Babies – beautiful and cuddly are a total wonder! Everything they do is full of adventure. Newborn babies would turn their cheek toward the stimulus for you to touch their cheek. Soon they follow sounds and movement and they smile! They learn to control their reflexes and become more acquainted and comfortable in their environment.
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One of those reflexes is grabbing for anything within grabbing distance! This is an expression of their curiosity; they do this to explore their world and just practice the use of their hand in grabbing things. As fascinating as this sounds, it may come at a cost for Mom and Dad! You may endure painful red ridges along the face, arm, and cleavage. In this article, you will discover why your baby grab and scratch your face and what you can do about it.
Reasons why baby grab and scratch your face?
It’s a reflex
The first reason why a baby will grab your face is that it could just be an expressive reflex. Your baby is still learning control and coordination of parts of his body to the other and so would have a few mishaps. These mishaps may include the baby grabbing your face at an inopportune moment and scratching your face.
Mirror effect
As human beings, we all walk through life trying to emulate someone or someone we want to be. The same goes for babies, they learn and grow by trying to reflect us. So, your newborn can grab your face because they are trying to reach for you for a hug just like you do. The influence doesn’t even have to be the parents, it could also be from watching other kids do that or do it to each other.
Fear factor
We all jump or do spontaneous stuff when we are scared, or we’ve been startled. When there is a sharp noise or a loud bang your baby will fidget and grab your face. If you are close enough, those small hands might scratch you in the face and cut you.
There are consequences!
We all understand the principle of cause and effect; one thing happens and becomes the reason for something else to occur. Your baby tries to learn this too by watching your reaction. Your baby tries to understand the consequences of grabbing your face, scratching your face, pinching you, biting you by doing them, and observing how you react. So, this becomes a map of things to do and things not to do.
To have fun
As your baby grows up, the games you used to play will no longer be adequate. He would crave more activity and more engaging games that stimulate him more and caters to his developing faculties. Reaching for you grabbing, and pulling you into your space while inadvertently scratching your face could be a way of telling you, ‘we need more fun!’
With these reasons clarified, we can now discuss what to do about it, how to stop your baby from grabbing your face every time you come near.
How to stop the baby from grabbing my face
1. Talk to the baby
If your baby keeps grabbing your face, talk to them. This may sound crazy but has a lot of merits. Your baby is trying to learn your reaction to learn right from wrong therefore, put your reaction to words. Speak to your baby, say something like; ‘we don’t do that, baby. Don’t scratch Mummy, don’t scratch Daddy’.
2. Spice things up
If your baby is super active, is rarely exhausted, and spends most of his waking hours awake, then make use of those hours as playtime. Sing more and dance more, use that time to get to know your baby’s fun side. This will likely stop your newborn from grabbing your face.
3. Give a lot of attention
Babies and young toddlers and some adults do things that bring our attention back to them. Having a baby can be tasking and you may get caught up with the chores and getting the right baby gear while forgetting to make time with your baby. If this is the case, get back into it and try to reassure your baby you haven’t gone anywhere.
4. Do a little manicure
Trimming down your baby’s nails can be a difficult task. The fingers and nails are small and there is a big risk of cutting the baby. If you’re concerned about how to do it carefully then seek advice from your pediatrician, ask for ways to trim your baby’s nails with no risk for the baby. Alternatively, I’ll recommend you grab a superb nail trimmer for babies – the Zoli Buzz Nail Trimmer on pishposhbaby. This nail trimmer is cute, padded, and poses no risk to the delicate skin of your baby. It can be used for babies of different age grades. This way, even if your baby scratches your face, it would not ruin your beautiful face.
5. Learn why your baby is doing it
Don’t just assume that your baby is craving attention or trying to get a reaction from you. Maybe he is trying to master his reflexes and learning something new about coordination. You can help with this by having playtime that involves holding hands or getting excited and moving about.
6. Stay calm
Don’t get angry and frustrated when the baby keeps grabbing your face and scratching it. Your reaction matters in shaping the energy and the vibe under which your baby grows. When you get over-reactionary, your baby gets fascinated and may be tempted to do it again. When your baby scratches your face, the best way to react is to keep calm and tell your baby why what he just did is bad like, ‘don’t do that baby, it hurts Mummy, it hurts Daddy’.
7. Have consequences
If your baby scratches your face solely for extra attention, then it’s okay to let him know that scratching isn’t okay. Gently take the baby’s hands off your face and partly turn away from him to let him know that what has happened is not acceptable.
8. Cancel out the fear
If your environment is noisy and loud, this could lead to the baby being very jumpy and reaching out so often which may include suddenly grabbing and scratching you. Try to remove the source of the noise or disturbance to give your baby a calm and peaceful environment with no sudden upheavals.
Why do babies grab their face?
Aside from your baby grabbing and scratching your face, they can also do it to themselves. A baby can grab his face and scratch the eyes or the nose. Some of the reasons why babies do this is because:
- The baby is tired and worn out and want to sleep
- The baby is hungry, gassy, and fussy
- The baby is learning hand control
Now that you know the reasons why babies grab their face, what are the things you can do to stop it? Below are some of the things you can do.
- Put mittens on the baby’s hands
- Swaddle your baby with arms inside the blanket to prevent them from using their hands on their face.
- Keep the baby’s nails short all the time
Above are the reasons why your baby grabs and scratches your face and tips to help your baby settle down fully and completely without feeling jumpy or unattended. It will also help to reduce your baby’s tendency to scratch you, saving you the trouble of carrying that pain.
