baby scratching his face

[♥ms.pacman♥]

my DS is almost 12 weeks old. for the past month or so we have had issues with him scratching his face pretty badly while he sleeps at night. i trim his nails all the time (few times a week...i use a baby nail clipper then i file them down with an emery board while he is nursing) but its hard because his nails grow REALLY fast, plus he seems very strong and able to scratch himself badly even when the nails are super-short.

we have those "mittens" for babies but we never used them since as a newborn he hated them and would just manage to take them off. also, i'm hesitant to use them now since he has been pretty good about sucking his thumb to soothe himself (he's a lot less fussy now because of this).

anyway, i'm at a loss of what to do..thoughts?. in a way, they don't seem to bother him at all..this morning when i went over to his crib i saw he had a big scratch on the side of each eye, yet he was all happy smiles..and over the monitor i hadn't heard him cry at all .

[Andi98989]

DS went through a huge phase of this; he was mainly scratching his forehead and sometimes the back of his head. I mentioned it at his 4 month appt and pedi suggested putting some lotion and/or hydrocortisone on his head to help with the itching. I had never even thought that he was *itching* when he did it. Doing that completely solved our problem!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

DS went through a huge phase of this; he was mainly scratching his forehead and sometimes the back of his head. I mentioned it at his 4 month appt and pedi suggested putting some lotion and/or hydrocortisone on his head to help with the itching. I had never even thought that he was *itching* when he did it. Doing that completely solved our problem!

oh that is a great idea. never thought of that, that it could be itching. i will definitely try that. i had always assumed it was done when he is frustrated or something (sometimes while he is nursing and he drinks too fast and chokes/coughes he gets soo mad and cries out starts putting his fingers in eyes and scratches, like he's gouging his eyes out or something).

[liz]

DS went through a huge phase of this; he was mainly scratching his forehead and sometimes the back of his head. I mentioned it at his 4 month appt and pedi suggested putting some lotion and/or hydrocortisone on his head to help with the itching. I had never even thought that he was *itching* when he did it. Doing that completely solved our problem!

Also, we used the shirts that had the sleeves that folded over their hands (we had some from the hospital as well as shirts that were given to us). GL!

[smiles33]

DS went through a huge phase of this; he was mainly scratching his forehead and sometimes the back of his head. I mentioned it at his 4 month appt and pedi suggested putting some lotion and/or hydrocortisone on his head to help with the itching. I had never even thought that he was *itching* when he did it. Doing that completely solved our problem!

DD2 scratched her neck so badly she would draw blood! I thought it was frustration/anger, but ped said eczema and gave us a scrip for hydrocortisone. We put Aquaphor on it every night, but it was the hydrocortisone that made it FINALLY clear up. We still put Aquaphor on her neck every night but pull out the hydrocortisone when she starts scratching herself again.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

thanx so much everyone for these suggestions. i will try Cerave and/or Aquaphor on it and if that doesn't work i will ask the ped about hydrocortisone. DS doesn't have much dry skin but he does have something that looks like cradle cap on his forehead and above his nose (dry skin flakes), so that may very well be the culprit.

[Andi98989]

I just use OTC Cortaid on DS.

[larig]

DS had eczema on his face and would do the same thing. Those mittens for babies never worked, but those triple roll socks from old navy on his hands did. I'd put them under his pjs. That and aquaphor completely ended the eczema on his face.