Ingrown toenails are painful and susceptible to infection. Your infant's discomfort can be minimized or prevented when you know what to do when an ingrown toenail occurs. Attempting to treat your infant's ingrown toenail improperly can lead to worsening of his condition and more pain.
Description
A nail that's pressing or growing into the skin is ingrown. This condition most often occurs on the big toe, but every toe is susceptible. Redness or swelling of the skin surrounding the nail is the first sign of an ingrown toenail. Avoid shoes that rub your infant's affected toe and socks that are tight on her foot. If her ingrown nail gets infected, it will have a blister containing white or yellow fluid that is surrounded by red skin. The swelling may increase as the nail grows further into her skin, says BabyCenter.com.
Causes
Some infants have ingrown toenails on their big toes at birth or shortly after birth. Ingrown toenails can be due to improper trimming of your infant's nail, says PubMed.gov. Nails that turn downward and are kept long have a greater chance of becoming ingrown. Putting shoes that are too small on your infant can cause your infant's toenail to grow into his skin, according to KidsGrowth.com.
Prevention
When you trim your infant's toenails, avoid using scissors and use a nail clipper to assure that your baby's nails are straight and not rounded. When your baby's toenails are left long, there's a higher chance the nail breaks and the part that's left grows into her toe. Trimming your baby's nails too short can put her at risk of developing ingrown nails, so ensure that a little white shows at the end of her nail. KidsGrowth.com says to check that your baby's shoes fit well regularly to avoid shoes that pinch and compress the toes, which can lead to ingrown nails.
Treatment
Pediatricians treat infection around infants' nails with oral or topical antibiotics. You can soak your infant's toe in warm, soapy water for 10 minutes, dry his foot and apply antibiotic ointment to the affected toe two to three times per day. Your infant may need to have his nail cut away from the skin or have a portion of the nail removed, but this is decided by your infant's pediatrician or podiatrist, according to KidsGrowth.com.
Considerations
You can worsen your baby's ingrown nail condition and expose her to serious complications by attempting to remove the ingrown nail at home. This form of home treatment can lead to severe pain, skin infection or possible deformity, Kids Growth says.
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