Love them/Loathe them (Scratch Mittens for Your Baby)

Member Name: lexijoe

Product:	Scratch Mittens for Your Baby
Date:	19/02/03 (1667 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: stop scratches

Disadvantages: fall off

Scratch mitts are tiny cotton gloves that are elasticated at the wrist which are used to stop baby from scratching their skin to ribbons. They usually cost about 1.50 for a pack of two, matalan do a pack of four for 2.00 but they are not as good quality as mothercares or asdas.

I can't make up my mind whether I think scratch mits are wonderful or whether I want to tear them into tiny shreads and stamp on them.

Firstly the good things about scratch mitts.

1. They can save poor baby's face from being scratched and sore. My daughter scratched her face when she was two weeks old and has still got the scar now when she is three months old. I try my best to trim her nails so they aren't like talons but however short they are they still seem sharp as she often demonstrates by digging them into my hand whilst feeding.

2. Keep her hands warm whilst she is asleep at night. As she wears a grobag I can't wrap her up in a blanket to keep her warm. The mitts help to make sure there is no skin showing at her wrists.

Basically scratch mitts work to stop baby from doing any real damage with their constant exploring of their faces and rubbing of their skin.

There are also bad things about them and here are the ones I can think of at the moment.

1. They are constantly coming off and are no good when baby gets more control over their hands as they learn how to pull them off.

2. They hinder baby's sense of touch as every time baby reaches for something new they still feel the same sensation of fabric on their skin.

3. They get all soggy and wet and make baby's hand icey cold when baby sucks on them. No matter how hard I try to stop my daughter from sucking her hands as it makes them rough and sore she still manages to suck them without my noticing.

4. This problem is not really anything to do with the design of scratch mitts as it happens with a lot of items but every time
I put a pair of scratch mitts in the wash only one of them comes back out.

In conclusion I would say that scratch mitts are a good idea but I think the design needs a little fine tuning as they are definetly not perfect.

Thanks for reading.

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