Stop 5 month rubbing her face

[xHeidiHix]

Baby has slept in own cot and was swaddled from birth to 4 months. At around 3 months she began sleeping 10-12hrs uninterrupted through the night. Bliss.

We began weaning her off swaddling at 4 months because that's the general advice due to increased likelihood of rolling (used the love to dream transition swaddle bag). Since then her sleep has become gradually worse- we blamed it on 4 month regression. After some horrendous nights I decided to try the swaddle again at 5 months because I needed some sleep (baby hadn't shown any signs of rolling). It worked amazingly well and got 12 hrs uninterrupted sleep back.

But a week after reintroducing the swaddle baby has learned to roll so have stopped using it, and now her sleep is back to being terrible.

I think the main problem is that when she stirs in the night she rubs her face with her hands quite vigorously and this causes her to wake. The swaddle stopped her doing this.

Has anyone else had a face rubbing problem and if so have you managed to stop it, or have they grown out of it?

The face rubbing is not because of allergies/sensitivity to washing powder etc. and it's not because of rashes, dry skin or being too hot- she always rubs her face when sleepy.

Thanks

I could have written this! I have the exact same issue when my dd is tired ( she’s 5 months too ) and I think I have had 4 hours sleep in as many days it’s torture!! She also has eczema on her face on her right side as well and if I tuck her hands into her baby grow she would do the same thing up against her next2me! But we have just moved her into her big cot but still in our room. I googled this exact thing at 3am this morning because she was doing it and it’s a meant to be a developmental thing and they do grow out it eventually but until then we just have to ride it out? If I come across any tips myself I’ll let you know. My DD has also decided to nip her face when she’s tired or pull her hair so I really hope she grows out it sooner rather than later!

One of my friends got this swaddle-esque that that wrapped around the baby, that had very strong velcro on the back which would then go on another Velcro thing which went around the cot mattress, so he couldn’t roll if he wanted to. Do t know if I’ve describe that very well...

This is what I meant

Think you can wrap it around baby’s arms too...

@SummerBaby2020. Well at least I'm not the only one going through this! And I was kind of hoping that at the end of your post you were going to tell me how you solved it

@AngeloMysterioso thanks for this. I had been thinking about wedging her into something in her cot so she cant roll and so we can continue using the swaddle. The velcro thing looks ideal, but I know these things are not recommended as some sleep poitioners/ anti roll systems have been linked to baby deaths in the US. However I might have to seriously weigh up our risks of using it or something similar as being this sleep.deprived is encouraging me to bring baby into our bed just to get a bit of sleep which itself is a risk.... ugh!

There is also the very expensive Snoo which I've considered as that straps baby down to stop rolling. happiestbaby.co.uk/products/snoo-smart-bassinet

I feel I need to do something to help her sleep.and not let her just grow out if it because waking so often when she can clearly sleep.for very long stretches must be terrible for her as she's is not getting the sleep that she needs.

Here is some info on the difference between the 'strap down' anti roll systems Vs the 'wedge/cushion' positioners in case anyone else is considering using these things.
www.happiestbaby.com/blogs/snoo/sleep-positioners-vs-snoo

I have the Snoo. It would help but it’s not really worth buying for the last month or so as you have to transition out at about 6 months. Good luck! My 6 month old is def sleeping better than he did for the last two months but it’s a real slog! He’s currently thumping his legs up and down in the Snoo xx

After the 4 month sleep regression my baby never slept as well as she did before, she was a brilliant sleeper and then the four month sleep regression hit and then she got two teeth at the same time and we’ve never truly bounced back. I’d be really cautious to use a wedge or strap down blanket as you’re potentially prolonging the issue, you’ll have to wean her off it eventually and the older she gets the harder that will be, especially with teething and sleep regressions disturbing her sleep as she grows but I know how hideous that lack of sleep is.

I found once I moved my daughter into her own room it improved slightly, she loved the space of her cot and slept so much better. She used to wake herself up slamming her legs down repeatedly but stopped doing that, I think she wanted to move around and get herself comfy but didn’t have the space to!

@Jezzballs2000 yes I'm of the opinion the Snoo isn't worth it this late on

@JumperooSue I'm actually dreading putting her in her own room as I feel like we will still be up and down in the night and have even further to go to see to her. Last night we were up with her every 45 mins to 1 hr.... At 4am she got in bed with us .

I'm intrigued to know if a sleep consultant would be helpful in our situation. Could they help give us techniques to help her self settle without rubbing her face so much?

Never swaddled so can't help you there, but I thought the face rubbing was a soothing thing? So it's not that that's waking her up, it's that she's stirring and rubs her face to try go back over. They're just not very good at getting themselves back to sleep at this age unfortunately, but it does get better.

@MindyStClaire the reason I think rubbing is waking her is because when she can't do it she sleeps beautifully. When we watch her she rubs really vigorously and makes her face red. She also grabs and pulls at her own cheeks. When she does that to me it hurts me so guessing she's hurting herself.

Ah ok, funny how they're all different isn't it. When my four month old stirs we're urging her to start the face rubbing cos there's no way she'll go back over herself without it. It's just sensory seeking behaviour for her though, often combined with thumb sucking (which our first never did). Hope things improve for you soon, I remember this age being brutal on our first.

Honestly I felt like that with her own room but she did sleep so much better, I think we were starting to disturb her sleep and equally then she would wriggle round still asleep but it would wake me up.

Have you checked in any teeth are coming through? Cheek/ear rubbing is a sign of teething

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@MindyStClaire yes babies are funny in their little peculiarities! You'd think that if face rubbing hurt her she'd learn to stop. I cover her hands with the inbuilt mitts on her sleepsuits to try and stop the cheek grabbing (which does seem to work) but it doesn't stop the rubbing unfortunately.

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams just seen your link. Yes this would help with the scratching/grabbing if she didn't have built in sleepsuit mitts, but doesn't stop the rubbing.

I was thinking back to wearing armbands when I went swimming as a child.I could never reach my face when I was wearing them. If only such a thing existed for baby sleep! They would be able to use their arms to push up if they rolled over but wouldn't be able to attack their own faces

@JumperooSue I have wondered if we disturb baby when she's sleeping in our room. We are going to try her out after Christmas when she will be over 6 months. Perhaps I should be so fearful...

being this sleep.deprived is encouraging me to bring baby into our bed just to get a bit of sleep which itself is a risk.... ugh!

It’s a lot less of a risk if you follow safe co-sleeping guidance and once baby can roll.

Why make life so hard for yourself? Your baby is tiny. Do whatever you need to do to get the sleep you need.

Maybe she is sensory seeking and needs something else to fidget with other than her face. Mine had a muslin square in bed with them after swaddling stopped. They would grab it and rub it and stroke it on their faces.

Yeah my daughter was 7 months as I was hesitant about it making her sleep worse but she definitely sleeps deeper in her own room! She still comes into my bed normally from about 5am as she wakes around then and I struggle to get her back into the cot without her waking up again so normally I’ll just pop her in bed with me from around that time for a couple more hours sleep. I think it feels frustrating when they have slept really well before but they go through so many developmental leaps, regressions and then teeth I found I just lowered my expectations of sleep and I just don’t let it stress me out anymore.

@Feminist10101 even though I try to be as safe as possible when baby is in bed with us, I'm not very comfortable with it as I'm petrified of accidentally smothering her (so I still don't get much better sleep when she's with us). The Snoo Bassinet and the snooze wrap that have been mentioned previously sit with me much better, but there are obviously no guidelines on safely strapping a baby down (mostly it is actively discouraged)! Although I imagine many children with disabilities use sleep positioners to stop them moving and keep them.comfortable during the night so there must be safe guidelines somewhere. I expect they would refer to older children rather than babies though.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz ahh, I think we will try adding something sensory in and see if that helps. We were given some as gifts actually that I have kind of forgotten about as didn't want to have them in her cot when she was a newborn. I'll get them out and see if she likes any of them.

A quick update in case helpful for anyone else. We decided to go for the Snoozzz sleep wrap @AngeloMysterioso suggested. This enabled us to continue to swaddle even though baby had learned to roll over. Was brilliant- we all slept really well.

We tried to transition her out of the swaddle at 7.5 months using the love to dream transition swaddle. We released one arm for a few nights but found she was waving it around all night and disturbing herself. We ended up putting a long-ish sock over her hand/arm and that helped loads(we found this tip on an old MN thread!). So continued with her arm out and progressed to releasing the second arm and used the sock on it too.

So far so good. Baby is no longer hitting her face or trying to pull the dummy out and is now no longer using the swaddle or wrap. And she is sleeping really well throughout the night.

So I think our baby just needed a little more time in the swaddle, and the sleep wrap enabled us to do this safely.

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