My son keeps scratching...?

Question

My son is almost 4 months old. We've had to cut his nails really short (every 2 days) because he keeps scratching at his face and his head. I keep his face moisturized and he does have some cradle cap. Anyways, he scratches until he ends up with small, bleeding cuts on his scalp and in between his eyes. Does anyone know why? Or when this phase will pass? I don't want to keep mittens on him because it's so warm over here. Thanks for your answers.

Answer 1

Sounds like you're doing the right things... Just keep his nails cut as short as you possibly can. He'll grow out of this phase as he begins to gain more control of his hands, which should be very soon. Maybe try a stronger moisturizer? Aveeno sells some very nice lotions.

Answer 2

For the cradle cap: While he is bathing rub a small amount of olive oil on the dry parts and then with a soft baby hair brush or a very soft toothbrush rub the area in a circular motion then rinse. For my son I only had to do it one time and it went away and never came back but even if it does come back just repeat the process. That should help with his head scratching but for his face it sounds like you are doing everything you can so just keep trying. My 19 month old is a thumb sucker and still gets little scratches around the top of his nose because that is where his fingers go when he sucks his thumb.

Answer 3

My 5 month old used to do the same thing!!

Here's what worked for us:
*keep trimming nails
*moisturize his scalp, we used Eucerin as recommended by our pediatrician, but you could also use Aveeno for baby. This step _really_ helped him stop scratching, I think the cradle cap really itches them
*sometimes mittens are your only option. I bought some at Target that are super thin, like the thickness of a onesie, so they aren't heavy.
*keep pulling his hands away from his head when you notice him going for it, try to give him an easy to manipulate toy

Now he's pretty much stopped scratching himself.

Answer 4

He could have mild eczema try some Hydrocortizone cream on it 3 times a day. Growing up I had the same problem with scratching really bad between my eyes and Hydrocortizone cream gets rid of it.

Answer 5

Its normal. I think every baby goes through it. They're trying to figure out how to do things with their hands and fingers, they can touch and realize theyre touching, it has different feelings and so on.

My son always scratched the heck out of himself at that age. It passes as they gain control. He might be tired too, my son always seemed to scratch his eyes when tired.

Answer 6

Could it be his nose ? My son always had a stuffy nose and he was constantly wiping it, even at that age. It takes a while for there systems to get going sometimes. Try keeping his hands busy, but remember that everything goes to the mouth.

Answer 7

You may want to try a different moisturizer. My son had Eczema, and some moisturizers (even Eucerin!) caused it to itch even worse. So if he seems to scratch even worse after you moisturize, you might want to try something else - even vaseline.