I have a thing with finger and toe nails. I despise nails with black dirt under them. I hate seeing kids with long nails, specially on their fingers and I hate it even more when they are dirty.

Having said that, I make sure that I cut my children’s nails regularly: once to twice a week for the fingers and once or twice a month for the toes.

When my kids were infant, I only cut their finger nails after a month or two from when they were born. So that they will not scratch their pretty face with their long nails, I put mittens on their tiny hands. When I remove the mittens, I replace it right away but without not cleaning the in-betweens of their fingers. You know, dirt can form in them, specially when the tiny hands perspire.

Now that my girls are older, I have made trimming of their nails more fun. We play pretend salon where I am their salon girl and they are my customers. Both of them line up for their turn. I nip each nail according to its shape and make sure that the sides are untouched. After trimming, I do a little filing to smoothen each finger nail’s tip. I also make sure that there are no dirt left on the skin of the fingers.

Timing plays a role when nipping my kids’ nails. More often than not, I like nipping their nails after they take a bath. In that case, the nails are softer and the skin is already clean. I avoid nipping their nails when they are sleepy because they get irritated easily, which may wound their delicate hands and feet.

Are your kids the sweaty type of children? Mine are, specially Alex! I always notice how the area between her lips and nose becomes sweaty even when we just finished taking a bath. That happens even when it is not summer here in the Philippines. And we all know that when kids are sweaty, they are very prone to getting cough and/or colds because their sweat dries on their back without us knowing. So here are a few things I do to keep my children away from being sick this summer.

1. Put powder at their back right after taking a bath. My children are prone to asthma because I am asthmatic. So that they will have less chance of inhaling powder particles, I apply them while their body is still damp. After that, I re-apply powder about twice to thrice a day, on a damp cloth then to their back.

2. Make children wear light clothing. This allows air to pass through their bodies more, which can lessen sweating.

3. Put towel at their back and make sure to check it every now and then. The towel will absorb the sweat from your child’s body but you have to check it because if you don’t, the towel can get wet of sweat and still dry on your kid’s back.

4. Keep your children hydrated. When they sweat a lot, they should drink more water. Water therapy also prevents cough and colds.

5. Double-dose on Vitamin C. Prevention is I think the best cure of all.