4yo DD face skin/scab picking

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Wondering if anyone has some tips/advice or miracle cures for me!

My DD is 4 and has developed a habit of picking scabs, particularly on her face. What starts off as the tiniest scratch from where she catches herself with a nail in her sleep, she will repeatedly pick and pick and pick to the point where she now has several much bigger cuts on her face. Her face has been an absolute mess for months now and she cannot leave them alone for long enough to heal. I've had so many comments over the Christmas holidays from well meaning friends/family asking if she's had a particularly bad case of chicken pox as her face is covered with scabs and scars that she's picked 😞

I'm really not sure what I can do to help her break this habit and her skin a chance to heal. We cut her nails regularly so are kept short, we put sudacrem on the worst ones at night, we cover them with a massive plaster during the day - most of them are clustered on her forehead but they cover such a big area now the plaster doesn't cover them all) but they just aren't healing. Or when we think they're pretty much healed she'll start with the scratching again and new cuts appear and the cycle starts again. She is a thumb sucker so often scratches absent-mindedly with her free fingers when her thumb is in her mouth.

Has anyone else had experience of this and have any tips? I've been wondering scratch mits for older children if there is such a thing, but not sure how to get her to keep them on or what she can wear at school? And as I mentioned, she's a thumb-sucker so gloves would mean she can't suck her thumb which won't go down well! Or some kind of miracle cream that can heal her skin a lot lot quicker? Do I go to the GP? I'm finding it really quite stressful now because this has been an issue since about September/October and her skin is getting worse not better.

TIA.

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I've zoomed in here on a recent photo taken about a week ago. She has a couple more on her forehead now and also a couple on her chin and one of the side of her nose. All of which she keeps picking.

The dark areas are old one which have more or less healed but scarred.

Take her to the GP, they might be able to give you something to clear it up. I wonder if it's an anxiety related thing? Any big changes recently?

It doesn’t look like just scratching, more like insect bites or a skin infection. I’d say plasters on her fingers rather than the spots but you need to see a Dr.

Thanks so much for responding. They are definitely not insect bites and they are not infected. It's not a great photo as I've zoomed in so much. They are scabs and the particularly bad ones are the ones she's recently picked off again. I bought some bio oil to try and help with the scarring but it clearly says do not use on broken skin so unable to use it. I will take her to the GP.

Re. anxiety and big changes, she started reception in September so that's obviously a big change. But she's settled brilliantly, she was at the school nursery on the same site last year so the transition has been very smooth, and she really happy. She doesn't appear to me to be struggling with anxiety (and I say that as a mother to an older DD who does struggle with anxiety).

We have had a recent case of head lice so has had an itchy scalp and maybe that general scratching has started the scratching to her face?

Things to fiddle with. Plasters on fingers. I’d put Vaseline on the scabs but ask a pharmacist.

As someone with dermatilomania I would recommend fidget toys/blue tack to play with. You can also get gloves with only some fingers in- perfect for skin pickers or nail biters. Or just buy normal gloves and cut out the thumb so she can still suck it

Thank you both.

@Itisbetter, out of interest, do you think Vaseline would be more effective than me putting sudacrem on it? I tend to use Vaseline more as a moisture barrier than to aid skin healing so hadn't even though of that. But I will try it.

@Reindear, yes I did think of fidget toys or similar as this is how I broke my nail biting habit after 40-odd years! But being a thumb sucker, she seems to do most of the picking with her index and middle finger when she's got her thumb in her moth. But maybe it could help her break her thumb-sucking habit as well. I'll have a look into those gloves. Thank you.

My dc suffered from eczema, and had it really bad when he was younger. So we always had mitten on for sleep since he was a baby. When he got older, we used socks as mittens during the night. But he was used to wearing it, not sure if a 4 yrs old cope with wearing something on her hands.

I think it’s better and it will make it all harder to pick.