LO is scratching the crap out of her face! PIP

kak808

I mentioned previously that LO had been rubbing her eyes/face a lot, but now that's graduated to scratching. I try to keep her nails short but they're still like little razor claws. I've tried mittens, but she can get them off. Her poor cheek, ear, and back of head are all scratched up! I can keep an eye on her during the day but she really goes to town at night. Any suggestions??

Pic attached, but it's a bit blurry because she kept trying to look at the phone.

sdlaura

That's a lot of scratching - poor baby. I'd probably try to investigate why there's a reason she's itchy with my pediatrician. It seems like something may be making her uncomfortable.

breadpudding

Oh no! I agree with PP. That is a lot of scratching and it doesn't seem "normal". Babies grab at their faces and get scratched, it's inevitable, but I'm thinking something is making her uncomfortable too. Call your pedi and in the meantime could you try socks on her hands? Those will go up higher on her arm and be harder to get off. I hope she is okay.

Rosie137

If she's getting the mittens off maybe longer socks instead? Or socks with a long sleeve over?

kak808

Thanks all for the sock idea! Unfortunately LO hasn't worn socks since she was about a month old so all we have are teeny tiny ones! I do have a pair of zutano booties though -- maybe I can make them work??

LO does have eczema. It used to just be that she'd rub her face on you but I guess she's figured out she can use her hands now! We have been using a combo of cethaphil face wash and aveeno baby eczema and a lot of the eczema has gone away. Maybe that spot on her cheek is just too sensitive? We talked to the pedi about it previously and he said to try .5% hydrocortisone but then I heard lots of things about that being bad for baby faces.

ETA: holy crap I had a lot of typos...

ShePersisted

Looks like contact dermatitis to me. My LO had it. We needed to use some mild steroid over it and tons of aqua-for. Of course however this first needs to be diagnosed by the pedi.

tangerinemachine

I don't know if I'm supposed to do this or not but I put nipple cream on any dry patches and it works amazing.