1 yr old (with eczema) - scratching when I say no / when he wants something

[tiredfeet]

ds had really bad eczema from 3-7 months, its now pretty much under control, just the odd little patch occassionaly. However, we now have a bit of a behaviour problem as he scratches his face whenever we say 'no' to him doing somethign, or take something away from him, or if he wants something to happen. I think its because he know's he'll get attention if he scratches, but I'm not quite sure how to stop it. if we ignore his scratching his face gets bad really quickly, but if we respond to it, it just encourages the behaviour.

has any one experienced this and got any tips?

I, evil mummy that I am, would let him scratch and just say, in an even tone, "Well, that's a silly thing to do, isn't it? But it's your face so I suppose you can make it sore if you want to." Then I'd just walk away. The alternative is that he holds you hostage for the next however many years. His face will be sore but don't make a fuss, just say, "Well, Mummy did say it was going to hurt." I give him a week max before he packs it in. DS used to head butt hard objects when thwarted and I did more or less what I describe above. He soon packed that in, too.