cradle cap

DS has cradle cap, only getting worse in our record breaking heat wave... and I've heard olive oil is the way to go. He's got really thick hair though and I'm wondering if the oil will just make a huge mess rather than fix the problem... I found an old thread where someone mentioned something from the body shop, but can't find the thread again... I'm currently just using water as have been told baby shampoos can make it worse...any ideas?

Baby Love (barker) suggested Vaseline, or a special mix involving acid sal - from chemist - if really bad. I've seen a commercial mix in the chemist that has the acid sal in it (I have no idea what that is!). Put in on before bed, next night's bath give it a good rub.
I've used the vaseline & it has helped but DD only has minor prob. I'd heard about the olive oil too, but couldn't bear the thought of making the mess.
Good Luck!

Hi there

My little one had cradle cap pretty bad. His hair was actually stuck to his head with it. I used almond oil (pretty similar to olive oil i think), just put the oil all over the cradle cap, left it for a while til it got soft and then combed it out and washed it. The pharmacist told me its from the bubbles and soap in the babies bath. So if you have a jug of clean water and run it over their hair before getting bub out it should be right. This really worked for me.

I used Moo Goo (google it) on DD2 head and it was cleared within 2 days!

Alot have recommended this to me and i took their advice and worked great!

I found for my DS1 that just Sorbelene cream rubbed on his head worked.

My DS2 has more hair so I used Bicarb Soda and it cleared up really quickly. I just put a little in my hand and added some water to make a paste, then I rubbed it through his hair when I first put him in the bath and then rinsed it out at the end of his bathtime. I did this every day and I noticed an improvement straight away, it cleared up completely in about 4 or 5 days.

Other people swear by olive oil, but I didn't want his hair to go all yuck! (I must be a bit vain ;))

Stupid laptop posted twice!

oooh! so glad I saw this post, same thing here, DS has so much hair I've only just noticed that he has a bit of cradle cap underneath those curls :D

Trish - you just saved me a PM, was going to ask you about the bicarb soda again. Will do it tonight!

With DD I just used Olive oil too but her hair wasn't as thick as DS and I remember it stayed oily for a few days even with washing so I would like to avoid that if i can.

Tried the bicarb in his bath tonight - thanks Trish - did you wet the hair first or rub it in while the hair was dry? Seems better already, but with such thick hair I'll have to wait until he's in a happy mood tomorrow morning to really get a decent look.:D

What worked for DS is..

Rub Sorbelene into the scalp.. leave for an hour or so.. wash the hair vigerously with shampoo.. towel dry vigerously.. repeat the above until its gone.

I only had to do this twice with DS and it was all gone.

Lewis's Mum - I wet his hair first, I don't know if it really matters though. I make it kind of runny so it's easier to rub it in. I noticed the skin looked softer after the first time and by the end of a week it was all gone. Hope it works!

My mum put margerine in both my kids cradle cap, then left it for about an hour and it goes really soft and lifts off the skin, so you just pick it off. That is apparently what my nan did to them and to us, lol. I think it probably works like the olive oil but less messy. Try it, it worked really well with mine.

DS had the same problem i used as per advise from belly belly - Bepthanen cream - within 1 day it was gone. his was mild but give it a go and see how you go...

Olive oil all the way! DD has heaps of hair but it only takes two washes and rinses to get it out. Use a dropper to get it only where you really want it, then massage in and leave for the day - wash out before bed and most of the skin will come off with a light scratching or soft brush.

Here's a link to a big thread about cradle cap...

Thanks for the help - so far the bicarb is working well and I popped into the body shop and they gave me (gotta love a freebie!:dance:)a really tiny sample pot of their ginger scalp treatment shampoo stuff which has also been good - just a tiny dip of my finger into it, it lathers up really well, smells nice and I can comb out a lot of the cc easily, so using that every few days when I don't use the bicarb. Hardest part has been distracting DS long enough to let me comb it out!

I know you have lots of suggestions, so thought I would just add what worked for me on DD who has fine hair and not heaps of cradle cap:

put QV oil on at night, leave until morning or next bath and rub across (not into the head) with a wet face washer and it disappeared.

Wish I had known this with DS who always had it and I was embarrassed by it.

I have found with DD, I don't wash her hair much, just wet her head with water in the bath most of the time and only once a week and she has it a lot less than DS who I used to wash his hair with soap every bath time.

Goodluck

Hi Lewis's Mummy, I am Mum of Lewis! Great name!

I used a bit of olive oil which I rubbed on before bed and then brushed out in the morning. There was no mess as I didn't use too much.

I also only used shampoo once or twice a week and just used water the other days like Mollygirl did.

Thanks, the cc is pretty much all gone now thanks to the Bicarb/Ginger stuff from body shop and we've switched to washing his hair about once a week and just using water the rest of the time so hopefully that will keep it under control.