Learning to take care of toenails.

A few days ago we were lucky enough to spend the afternoon at the presentation of the book "Pasito a pasito" (Step by step) 👣👌 written by our favourite paediatric podiatrist Neus Moya.❤️
Her book tells us everything we need to know about how children's feet develop. Her guide teaches us how to take care of our kids' feet as they grow.

"A child's foot is not an adult's foot in a smaller size, it is a foot that is still developing and must be cared for in a specific and personalised way."

One of the chapters in her book tells us how to cut a child's toenails correctly. It might not seem important but it is something that generates alot of doubt for parents and can hurt your child's toes. This is Neus's advice:

✅For very little ones, she recommends  filing their toenails instead of cutting them. As they are very small and soft, it is usually enough to file them, and you avoid damaging their toes by cutting off too much of the nail.
If you want to cut them, she suggests using straight scissors with a curved edge to avoid trimming off too much. And always follow these golden rules:

✅ Don't go too short (when you see that you can cut off a little more, stop) leave a little part of the nail so you don't cut the skin underneath.

✅ Cut nails in a straight line (round the edges of the nails with a file if necessary) so that the nails grow properly and do not cause pain in the toes later on due to poor nail growth. 

After the presentation of Neus's book, we set up a workshop where children could learn about about feet through play 🥰. And it went so well that we'd like to share this activity with you on "how to cut toenails" so that you can enjoy doing it at home, as much as we did in the workshop.
We made some cutouts of smiling feet and some colourful nail-shaped stickers for the kids to cut out and stick on the little toes! They could also decorate them in the way they wanted in different colours, with diamonds, stars and so much more. It was a lot of fun!

And we had a lot of fun too 🤤watching kids of all ages enjoying themselves, mixing and matching different materials to make the game their own. All those Feroz families giving their little ones the chance to experiment without limits. You didn't hear any of the parents saying"not like that!", or "be careful not to get paint on yourself!". Parents and children alike were simply enjoying the moment.

Click here for the downloadable activity sheets::

• Happy Feet Sheet
• Happy toenails sheet

We recommend printing the toenail sheet on adhesive paper. If that's not possible, have a stick of glue handy so they can stick on the toenails themselves after cutting them out. 
This aim of this activity is to promote your child's autonomy and let them explore their feet through play. It helps them become aware of their feet and toenails and teaches them to cut their toesnails themselves, normalising this habit by making it fun. It is a good activity, especially for those who don't like having their toesnails cut, and it can also help prevent problems such as the formation of ingrown nails due to poor toenail care.