Cutting nails on a child on the spectrum

Well, you would never (or might) I don’t know, but cutting nails is TORTURE to a child that has sensory issues. Because although no, you are not hurting them as we would mean, it PULLS the skin surrounding it and they can feel that tug.

I have seen mothers just bite the nails off their kids hands - er no, not something I ever did or could do. Or if the fingernails were soft enough you can literally peel off the top of the nail.

One of the mothers with a child on the spectrum said to me once that once her child got to school she just game up and hoped he wasn’t too bad. Again, this wasn’t what I could feel myself doing, so I HAD to find a way to do it.

Cue: He’s sleeping - which hand or foot are doing? And where are we with it all….yep, I decided that’s what I would do. And while he was younger that was a viable option I had. Doesn’t mean it’s the one I use now.

Then we got into a cycle of instead of cutting we filed the nail instead. But Kevin decided to tell Johnathan he was only going to TRIM the nails. He does so, while singing to Johnathan and that seems to be working for now.

You see it’s not that the child is being “hurt” as we would think it, but they are having some part of their body leaving them and I believe it’s due to this AS WELL as the fact that the finger or toes are being pulled (naturally you would think) but their brain interprets it as pain.

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