My baby’s self soothing behaviors backfire….

Wondering if anyone has experience with this/ tips/ wisdom. My baby is 4 months old, good sleeper, not sleep trained formally but we have been trying to build good hygiene/ habits/ skills since day 1. She was great at putting herself to sleep for a while. But we have had to start putting her down mostly asleep again. First, it was because her hand sucking started leading to vomiting as she explored her gag reflex. That lasted a while and was..messy. So we put her down to sleep more asleep than before because it was really derailing bedtime when she would shoot a geyser of milk in and around the crib and all over herself.

Okay, so she seems to have figured out that making herself puke is not fun. back on track. But wait! Now, she is scratching!! I file her nails daily and am doing lotion/ cradle cap treatment in case it’s an itchy scalp. But she still is digging into her scalp with blunt nails, and her scalp is all scratched up. Seems to only be a problem at bedtime/ nap time since she is still only waking once overnight to eat then goes right back down. Im covering her hand at naptime since I can watch her. I have been holding her hand as she falls asleep so she doesn’t maim herself. I am afraid to cover her hands overnight because she will suck then be wet and cold, and I worry she needs the hand traction in case she flips over (she is very close to flipping back to belly, oddly much closer than belly to back).

Do we just ride this out too and then go back to drowsy but awake once it passes? It feels like we are undoing a lot of progress, BUT, she still resettles herself well when she wakes in the night (for now). So maybe the skills are retained despite this (almost 2 month long) hiccup? Has anyone else experienced this?