Baby eczema and sleep can be a tough, heartstrings pulling combination! One Baby Sleep Trainer follower named Peggy asked,” Is there any advice on how to sleep train/stop swaddling a 6 month old that scratches her face until she bleeds? My daughter has really bad eczema on her face and one night she broke free and I found blood all over her. I don’t want to swaddle forever, but she scratches so much. Please help/advise.” And I know Peggy is not alone in her worries! Read on for some tips to combat this itchy situation.
Photo Credit: Kristina Paukshtite
How to Impede the Scratching
My oldest child still deals with eczema flare ups from time to time, so I know first hand the difficulty associated with trying to keep a baby from incessantly scratching at those itchy patches. Baby eczema and sleep don’t have to cancel each other out!
The best solution I’ve found to deal with this issue is to sew the ends shut on your baby’s long-sleeved shirt/pajama/onesie. This may not stop the scratching, but will keep the nails from breaking the skin.
If like me you’re not very crafty, then consider purchasing something from Bamboo Bubby. They have specially designed sleeves and sleep sacks in natural fabrics that can keep the itching to a minimum.
Other ideas that help…
In addition to physically covering the hands, make sure to:
- Keep your baby’s fingernails short.
- Maintain your baby’s room at a cool temperature (body heat rises at night and the hotter the body is, the more eczema will flare up).
- Use a dermatologist approved and baby-safe moisturizer right before bedtime.
- Use only 100% natural and non-irritating fabrics for sheets and pajamas.
Hopefully with these suggestions Peggy’s, and your baby can soon sleep soundly through the night. If you’d like more helpful sleep tidbits, sign up for my newsletter!
Our son had bad eczema when he was younger, too. Gets it on occasion now. We didn’t want to take him out of the swaddle either. When we did transition, we used something called the ZippadeeZip. It’s like a wing-suit for babies. It really helped with the scratching (and the sleeping). Also, we kept him in a zipped up sleeper (PJs), so he couldn’t reach in and scratch the skin directly. And, I feel like we are cutting his nails all the time, but it’s important to do so. We also only use California Baby’s Eczema wash. It seems to keep some of it bay. Hope that helps.
PS: We love Natalie and our lives are forever changed because of her counsel and services. We recommend her to all of our friends in need of sleep.
Thank you, Fairlight! I always welcome direct experience with this as it’s something neither of my kiddos really dealt with personally.
Hi,
My baby is 4.5 months old. He can sleep through the night since early on but it took us couple months to realize the Love to Dream swaddle, while allows him to soothe himself back to sleep in the middle of the night, was also the cause of his facial rash/irritation. After each nap and night sleep, his face would turn very red and sometimes even a little bumpy.
We tried one night not swaddle his hands in and of course he woke up in the middle of the night needed to be fed instead of normally rubbing himself back to sleep.
Would you have any advice on how we can help him to continue to sleep through the night yet not having to be in the swaddle that is causing bad facial irritation?
Thank you!!
Hi Kristen! It looks like that swaddle was his “sleep association.” I would look into my online training program or book for tips on how to sleep train him to fall back asleep unassisted overnight <3
My Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999086707/ref=nav_ya_signin?ie=UTF8&qid=1496773245&sr=8-2&keywords=natalie+willes&
The Baby Sleep Trainer Program: https://www.babysleeptrainer.com/my-program/
My baby has mild-severe eczema, she is 6 months old, sleeping time is been a challenge, bc she manages to takes her arms out from the swaddle blanket to scratch her face, for many times we found blood in her hands and all over the sheets. We give her oatmeal baths, and always put oatmeal lotion on her skin. How can I keep her from scratvhing during the night?
Hi Nivea!
I’m so sorry to hear about the eczema and the resulting scratching. You might find this blog post helpful.
https://www.babysleeptrainer.com/eczema-face-scratching-and-sleep
Derma Root is amazing!!!! My son has been battling eczema since birth and I’ve tried it all. Limited bath/ cool ones with real oatmeal and rub it all over no soaps just the oatmeal, then pat dry and rub the Derma Root all over and always make sure the baby is wearing cotton. I’ve found polyester was in everything and irritated his skin. And since doing all this no flare ups and it’s basically disappeared. Also just keeping him cool has helped.
Hi,
I have a 8.,5 month old. He has mild-moderate facial eczema since a few months old and we are seeing a immunologist to help with that. My baby currently has no issues falling asleep but during sleeping especially at night (but also happens during day-time naps), he will scratch his face, neck and back of head constantly between periods of deep sleep and less deep sleep / coming out of deep sleep. This results in worsening of the eczema (redness, raised rashes, rough skin etc..). Often there will be sores.
He hasn’t been in a LovetoDream like swaddle since about 6 months so his arms are out at night. During the day for this naps, we do swaddle him up with a muslin wrap to help him settle quickly (often in conjunction with a bottle feed) but he will wriggle out of them as he is coming out of the nap and then start scratching. During the day when he is not sleeping, he also scratches his face especially when irritated and not distracted with activities.
I do understand the scratching is a mechanism for soothering themselves to sleep but it is getting pretty bad and his eczema is not improving, he doesn’t seem settled during the night and can wake up in the middle of the night and I am nursing him overnight every day to put cream on, to hold him so he stops scratching etc…
We already do a lot of the common things that people suggest
– cut nail
– keep temperature low
– use cotton or hypoallergenic clothes/sheets everything
– moisturise regularly with common Eczema products (Aveeno cream, QV cream, ointment, bath oil etc. you name it and we have used and we apply regularly)
The immunologist is prescribing some non-steroid medications for his face (Tacrolimus first now Erythromycin). 0.5% steroid cream does seem to help with the eczema the most but we are obviously trying to avoid using it routinely.
We are also just changing formula from S26 Gold Stage 2 to a more hydrolyzed formula such as Aptamil Allerpro Syneo Stage 2. I don’t feel it has made a lot of difference.
I need help.