago. Now I try to be as careful as I can with the clipper

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Posted by dm24angel

It happens so much. The first time I cut DS's nails I cut his finger and it bled for over 45 minutes. SOOO much blood. The Dr said any cuts on babies are going to bleed that long b/c of the lack of clotting factors.

I have to say Im surprised your Ped had you go to the ER , b/c this is common.

But Im sooo glad to hear no stiches etc were needed.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

I did something similiar to DD. I was trimming her thumb nail and pinched her skin. She was sleeping and her eyes opened for a second, then right back to sleep.

A few hours later, I noticed how bad it was, but it was not bleeding so it did not bother her.

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Awww, glad to hear he is OK. DH refuses to cut DS's nails because he is so afraid of cutting him.

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I know how you feel...I did this the first time I clipped DS's nails. He was only a few weeks old. He bled for quite a while.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

Thanks for the posts! We both felt like such idiots for doing this to him. As I said before, we're sticking with a nail file for awhile. I used it today on his unclipped nails, and it worked just fine.

Yeah, from a few posts I'm surprised she told us to go to ER also. I had no idea it's normal for babies to bleed so long. She wasn't sure if he needed a stich, so maybe that was her rational. Oh well, big waste of time and $50 copay, but knowing as little as we did, I'm glad we went.

Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

I did that to my DD at about 4 months old. I was tramutized for months about it. I am so sorry you had to go through that

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Re: Be VERY Careful Trimming Your Baby's Nails!

I did that to my DD as a newborn. It took me over a year to be able to attempt to cut her nails again! Now I'm much better at it