What Is the Best Way to Treat Cradle Cap?

I have the best, cheapest, fast acting solution! My son had a really bad case of it and I was trying olive oil, coconut oil, certain shampoos and nothing was really helping. A quick search on the internet and I found many people had really good results using a baking soda paste, scrub and rinse with warm water. So I grabbed the baking soda and made a paste with water, put it on the babys head for a few minutes, scrubbed and rinsed and it was 50% gone right away!!!! Then more dried up and fell off the next day. It was 70% gone by the time I did it again! I only did it three times and it is ALL GONE!!!! So cheap and so easy!

My oldest son had/has this terrible! Always has. We've tried all the shampoo's even prescription. When I took him to a specialist he said it was a type called "oyster shell" or something like that. Anyway it would be so thick you couldn't comb his hair and it really bothered him. When he was around 6 we had lice sweep through the house. My oldest daughter had super long hair and we were having a hard time getting all the eggs out. I called my mom crying and she told me to put EVERYONE in the house in mayonnaise and show caps and sleep in them. When my son got up I sprayed a little warm water on his head and started using the nit comb and the cap came out! And it was thick! I couldn't believe it! I hadn't seen the top of his scalp since he was like 1. Whenever he would get build up we would do this again. The Mayonnaise was easier to get out of his hair than baby oil (and vaseoline, yep tried it too!). You didn't say how old she is so this may not be necessary right now. Please keep it in mind if it get's worse. When we wash any type of oily stuff out of hair we use dawn dish-soap (grease cutter) and follow with conditioner. Good Luck!

I would slather his head at night with baby oil and in the morning, Gently comb through his hair -worked great - take a few times tho! Good Luck :-)

Put baby oil or lotion on her little head-and it will loosen some of the waxy build-up. After a little while-shampoo her hair with baby shampoo and a very soft baby hairburush. Use gentle circular motions. Wash her hair everyday-even if you don't put her in the tub-and then take a cotton ball with a mild hydrogen peroxide solution and lightly dab the rough spots. DO NOT pick the cradle cap-fingernails are not clean even after we wash our hands-and could subject her to all kinds of infection-including staph.

We put baby lotion on our sons head or olive oil and then used a fine tooth comb for about a week - all his hair fell out and the cradle cap went away.

I let the baby shampoo soak and then gently massaged my daughter's scalp.

If your child has curly hair, other moms have said that their kids have cradle cap longer than straight haired kids. Maybe the oils are trapped? It was true for my Curly Sue.

Your mileage may vary, but our pediatrician also said we could use Dove conditioner on our toddler and it seems to have helped, too.

for my son who also had a mild case, i just took some baby oil right before bath time and rubbed on his scalp. then i took a soft bristled baby brush and scrubbed the top of his head. i did this every night until it went away. didn't take too long.

I'm not sure how to treat it as none of my kids have had it. I credit that to the advice of our pediatrician: At bath time, when the shampoo is in baby's hair, take a tooth brush and scrub the entire scalp (not super hard). I've done that for both of my boys until they were about 6 months and we never had a problem.

For my two children, I used Original Sprout shampoo/bodywash. It's natural, pure, amazing (& expensive.) The pediatrician for my son wanted me to use steriods when he wasn't even a month old and I just couldn't do it. I've recommended it to a friend who was told to use Nioxin and she just wasn't comfortable with the chemicals in that product.
http://www.originalsprout.com/shampoo/12-oz-baby-hair-bod...
This took away my son's and my daughter never had any but I've only used this. (Used Johnson/Johnson babywash with my son.)

My youngest had eczema and cradle cap very bad as an infant/toddler. We tried baby oil, Aquafor, frequent brushing. Using olive oil on his cradle cap was the best treatment!

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this product yet...Mustela Foam Newborn Shampoo. It's for cradle cap and it's prevention. It's a bit pricey but you use it sparingly, and it works quickly, and it's not a bit harsh. Cradle cap was gone within 2 or 3 washes. I continued using it to prevent the cradle cap from coming back.

My son had terrible cradle cap and our pediatrican told us to use aquafor baby wash instead of johnsons and to rub his head with baby oil. I tried those things, but they didnt really work. I kinda just left alone, and it went away on its own. I did have fun peeling the flakes a skin off though (was told not to do that, but did it anyway).

Sesame oil. Rub it in daily.

Both of my kids had cradle cap and used different products but I found one product that worked and I always recommend it to my friends. Mustela makes a scalp cream and shampoo that resolved the issue. It worked within 2 -3 treatments!

Good luck!

My son gets this frequently, so we deal with it all the time! The BEST treatment we have done involves:
1. Only bathing when necessary (allow the oils to build-up on the scalp)
2. Frequent "brushing"
3. Although my guy looks like a greaseball, we rub his head (tons of hair) with Aquafor and let it sit for an hour so it will soak-in and then gently scrub his head with a washcloth and brush his hair to get the flakes out.

Baby oil works really well too, but with all of his hair it is easier to use the thick lotion.

You can use a dandruff shampoo.
Or apply oil (olive oil is OK) and gently comb out the flakes.

baby oil on her head let it sit then comb it out and wash, it will take a few days to get rid of it and a few washs to get all the oil outa her head

I just used a very mild baby shampoo on their head, and let it soak while I bathed the rest of them. Use the little super soft baby hairbrush they send home from the hospital with you. I used it to massage little circles on their scalp to lather the shampoo.. then let sit while I bathed them, then massaged some more and rinsed.

It didn't last very long.

Our son just had it recently. We applied olive oil with a soft bristle toothbrush. Cleared it up perfectly.

I left it alone and it eventually went away on my DD after a month or so.

My son had cradle cap until he was like two! All the books said to leave it alone and it would go away, so I did that until he started daycare at 9 mos. The caregiver asked me if I would mind if she put baby oil on his head and brushed it to get rid of the cradle cap. I didn't care, the cradle cap just didn't bother me. So she did that whenever she thought he needed it. She just didn't like the look of it! It seemed to work pretty well, but it kept coming back until he was around 2 years old. I remember them making a note of it on his 2-year well check. I have an 18 mo. old now who still has some, but we aren't doing anything for it other than what we would do anyway (washing his hair and so on). But it's not been as bad as it was on my older son anyway.

Since you have a girl, I would leave it alone. I tried putting olive oil and lotion on my daughter's scalp, and it made her hair fall out when the dead skin sloughed off. My daughter was born with a ton of hair. When the hair fell out where I treated the cradle cap, she looked like she had a mullet!

The cradle cap went away when we went on vacation, and she spent a lot of time in the sun. It still comes and goes though. If it doesn't hurt her, and it doesn't look TOO bad, I wouldn't worry about it.

I have used Burt's Bees apricot oil and olive oil before bath. Then while in bath I brush the hair gently to loosen some of it and comb it out. Then after bath I put a thick layer of Burt's Bees baby lotion on it and that seems to really add some extra help.

A., we used either olive oil or baby oil and rubbed the scalp to loosen it up and then used a baby hair brush to stimulate the scalp everyday sometime 2 x's a day until it was not a problem anymore. Just beaware that as we learned later in life it can come back as porisis and need treatment.

do nothing and it will go away on its own that is the best way to treat it.

They say not to do anything and it will go away eventually. My son had a pretty good case of it adn when he was about 2 I finally tried something. It either worked or it was about time for it to go away on it's own. When he was in the bath I put baby oil all over his head and let it soak in. Then i combed his head and all the flakes came off. Some were stuck on and I did not worry about it (didn't comb harder or anything). I think I did it again a week or two later. It just all disappeared.