Scratchy Sleepless Nights

I am extremely fortunate to have birthed such a sound little sleeper. My daughter has always been an overall great sleeper. Even in her "womb days," she slept very well at night. She is such a busy little ball of energy and joy during the day that at night she sleeps well to re-energize for the morning. She is such a sound sleeper that most of the time no amount of sound nor light wakes her. Some mornings she can even sleep through getting dressed.

Eczema sleep deprivation

While she is not usually bothered by loud volumes of sound and rarely ever disturbed by most lights, there is one thing that can wake my little sound sleeper like no other - her atopic dermatitis. My poor baby's atopic dermatitis struggles sometimes worsen at night. When she was an infant with a particularly bad flare up of infantile atopic dermatitis, she experienced her first and worst experiences with sleep deprivation.

Scratching eczema at night

She had a particularly bad eczema flare up on her stomach and back that she tried her best to scratch and rub. Rubbing and scratching further served to aggravate and upset her flare up and made her even more uncomfortable. It also irritated her and caused her great discomfort.

Baby eczema sleep problems

She stayed up half the night and woke up in crying fits of frustration. I became so worried I tried to give her a pacifier and other comforting things like a blanket and teddy bear. I was more than willing to try anything that would make her feel more comfortable in her own bed. With every try was no change. She continued to scratch and fuss. She continued to move in an effort to find a sweet spot in which both her back and stomach could find comfort. She was searching for a comfortable position that just did not seem to exist.

Changing routine

Her struggles were so challenging I had to put her back in her bassinet by the bed so that I could comfort her as necessary. For the duration of the flare up on her stomach and back, she started sleeping more in the daytime when her flare seemed to be less inflamed than she did at night time. I was worried that this new sleep pattern and sleeping in the bassinet would destroy any progress we had made with routines and sleeping in her crib. But it did not. Luckily she was resilient and resumed her sleep pattern after her flare up was gone.

Toddler with eczema not sleeping

She had other flare ups and skin irritation in her infant months but none so troubling as the aforementioned until she became a toddler. When she first moved into her toddler bed she had another harsh and irritating flare up. After less than a week in her new and improved bed, she started sleeping with me in my bed. Because her flare up was so aggravated, she was greatly sleep deprived, sensitive, and fussy the following days.

Sleep depravity is an obstacle for her that still occurs and that we haven't yet mastered when her atopic dermatitis flares.