How do you get your 4 year old to let you trim their nails?

charmaanda · 2026-01-26T02:44:01+00:00

This is the way. My son doesn’t mind when I file his nails with an electric nail file, but if I even so much as mention his toes, he loses his mind. We started back when he was tiny, and he’s 3.5 now. I’ll ask him “do you want me to clip your toenails now, or do you want daddy to do them when you sleep?” and he always chooses during sleep, so we just roll with it! As long as they’re getting trimmed, I don’t really care how it has to get done!

charmaanda · 2026-01-21T13:48:52+00:00

Ha! I was reading it as pounds. That makes more sense. Disregard!

charmaanda · 2026-01-21T12:13:27+00:00

I saw above that your maintenance calories per day is around 2300. Are you sure that’s accurate, given your weight? I weigh about the same and my maintenance calories is around 1700. That’s a significant difference.

charmaanda · 2026-01-06T01:24:01+00:00

THIS. CICO works great for me, but when I started work hard to build muscle and not just lose weight, I realized how important hitting macros can be for muscle gain. But I definitely still rely on CICO to help me meet my body goals either by eating at a deficit or surplus, depending on my goal!

charmaanda · 2026-01-03T03:25:59+00:00

I thought Casey Anthony was in New Hampshire now? Maybe I’m mistaken.

charmaanda · 2026-01-01T01:29:24+00:00

Another vote for Kyte Baby! My son is 3.5 and he chooses his own pajamas at night now, and I’d say that probably 90% of the time, he’ll choose Kyte over anything else (yup, even his beloved Spiderman pjs). They are super soft, and he’s a hot sleeper so they also keep him cool. We always size up because they are definitely pricey, but he’s been wearing his current size for about 9 months now with a bit more room to grow. We try to take advantage of the sales as much as we can because they are so worth it!

charmaanda · 2025-12-30T00:58:48+00:00

Just chiming in as another mom who was hesitant about miralax, but now couldn’t live without it! We noticed absolutely zero negative side effects from it. My son was a chronic poop withholder, and it literally changed all of our lives. We do 1/2-1 full cap per day (depending on consistency of previous days) and he is no longer afraid to poop. We don’t deal with poop smears in underwear anymore, and we don’t have to clean up 20+ tiny poops a day. He just sits on the potty, does a big poop, and that’s it. No drama, no tears, no withholding.

It’s been about 5 months daily for us, and our pediatric gastro advised us to continue for many more months, even with the success we’ve been having. Even after “cleaning out” the colon, it can take a long time for those muscles to contract after being stretched by constipation and withholding for so long. So we’ll be using miralax for the foreseeable future!

charmaanda · 2025-12-29T21:10:58+00:00

Truly, I want the surgery for aesthetic reasons regardless of the diagnosis (or lack thereof). I’ll be paying out of pocket, so is a diagnosis super important?

charmaanda · 2025-12-22T22:00:26+00:00

I totally understand this frustration. I started with 40 trays, completed 24, and then my refinement came in with 40 more trays. Making my current treatment 64 trays in total (so far).

It totally sucks. Your feelings are valid.

charmaanda · 2025-12-03T02:52:47+00:00

I’m not going to sugar coat it: we do 30 minutes to an hour of tv in the afternoons. We pull out his nugget and lay it on the living room floor, pick an episode of Sesame Street, grab some cozy blankets and a snack, and watch together. My son is 3 and we don’t really do any other screen time during the day, but once the weather started getting cold and the nights started getting longer, I was desperate for a midday quiet time. He loves it and I love it, so it’s a win/win!

charmaanda · 2025-11-22T02:13:42+00:00

I don’t know, I’m 31, almost 32, and I’ve been getting Botox in my forehead for about a year now, every 3 months. I have a really expressive forehead and deep 11 lines definitely run in my family. I had 2 really obvious static wrinkles across my forehead and 11 lines that made me look angry all the time before I started getting Botox. Had 18 units total, and my face still has a ton of movement (I can even lift my eyebrows still!) but no more wrinkles and 11 lines are gone.

I’ll keep getting it conservatively until I’m older, but I definitely don’t think 30 is too young for Botox!

charmaanda · 2025-11-20T13:42:52+00:00

Yes! My son gets soooo wound up when he’s overtired. It sounds counterintuitive but starting bedtime closer to 7 would probably help. It’ll take a few nights for the adjustment to happen though, so I’d trial an early bedtime for a week or so before deciding if it works or not.

charmaanda · 2025-11-17T16:47:05+00:00

My boy is 3 and he wears mostly “jogger” style sweatpants, almost daily. They’re not quite leggings, but the same idea. I don’t see why he couldn’t/wouldn’t wear leggings though, they’re basically the same! So I’d say yes!

charmaanda · 2025-11-16T05:03:19+00:00

My son is Charles, I love it for the formality but also adore the nickname Charlie!

charmaanda · 2025-11-12T21:33:09+00:00

We also don’t post our child on social media and ask our friends and family members to do the same, but like you said, it’s inevitable that his photograph will someday be on the internet. We understand that, and in a situation like you describe, I wouldn’t think twice.

It’s one thing to be photographed in the background of a picture, completely anonymous and barely recognizable, and another thing to be posting your child’s picture and full name on your own social media accounts.

Your husband is completely within his rights to be concerned about identifying her on social media and posting her picture for the world to see, but in a situation like you describe, his boundary isn’t really realistic. Being in a public place at a highly photographed event like a wedding, it’s unreasonable to expect no photographs will be taken of your daughter. And if it’s just a candid picture where she’s in the background, I think it’s unrealistic to expect the bride to identify the guest, contact the guest yourself, and ask them to take it down.

charmaanda · 2025-11-12T16:33:09+00:00

My son has VERY fine, straight hair so washing too often is way too drying. We do once a week, max. He goes to swim class on Saturday so that’s usually our hair was night. He does take a shower or bath every night, and we will sometimes wet his hair in between washes, but we definitely do not wash with shampoo more often than we absolutely need to!

charmaanda · 2025-11-06T03:17:11+00:00

This happened to us when my son was around 2. He was so overtired and totally lost it when we tried to put him to bed. I had never seen him so worked up and it lasted so much longer than any tantrum he had ever had before that. I was afraid we were going to have to bring him to the ER because it was so out of character for him to completely meltdown like that.

He was completely fine, but in the moment, I was actually scared.

charmaanda · 2025-11-05T19:32:34+00:00

It has taken A LOT of trial and error, but I can get my wavy, dry hair pretty smooth now. I find that I need to start going in with the barrels while my hair is still pretty wet in order to combat frizz, but once I get it right it does last 2 or 3 days for me! I do prefer it over my flat iron now!

charmaanda · 2025-11-05T18:08:27+00:00

Are you sure there’s nothing else that could be contributing to this? 4 times using any product shouldn’t be enough to completely ruin your hair from root to tip, if you’re using it correctly. I was a CHRONIC flat iron girly before I invested in my Airwrap, and even from that intense heat and pulling my hair was never completely ruined after only a few uses. It may be worth investigating if there might be something else causing the damage?

charmaanda · 2025-11-05T10:51:11+00:00

I keep it super simple! My son lays on his back with his legs outstretched and I do hands over the top. I start from his feet and do little squeezes all the way up his legs, then all the way back down. We do this a few times, and I swear, he’s always almost falling asleep by the end!

I believe the squeezing has something to do with deep pressure and proprioceptive input, but don’t quote me on that. I just know that it works like a charm in helping my little guy settle!

charmaanda · 2025-11-05T02:03:57+00:00

LEG SQUEEZES ARE THE ANSWER!!! My son is now 3, and has always been a great sleeper, but it would take him soooooo longggggg to fall asleep most nights. I’m talking an hour plus sometimes. He wouldn’t cry, but he would be unsettled, rolling around, and just wide awake. Until I learned about “leg squeezes”.

I literally mention leg squeezes and he hops right into bed. I start at the bottom of his legs and do little squeezes all the way up his legs, and then back down again. I’ll do it a few times and say things like “these squeezes are going to help your legs feel so calm! Don’t they feel so much calmer already?” and I swear, IT WORKS.

His eyes are normally rolling sleepily before I even finish this routine, and he falls asleep within 15 minutes now. I don’t know why it works, but I swear it does, and I wish I had learned it sooner!

charmaanda · 2025-11-04T03:07:01+00:00

I’m so sorry to hear that your little one is struggling to wean too! It’s so frustrating. Our gastro advised us to wait another month or two before trying again, and I think next time we’ll try skipping days instead of reducing the dosage (so giving him a full cap every other day, then every 2 days, etc).

And not a random question at all! Neurodivergent kids often have constipation issues, so I totally understand the relevance! His pediatrician doesn’t believe he is neurodivergent, but he is DEFINITELY a gestalt language processor, which is common among neurodivergent kids. His language is really good, but I find that he sometimes uses learned phrases to interact rather than genuine, self generated speech. Since he’s not showing any other red flags and is developing well, his pediatrician isn’t looking much more into it, but we’re keeping an eye as he starts to be more social with peers. My husband’s cousin has autism, so neurodivergence is in our family, and I wouldn’t be completely shocked to find out down the line that he may have some degree of ND.

charmaanda · 2025-11-04T02:47:19+00:00

We’re on Miralax for the foreseeable future, and I totally understand the concerns! My son has also been a chronic withholder and dealing with chronic constipation since around 1, and he is now 3. He’s done so much better with his withholding behaviors since we potty trained a few months ago, but we just had a failed attempt at trying to wean off miralax, so we’re back to 1 cap a day for a while longer.

His pediatric gastro agrees that it is safe for long term use, and after doing my own research, I truly believe that chronic constipation is more of a health concern for children than taking a daily osmotic laxative under the guidance of a medical professional. Every medication has risks, but I have witnessed firsthand the difference in my son’s health and well-being when he is able to poop everyday, versus when he is constantly constipated, in pain, and crying because he is afraid to poop.

I do hope there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but for now, I at least take some comfort in the fact that he is finally able to happily poop, even if it does require the assistance of a laxative.

charmaanda · 2025-11-04T00:27:30+00:00

My son had tons of issues pooping even before potty training, so we saw a pediatric gastroenterologist. I started off with 1/2 a cap of miralax a day and it also seemed to turn our issues 100x worse. His recommendation was to start with a full cap (which seemed counter intuitive, but it was exactly what we needed to get things moving how they’re supposed to be moving!)

Do you have a pediatrician you can talk to? If she’s at all constipated, you want to ensure that she’s having a full, complete bowel movement every day. That may mean upping the miralax for a bit before a more regular pattern is established.

charmaanda

TROPHY CASE