Babies wear soft mittens (sometimes called “scratch mittens”) primarily to keep them from scratching their own faces with their sharp fingernails. Newborns can’t control their arm movements well, and their nails are surprisingly thin and jagged, so small scratches on the face are common in the first few weeks. That said, the practice is more controversial than most parents realize. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that mittens are rarely needed for newborns, and some hospitals now actively discourage them.
The Scratch Problem
Newborns don’t have full control over their bodies. Many of their movements are driven by reflexes rather than intention. One of the most common is the Moro reflex, an involuntary startle response triggered by loud noises, sudden movements, or just the general shock of being alive outside the womb. When it fires, babies arch their backs, fling their arms and legs outward, then curl back in. Their hands jerk toward their faces, and those tiny, razor-sharp nails can leave visible scratches.
Because baby fingernails grow remarkably fast (you’ll likely need to trim them at least once a week), parents often feel like they can’t keep up. Scratch mittens seem like an easy fix: cover the hands, protect the face. And for many families in the first week or two, that’s exactly what they do.
The Warmth Factor
Some parents also use mittens because their baby’s hands feel cold. This is almost always normal. Newborns have immature circulatory systems that prioritize blood flow to the brain, lungs, and other developing organs. The hands and feet, being farthest from the heart, simply get less blood and less warmth. Feeding and digesting every few hours also redirects blood toward the stomach and intestines, leaving even less for the extremities.
Your baby’s hands might also feel colder than they actually are, since your own hands are warmer by comparison. Bluish, cool hands and feet are normal in healthy infants and almost certainly don’t bother the baby. If you’re concerned about temperature, check your baby’s chest, back, or neck. If those areas feel warm, your baby is fine regardless of how chilly the fingers seem.
Why Many Experts Now Advise Against Them
Mittens come with real trade-offs that aren’t obvious at first glance. The biggest concern is developmental. Babies learn about the world through their hands from the very beginning. When they touch a surface, grip a finger, or accidentally bat a toy, they get visual and auditory feedback that helps wire their brains for reaching, grasping, and object exploration. Research published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology found that infants are highly sensitive to the connection between their own actions and the results those actions produce. Feeling fabric move, hearing an object rattle after making contact, seeing something shift because they touched it: all of this builds the foundation for motor skills and even social development.
Covering the hands with mittens blocks that sensory feedback loop. Babies can’t feel textures, can’t get the tactile input from gripping, and lose some of the cause-and-effect learning that comes from free hand movement. In one line of research, giving young infants more hand-object interaction (not less) led to earlier reaching, more object exploration, and even increased social attention. The takeaway is clear: bare hands help babies learn.
Safety Risks of Mittens
Beyond development, mittens carry a small but serious physical risk. Loose threads inside knitted or synthetic mittens can wrap tightly around tiny fingers, cutting off circulation. Over a four-year period at one medical center, three infants presented with fingertip injuries from thread entrapment in mittens. Two of those cases resulted in spontaneous amputation of a fingertip. These injuries are rare, but they’re preventable by simply not using mittens or by checking inside them carefully if you do.
Elastic bands at the wrist can also be too tight, and any loose mitten that comes off during sleep becomes a potential suffocation hazard in the crib.
Alternatives That Work Better
The simplest alternative is regular nail trimming. Baby nail clippers or a fine emery board can keep nails short enough that scratches aren’t a problem. Many parents find it easiest to trim nails while the baby is sleeping or nursing, when the hands are relaxed. Since fingernails grow so quickly, plan on doing this weekly.
Sleepsuits with fold-over cuffs offer another option. They keep nails away from the face during sleep without fully blocking sensory input during waking hours, and there’s no loose fabric to come off in the crib.
If you do choose to use mittens, keep them for the first couple of weeks at most, check for loose threads before every use, and remove them during awake time so your baby can explore with bare hands. The scratches newborns give themselves look alarming but heal quickly and don’t scar. The developmental benefits of free hands outweigh the cosmetic concern of a few tiny marks.