Google and ye Shall Receive

When Sweet Pea was a baby, and really until The Bug was born, sometimes even thereafter, I would cut her fingernails and toenails while she was taking a nap. It was just easier that way, because when she was awake she was afraid I might cut her with the clippers (which I have never done), or she just didn't want to sit still.

After The Bug was born it was not guaranteed that both girls would nap at the same time, and even if they did when her nails needed to be trimmed, I would not necessarily remember. I would cut my nails in front of her, explaining to her what I was doing and then tell her that after mine were trimmed I would cut hers. Sometimes that worked. She usually doesn't mind too much when I cut her toe nails. But it's hit or miss with the fingernails. Sometimes she doesn't care, gives me her hands and sits still. Most often, though, she will yank her hand away as soon as I hold it, once she realizes what I'm going to do (I often try this while she is watching a show on TV, because she is sometimes distracted enough by the TV not to care too much about me trimming her nails).

A friend gave me a good idea - she said that she tells her daughter, who is just a few months older than Sweet Pea, that when she gets her fingernails cut, she can have fingernail polish on them. Same goes for the toes. I was raised to think that stuff like fingernail polish was somewhat whorish, so even though I got over that for myself by high school, it was initially a little weird to actually entertain the notion of putting fingernail polish on Sweet Pea's toes. I mean, come one, she's only three.

HOWEVER, it works. And really, what is "toenail polish," as she calls it, going to hurt?

When I told her we could do the polish she wanted it on her fingernails but I told her that she still stuck her hands into her mouth too often for me to be comfortable with that. It's possible that the nasty chemicals in fingernail polish are inert once it's dry, but I don't know that for sure. So we agreed that when I cut her nails, whether on her hands or feet, she could have toenail polish.

I have put regular old fingernail polish on her toenails, but was still pretty uncomfortable putting that kind of nasty stuff on my child. I searched online to find an alternative. I used search terms that I thought might actually make my computer sprout a huge mouth and laugh me out of the room. I typed in, "non-toxic fingernail polish." You know what? Google brought up this.

We ordered today - Mahalo for Sweet Pea (her favorite color is light blue), and Plasma and Tickle Me for me. Oh, and clear, and some remover. I've never paid more than $1.50 or so for a bottle of fingernail polish before in my life, so the prices here are pretty scary, but you know what? Non-toxic on my girls (and me!) is TOTALLY worth it. (My mother-in-law, who gets her nails done every two weeks, also told me that quality polish costs a lot more than drugstore polish - I had no idea!) Besides being non-toxic, there are also claims that this stuff is actually beneficial to your nails, instead of stripping them like all the other nail polishes and removers on the market. If anyone is interested I'll report back about these products once we use them.

I really didn't think I would find what I was looking for, so since I did, I thought I'd put it out there in case anyone else is looking for something similar - or looking for ideas to help with cutting their kids' fingernails!