Mumsnet Talk

DD (7 mths) is teething at the moment and has decided to ditch her sleep routine (which I was so smug about proud of). So I'm now sleep deprived again, and going back to work in a month's time!

On top of this she is really going to town with face-scratching at the moment, she has a few dry patches but nothing serious, been using Vaseline and it was clearing up, but now she seems to scratch her head when her gums are hurting and she's being cranky.

Annoyingly as well, because she is size 6-9 mths we can no longer find sleep suits with the built-in scratch mitts, we got her some separates but she has managed to get them off a couple of times. Do no other babies scratch at this age?

So just wondered, anyone got any pearls of wisdom regarding teething and scratching, and am I wrong to think these things are related?

check her ears if she's massively grouchy and rubbing her face/ side of head.

and just make sure her nails are cut as short as you can get them, obv. didn't use scratch mitts past newborn.

if her face is still patchy, hydrocortisone.

and otherwise, just teething remedies. i always did calpol.

Her ears look fine (no discharge, not sure if there are any other signs to look for?), she hasn't got cold symptoms either.

We did calpol the other night and she still woke up, though a bit less frequently...not keen on giving her medicine routinely so wanted to try and avoid it if possible.

She gets her nails cut a lot (as short as I can with baby nail clippers), but still manages to irritate her scalp when she has the opportunity.

One of the signs of teething is scratching/ pulling ears side of face, the only suggestion I've got is to keep LO's nails short. Ibuprofen is really good for teething.

Can't offer an awful lot more as my DS has been pretty good around teething.

oh, i just get gp to check ears if i'm wondering... with ds i used to assume it was teething, and then discovered he was routinely getting ear infections. they disappeared at about 2.5, but it was always a bit of guesswork.

Thanks dor the replies

I will see how she does over the next few days, she isn't pulling her ears at all but I myself did have lots of ear infections when I was a baby so it's certainly worth looking out for...hope she doesn't inherit that from me

Right, I will step up the War on Nails (couldn't believe how quickly they grew when she was born! And how razor sharp they are!)

Sainsburys do sleep suits with in built mitts and they come in cute patterns too we've only just started teething and I'm worried we'll loose the full nights of sleep soon

We've been getting the Sainsburys suits (they are cute!) but were really annoyed to find from 6-9 months onwards they don't have mitts, but have non-slip soles instead (!)

I can deal with the sleepless nights (just...) but it's the fact she's all out of sorts and now has scratches on her pretty face that really upset me

I use "scratch sleeves" with my DD. She has eczema and scratches her face at night. They have silky mits that don't further irritate her skin and she can't get them off! I bought them from the itchy baby website.

Thanks spinning, I shall have a look for those.

Cotton socks will do as scratch mitts if you can't find any. If skin itchy you could try emollient before hydrocortisone (I have skin reactions to HC, it is quite strong and should be used if emollients not working on GP advice). GP can prescribe emollient, but you can try E45 foaming baby bath (they like the bubbles) and E45 cream or Aveeno is also good. My DD always had a flare up of her eczema when teething.