If you have a child who is constantly scratching and itching, it is critical that you devise some coping mechanisms for your child to deal with. Many times, with young children with eczema, parents have to be creative in distracting their child from scratching.
Plan ahead for different things you can do to take your mind off of the irritating feeling.
It can be very difficult when the child is an infant, as there are fewer ways to distract a baby.
Distracting from Scratching
For instance, the main way to distract your little one from scratching is by keeping his mind and fingers occupied.
- Expose your baby to toys that help develop motor skills, such as blocks or pieces of puzzles. This has the benefits of both intellectual and physical development.
- Engage your baby in music, art, or dance. For younger children, you can boogie together or learn a musical instrument or dance, which requires both concentration and motor skills.
- Replace scratching with another habit, such as moisturizing the itchy skin or patting on the skin.
- Go on Vacation. We don’t know why people’s skin improves while on vacation, but it does. It’s possible that a vacation will help you break out of your routine because there will be so many new things to explore!
- Use your imagination, Cloud. This works if you’re out in the park and your kid starts scratching. Start spying on shapes in the cloud.
- Learn sign language, which not only keeps the fingers busy but has the added benefits of learning vocabulary and giving your little one an additional way to communicate.
- Eat. Although it is not a particularly optimal method, many grandparents like this approach since they believe it is preferable to scratching. If I wanted to get rid of the extra calories after that, I would choose to do something active.
- Forcing it may be necessary if your child is still a baby and hand-holding is the only way to keep her from scratching excessively. Due to their limited skills, babies don’t have many ways to pass the time (other than scratching).
- Zzzz. There are antihistamines you can try to help your kid sleep better (not knock him out!), but only if prescribed by a doctor.
Remember that things that work well on one day might not work so well on another day. Experiment with a variety of tactics to stop your child from scratching and discover a few strategies that are effective for your child. So have your backup strategies ready.