Why does the baby keep rubbing his eyes?

When babies rub their eyes often, most parents' first reaction is that the baby may be sleepy. In fact, babies who rub their eyes frequently may suffer from eye diseases. If parents find that their babies always have irritated eyes, they don't need to worry too much. Pay more attention to observation and be sure to wash the baby's hands frequently. If the baby has no other discomfort, do not treat it for now. If there is any abnormality in the body, seek medical attention in time.

Why does the baby keep rubbing his eyes?

1. Physiological reasons

Many babies rub their eyes when they want to sleep and fall asleep soon after. This is completely normal.

In addition, the nervous system of young babies, especially 2-month-old babies, is still immature. Their movements are involuntary and inaccurate. Moreover, the baby's muscles are still relatively tense. When lying down, their limbs are often in a flexed and clenched fist state. Because the movements are inaccurate, you often see babies rubbing their eyes, which is also normal.

Solution:

Wash your baby's hands frequently to keep them clean. If your baby's nails are long, you can cut them short to prevent them from scratching their face.

2. Inverted eyelashes

Because babies have plump cheeks and low nose bridges, some babies' lower eyelids may turn inward, and the eyelid hair may grow toward the eyeball, forming inverted eyelashes.

Solution:

The eyelashes of babies under 2 years old are relatively soft, so even if their eyelashes turn inward, it will not cause much impact on their eyes. As they grow older and their faces develop, most children will gradually heal on their own.

Babies' ingrown eyelashes mostly occur on the lower eyelids. If a baby has ingrown eyelashes, parents can wash their hands and frequently turn the baby's lower eyelid outwards, being gentle.

The following is wrong, please don’t do it:

Plucking eyelashes with tweezers

This will damage the hair follicles and may cause bacterial infection, and there is also the risk of injuring the eyeball when plucking the eyelashes.

Shorten eyelashes

After being cut short, it becomes hard and is more likely to scratch the eyeball. Moreover, the cutting action is also dangerous.

Tape the eyelashes

Your baby's skin is very delicate, don't do this!

3. Foreign matter enters the eye

If foreign objects such as sand or insects enter the eyes, the baby will feel uncomfortable and will rub his eyes with his hands.

Solution:

If detergent, cleaning agent, etc. gets into the baby's eyes, rinse immediately with clean water.

If dust, sand, insects, etc. enter the eyes, most of the time it is on the surface of the eyeball, you can gently pinch the baby's upper eyelid with your thumb and index finger, lift it forward, and blow gently into the eye to stimulate the eyes to produce tears and flush out the dust. If this method does not work, you can turn over the baby's lower and upper eyelids to search, find the foreign body and gently remove it with a wet cotton swab or the corner of a clean handkerchief.

4. Skin eczema

When a baby develops eczema on the skin around his eyes, the skin becomes itchy and the baby will reach out to rub it.

Solution:

Eczema skin is very afraid of dryness, so you should pay attention to moisturizing.

Try to reduce or avoid using shower gel to keep your skin clean.

Cut your baby's nails frequently to prevent him from scratching the affected area and prevent secondary infection.

5. Eye diseases

The most common eye infection in babies is conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. If your baby suddenly has a lot of eye mucus and tears and bloodshot eyes, he may have conjunctivitis. Because the inflammation makes your baby's eyes itchy, he or she may like to rub his or her eyes.

Solution:

If this happens, parents should not use eye drops on their babies without authorization and should seek medical attention immediately.

Conjunctivitis is highly contagious, so be careful to isolate your child from other children.