How to Keep Baby’s Nails Safe

You probably know this by now: child care involves doing things that involve nails. And, even though you’re navigating a whole new world of caregiving challenges, you’re still normal and don’t need to be worried about the nail polish in your purse that day.

So, here are five easy ways to keep baby’s hands safe from dirty nails.

Safe Driving

Nail polish that can stay off the soles of your shoes can help prevent at-risk germs on your passenger seat. You can find baby nail polish that contains antifungal chemicals, such as lignin or laci-fam. One such polish, labeled with the abbreviation ATC, says it is formulated to resist mildew, so if your baby gets it on the car seat’s carpet, they won’t be carrying on a stinky-finger-induced outbreak in the backseat.

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Wellness

Another important tip: decrease the risk of your baby’s skin getting cut by hand. Put your child’s fingernails and toenails in a cotton ball dipped in acetone and use a stiff-sided, noncleaning brush to clean them after every feeding or bath, which will help protect your baby’s skin from staph and other bacteria.

You Can Also Protect Baby’s Nails by Not Treating Them

People with herpes can treat their condition by not touching their rashes with their hands. Similarly, nail fungus can be treated with acetone, so that your baby won’t pick it up from the tip of their fingernails and end up with a nasty staph infection. Letting it run its course can be a great way to protect your baby’s skin, though sometimes it can become resistant to treatment if exposed to new germs.

Keep Clean

A baby’s legs are going to collect lots of dirt and baby urine, and a lot of that goes straight into her nail bed. Keep washing your baby’s entire body with soap and warm water, from head to toe. It helps remove bacteria that may be present in the body and can cause sores on your baby’s skin and nails.

Lock the Lips

Parents are sometimes put in a tough spot when worrying about whether to tell their kids they need to clean their mouth. In general, we take a stand against just laying down the law, but teeth are really pretty beautiful, and they deserve to be cared for. So, clean baby’s teeth before and after everything else, and leave your baby’s face free of rougher teeth you might not want to clean from rubbing up against them.