4 Month Old Scratching the Mess Out of His Little Head

We had this problem with my youngest daughter. My husband is from South Africa, and when his parents came to visit they brought some stuff called Elizabeth Anne's Baby Shampoo. It was amazing! All the flakies and itching cleared up within a couple of days of starting to use it. It is a very creamy lotion type of cleanser that smells awesome and is very gentle on baby's skin. I think you can order it on the internet, just google Elizabeth Anne's and you should find it somewhere. Good luck!

Make sure his nails are smooth...use O. of those baby emery boards. O. little snaggly nail can be really sharp for delicate skin.

Also, I'd put the mittens back on.

Good luck!

No idea if this is a possibility, but you did say his little scalp was getting flaky again.... maybe if it's itchy, you could moisturize it? My daughter was relatively bald (and had cradle cap, too), so we slathered her little melon with lotion pretty regularly (after every bath, which was every few days). Since we put it on at night, by the time she got up, her hair didn't look greasy or anything (I was always surprised by that, but baby fuzz is impressive stuff, haha). We did this during her cradle cap days (which were over by 5 months old or so) and then well after, until we quit lotioning her up as much (at ~12-13 months).

Anyway, I don't know if he is trying to scratch or if he just happens.... but that was just my first thought.... And it may be less feasible to try, depending on your little one's hair and scalp....

Well, I hope you get it all figured out soon!

Oh, I also thought about this: about 5-10 minutes before her bath (which we did every night while we got rid of the cradle cap), we put mineral oil on her scalp and eyebrows (yep, she had cradle cap there, too). Then, during her baths, I used a separate washcloth than the one for the rest of her body and wiped over the cradle cap areas (not rough or anything, but with a little more concentration than the rest of her body). The cradle cap was gone pretty quickly (1.5 weeks or so). Anyway, the reason I am bothering to say this is that I think this helped keep my little one's head even better moisturized...

Whatever route you take, good luck to you and your fellah!! :)

My son used to do this. He had pretty bad eczema and is whole body was itchy and scratched up, but his head was really scabby and gross. See a dermatologist and they can probably prescribe you something to put on it and help it heal.
Can you put a hat on him at night?

do you wash his hair allot? it sounds like it is just dry and itchy. maybe give it a break every once in a while. the natural oils in your skin are good for it, and sometimes over washing can strip away things u need.
I only use shampoo on my little girls hair 1 or 2 a week.

mostly i rinse it, and often use just conditioner, but skip the shampoo.

Maybe put a lil' beanie hat on him at night?

My son does this. We have been battlilng a really REALLY bad case of eczema, to the point of having to use a presciption hydrocortizone valerate. His poor face was almost raw it got so bad. And we did put mittens on him as well but let him play with them off when we were able to really watch him to stop the scratching. It is getting better but he does tend to scratch his head at night. A friend told me about Argon oil. I bought it at Sephora though you can also get it online. It is kind of expensive ($48) but you only use a little bit. it has started to help quite a bit, hopefully another week will take care of the itching. It is an awesome moisturizer so something to try. My son scratched his head and his nose yesterday and when we commented to him about it, he gave us a big smile. so not really hurting himself.

My son who's 6 months old did this.i made sure his nail were really short and also I would moisturizer the area he was scratching which seemed to help.he eventually stopped. Good luck

I would check him for lice. If you're not confident on how to recognize them, call your doctor and see if he/she or the nurse can do it.