Babies with Cradle Caps

My son had it bad - I bought the store shampoo once. And he had a mild case of it a second time - I massaged olive oil in his scalp 30 mins before bathtime. That took care of it too! When his hair was dry, we'd brush it with the brush from the hospital...

S.,

My son's cradle cap got out of control, so his pediatrician sent him to a pediatric dermatologist. The doctor prescribed a shampoo and w/in 2 washes, it repaired the problem.

Hi S.,

My DD had BAD cradle cap when she was little. It was all over her poor little head. I used the little scrub brush every day when I gave her a bath, but it didn't seem to help. Her pedi said to put a little baby oil on her head BEFORE her bath, letting the oil soak on there for a couple minutes. Then shampoo & wash as usual. It took about a week or so to see any real change, and it was completely gone within about a month.

Don't worry too much about it, unless your little one is uncomfortable. She'll eventually grow out of it.

Hope this helps!!

J.

I rubbed olive oil on my baby's cradle cap and gently brushed it with a baby brush and it worked! And it shampooed out with baby shampoo with no problems either. :-)

Hi there!
I know you have gotten a lot of great responses and I really hope at least one works for you! Just wanted to let you know that my baby boy had it bad and I tried the olive oil and a special shampoo etc, but when I would try to remove it, even VERY gently, it would cause him to bleed a little. So I asked the pediatrician and he said it would come off in time. Meanwhile I continued to scrub his little head gently and moisturize it. One day I noticed that a patch seemed looser than it had before. I was able to remove a lot, but if it seemed like it was pulling at all, I stopped. Over the course of a week or so, I got it all off and it never came back. So if the treatments don't seem to work, just take great care of his scalp and eventually it will loosen enough for you to get it out. Best wishes!!

use olive oil.. rub it gently into the cradle cap then wash off once it has softened. It works..:)

http://www.gentlenaturals.com/products/cradle_cap.cfm

Info and a great treatment.

I have used something called Mustela, For Cradle Cap. They sell it at Babies R Us. It is a cream that you put on before bedtime and wash off in the morning. My doctor also said to try Selsen Blue...I was afraid of getting it in her eyes so I didn't.

Hi S.,

We had a friend that was a PA at a pediatrician's office and she told us to wash the baby's hair with Dove soap (regular, not scented) and then rub Lubriderm Lotion on the babies head. I have to admit, I used this with two of my children and it cleared up within about 2 washings. I was truly amazed that I could see that it looked better after the first washing; I could not believe that it worked so well.

I still use Dove and Lubriderm together for dry skin.

Have a great day,

D. C.

Hi S., We used Paul Mitchell's Baby Don't Cry Shampoo, and it worked within 2 or 3 washes. It's a little expensive but we've been using the same bottle for a year, as it only takes a dime size amount each washing. Good luck!!

I too used olive oil and the rectangular white brush that the hospital gave us but really any soft comb or brush will work. I let the olive oil really sit and soften up the cradle cap, then bathed my son. I rememer in the sunlight his scalp had a yellowish hue to it because of the cradle cap. It didn't seem to bother him so I tried not to let it bother me. Good luck and let us know if the olive oil helps. That's beautiful that you're so involved in your grandkids lives! ;)

With my son, I used Cetaphil gentle cleanser for his body and hair. I would let it sit on his hair for a few moments then I would gently comb his hair and it would remove some of the dry skin. It is a moisturizing cleanser that does not foam and leaves the skin soft and moisturized. I would follow it up with Burt's Bees Buttermilk Baby Lotion. It is non-greasy and really helped keep the dry skin from coming back. Best of luck to you!

HEB has a medicine called craddle cap that works good removes it. You want to remove it because if you don't their hair will fall off with it. Not to scare you but to alert you. Good luck.

have you tried dove (unscented) soap yet?

Hi S., when my kids were little I used olive oil on their scalps when they had cradle cap worked good to help resolve it.
F.

Hello S. in response to your email when my son had cradle cap I used olive oil and the soft hair washing brush for babies and the cradle cap went away afterwards I used just a warm towel on his head every other day.

What did you do when your children had it? You shampoo, gently scrape off the flakes and use plenty of oil. Do it often.

Both of our boys had it, but it didn't bother them, and we didn't want to use any chemicals. All we did was gently rub a little olive oil into their scalps, let it sit for a while and used a wide -toothed comb to ever so gently get out the bigger pieces (the boys had a LOT of hair!). Then we would shampoo as usual. It pretty much cleared up in a couple of weeks.

My son had it and our pediatrician told us that unless it was bothering him- like if he was scratching at it- then not to worry. We would just use that very soft brush from the hospital to lightly scrub at it when we'd shampoo his hair and then I'd usually put some baby oil on his head after bath to help seal in the moisture. He's 6 months now and that's all we've done and it's just now really gone. Altough I still see a tiny flake now and then. If it seem as though your grandaughter is uncomfortable then the pediatrician can prescribe a special lotion or shampoo or something. There are also shampoos that you can get in the store but I never tried any- most are at least $7 for a little bottle- I just couldn't buy into that knowning that it was probably just baby shampoo :)

We used a cradle cap shampoo by Mustella. Worked great and a little went a long way.

S.- My oldset child had it too. I went and bought a handwashing brush and scrubbed his head and then used baby oil gel on his head ( very little) when he got out of the bath tub! Worked great for me.

Lots of good advice here. I honestly used my breastmilk, and that worked! Breastmilk cures a lot of things. I second the olive oil.

I wanted to pipe in after reading other responses to tell you that if you leave cradle cap alone it WILL NOT make the child's hair fall out. Babies often lose their hair (as I'm sure we all know) so if that person experienced it at the same time as cradle cap, it was just a coincidence. But leaving it alone will not harm the child in any way, and it WILL eventually go away on its own. It's not that pretty, though, so olive oil works well.

I also used (with my third) a great diaper rash ointment called Grandma Els. It has lanolin and vitamin E, is made of organic and natural ingredients, and has no harmful chemicals in it. I alternated between using it and breastmilk, and my son's cleared up in a couple of days.

Using a very soft infant brush works wonders as well.

You can use an anti-dandruff shampoo like Head and Shoulders or Neutrogena T-gel her scalp. Rub some olive oil in her scalp to loosen the flakes and then wash her hair with the anti-dandruff shampoo (all you need is the tiniest pea sized amount.) Make sure you wash out every bit of the olive oil. Cradle cap is cause by an over production of oil, so adding more oil to the scalp only causes more problems. Do that once a week and it will keep it under control and eventually it will just go away!

I also heard about scrubbing olive oil on the scalp by Dr. Sears on the tv show The Doctors for cradle cap. How it works for you.

I just went through this with my newborn. I didn't know about the olive oil. I had some in my pantry and probably would have tried it. I did find at the grocery store (may have been Target) in the baby section Gentle Nature's cradle cap formula. I had washed and scrubbed my daughter's hair time and time again and no result. I put some of the Gentle Nature on her head just prior to washing it and then scrubbed it with her baby brush. It was right on her soft spot and I was afraid to scrub too hard. Then I washed it regularly with J&J baby shampooo. It was gone in like two washes. It worked really, really great. She has bright red hair, and it really showed bad.

Sebulex, you can get in at Walgreens or CVS. Let me know if it works. It worked for my little boy.
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I am a grandmother, too. My doctor recommended Keri Bath Oil a very long time ago when my son was a baby. I would massage a little bath oil in the morning and wash it in the evening everyday for a few days (without scrubbing hard, of course). That took care of that problem. I hope this helps.

I don't know what other people have written but this worked for us; Mustela (Foam shampoo for newborns)for the hair, and oil on the forehead (or bald scalp), any "food grade" oil is fine; we used a massage oil , but olive oil is good too: rub it on let sit for a minute then wipe clean with a damp soft cloth (repeat once a day). Hope this helps!

A nice soft brush helps with all that gooky stuff. The hospital sent us home with the plastic back side of (what we later found out was) a sponge. We loved it for this and finally got a new one from our midwife on the sixth child, wish I could describe this better. They are very soft but managed to remove the dead skin better than most brushes. White plastic,close set bristles, had a yellow sponge on the back on it. Removed the sponge...hope you can find one if they didn't send you home with one.

My son had this. We were told to go ahead and scrub it, with a bristle brush. After that I just scrub with my fingers instead of being super gentel. Not so hard that it is uncomfortable for him though.

All 3 of my children had HORRIBLE cradle cap for the first YEAR. Bummer for me it took until my last to figure out how to get rid of it! I suggest a food grade oil (olive, almond, sunflower, apricot, etc.- food grade because if it's safe to eat it should be fine on skin-be aware nut allergies can manifest from skin contact so if you suspect one steer clear of the nut oils) apply liberally to scalp and let it sit for about 10 minutes, the use a brush/comb/fingers to work in loosening the flakes from scalp. Shampoo. Voila! No more flakes. This may take a few trys to get it all but so far so good for me! I hope it works as well for you!