Before I had children, I never knew about cradle cap, let alone how to get rid of it! I’m hoping my experience, detailed below, can help out another mom.
What is cradle cap? In my non-scientific explanation of cradle cap, it starts out looking like little white flakes on an infant’s scalp. I have no idea what causes it. When not properly and quickly treated, it turns into a large, hard, crusty scab-like thing on your precious infant’s head. It’s gross.
Heads up!! There are a few pictures below. Don’t scroll if you don’t want to see this.
What not to do if your infant gets cradle cap
What not to do #1: Cradle cap starts out with a dry flake here and there. As a new mom, I thought his head was dry. So I put lotion on it. Seemed reasonable enough.
A few days later, the “dry scalp” got worse. More flakes appeared. I asked the ladies in the BabyCenter mom group and they said to use baby oil or olive oil.
What not to do #2: I rubbed baby oil on his head at the start of the bath, let it sit while I did the rest of the bath. They said to take a credit card and scrape against the hair to lift off the cradle cap. Then wash off the baby oil.
This was not a good idea. The baby oil didn’t soften it up enough and the credit card ripped off some of the cradle cap, which made his head bleed a little bit.
What not to do #3: Then, I tried olive oil. Same application steps as the baby oil but I thought perhaps a different substance would work. Same result, except then the dog followed him around to try to lick his head. Whoops, didn’t think about that one.
This was taken only TWO days after the image above. You can see the cradle cap has spread and is starting to look a bit like a scab after it’s healed.
Literally, the next day, it was like one giant scab. It was connected and getting thicker. It looked like this:
So at this point, I was freaking out about my poor baby boy and what to do. Luckily, although it looks GROSS and uncomfortable, it doesn’t bother the baby at all. Phew!
I brought him to the pediatrician who told me it’s NBD, totally treatable.
How to get rid of cradle cap, per doctor’s orders:
- Put dandruff shampoo on the cradle cap; I used the classic Head & Shoulders shampoo.
- Massage the shampoo into his hair with your fingertips.
- Leave it on for 2 – 3 minutes.
- Take a super soft brush and gently brush in small circles over the affected area. I used the Fridababy Dermafrida silicone brush.
- Rinse well, but make sure not to get it in baby’s eyes as it will sting.
- Repeat every day until it’s gone.
- If you see it starting to come back, repeat steps 1-6.
If you’re in freak out mode because your infant’s hair looks like one of the photos above, I’ll make this super easy on you– this is what you need:
This worked. Slowly over a few days. Phew!
Unfortunately, when the scabs came off, his hair came off too since the scabs had hardened around the hair. So my one-month baby boy had hair on the side of his head and a bald top. LOL Whatever, at least the cradle cap was gone and his hair could grow back. 🙂
When I started to see even a flake or two of cradle cap with my next two babies, I immediately got out the Head & Shoulders and brush. Each instances, the cradle cap completely disappeared after a few days. Since the brush is a 2-pack, I kept one for bathtime and another by the diaper changer to brush to do circles (on a dry scalp) in the morning.
Therefore, if your infant gets cradle cap, please learn from my mistakes! No lotion or oil; go right to the good stuff. Save the baby hair! 🙂
Good luck mama!
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