Help! Severe cradle cap making baby scratch like hell

jeeney

Hi,

In bad need of any help/advice from anyone please! I know there have been threads on cradle cap before, but I need more advice.

So my baby has had cradle cap on and off for about three months now. But now it is affecting him badly and he spends his days scratching his head and it is irritating him a lot. I am using olive oil a few times a day, washing his hair every day and putting on immolient cream at night before putting him down. I'm also putting on mittins at night. Then last night he managed to take off one of the mittins and today his head is destroyed - very red.

The cradle cap is slowly shifting alright, but I'm at the point where I want a fast remedy as the poor mite is so irritated by it.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Rockys Lover

Hi Jeeney

We had the same problem with our wee fella. We were told to try vaseline, rubbed into his scalp and after 15/20 mins combed out with fine comb (I didnt have nit comb and just used regular, worked fine), it go rid of a lot more than the olive oil we had been trying. His head was a little red for a few hours after but didnt seem to bother him. Its a bugger to wash out though, rub shampoo into his dry (vaseline soaked) hair first and then rinse out. Its not a cure all, I've noticed that its coming back a little now but it stayed away a good month or so.

Best of luck with it!

rhapsody

My sister used coconut oil on her boy & thought it was great.

Gee_G

I got the little tommy tippee brush and comb set and my doctor made a great suggestion that has worked very well. Put warm Olive oil(as you're doing) on and massage it in, leave for about 15mins and use the soft brush and do very gentle circular motions all around the scalp and it comes off onto the brush. You will notice a big difference after a couple of times doing this. I personally found putting creams etc just made it worse.

jeeney

Thanks so much for all your comments, much appreciated.

Rockys - will try the vaseline, see if it makes any difference and also the dry shampoo is a great tip, thanks!

Thanks gee-g for the tip of doing circular motions around the head, this might shift the dead skin quicker. Maybe I'm leaving the olive oil on too long before brushing out again. I usually brush it an hour or two later. Will try do it more frequently.

Thanks guys

LilMrsDahamsta

You could try liquid paraffin as an alternative to olive oil if that hasn't been working. I soaked my big fellas head in it and put a little cotton hat on for around an hour, then did the circular brushing as above. Did it three times in one day as his head was manky and it totally shifted it; never came back.

wmpdd3

Gee_G wrote: »

I got the little tommy tippee brush and comb set and my doctor made a great suggestion that has worked very well. Put warm Olive oil(as you're doing) on and massage it in, leave for about 15mins and use the soft brush and do very gentle circular motions all around the scalp and it comes off onto the brush. You will notice a big difference after a couple of times doing this. I personally found putting creams etc just made it worse.

I did this and it got the worst of it off.

Also used this:

http://www.mustela.com/en/main.html#/baby-products/baby-care/bathing/baby-shampoo

I got about a month out of it every time I used it. I was told to wash the head very little.

goldenhoarde

LilMrsDahamsta wrote: »

You could try liquid paraffin as an alternative to olive oil if that hasn't been working. I soaked my big fellas head in it and put a little cotton hat on for around an hour, then did the circular brushing as above. Did it three times in one day as his head was manky and it totally shifted it; never came back.

As per LilMrsDahamsta we used liquid paraffin and the comb which worked a treat!

Gee_G

My doctor actually prescribed a shampoo for my little man too. I only use it maybe once every two weeks or so. She wanted to get rid of it asap. So if it's very bad and driving your little one mad you could try asking the doctor?

Mink

I agree, if it's bad then see the doc/PHN.

My fella has lots of long hair so the only way I can shift the cradle cap is picking it off with my nails, the brush/comb just don't get it. I warm a little almond oil and rub it in maybe 1/2hr or 1hr before.

mary1978

Nizoral is a antifungal shampoo you can get OTC. dilute it and rub in, leave a few mins and rinse away. should clear in a few days. really good.

Morph the Cat

After her bath, we'd put baby oil on her scalp - let it sit for a few mins, then used a kids toothbrush in a circular motion to get rid of the dry skin. It worked great.

Lumbarda

The nurse/midwife in my GPs gave me a great tip for cradle cap when my little one had it which was to ONLY use Aqueous Cream to wash her hair, just rub it on like shampoo and then rinse it off. Worked a treat for us, cleared it up in no time and it was all that I used on her hair for the first year or so (it doesn't leave the hair very "baby soft and silky " as it's quite greasy but figured it was worth it to be rid of the cradle cap!). IMO avoid strong shampoos like D*ntin*x, it turned my little one's scalp compeletely red and raw. Hope it's ok to say that but that was my genuine experience with it.

Toots

My little guy had dreadful cradle cap and since he had a massive mop of hair it was very difficult to get out. I did the circular motions with the soft brush and that loosened it up, then got a really really fine tooth nit comb and used it to get all the flakes off. The only thing I noticed was that it kept coming back after about a week or so.

My sister in law happened to ask me what shampoo I was using for him and I said the Johnson's Baby shampoo. She had the same trouble with her two girls and as soon as she stopped using the johnson's the cradle cap went away. I got a different shampoo in tesco, just a normal baby shampoo, sat down and completely cleared his scalp with the soft brush and nit comb, then whenever he had his bath I used the new shampoo and the cradle cap never came back.

jeeney

Thanks for all the comments. Thankfully it has pretty much shifted now. I just kept going with the olive oil and started to use nizoral shampoo instead of his normal johnsons one. He only now occasionally scratches it and I rub aloe vera into his scalp to help the itchiness. Believe me gee g and mink, i was going to doc if itchiness hadn't improved by yesterday. But thankfully it has. Nothing worse than seeing your little one in distress and not being able to help. So I really appreciate all the tips.

Sittingpretty

jeeney wrote: »

Thanks so much for all your comments, much appreciated.

Rockys - will try the vaseline, see if it makes any difference and also the dry shampoo is a great tip, thanks!

Thanks gee-g for the tip of doing circular motions around the head, this might shift the dead skin quicker. Maybe I'm leaving the olive oil on too long before brushing out again. I usually brush it an hour or two later. Will try do it more frequently.

Thanks guys

Hi Jeeny, my little guy had this but it wasn't very severe. I tried all remedies but the warm olive oil for about 15 mins, combed out with a fairly stiff comb to remove the flakes and then a thorough wash did the trick!

Good luck

lazygal

A lot of babies can react to baby oil, I wouldn't risk it. Moogoo worked a treat for us, check online for stockists.

aknitter

My fella has eczema and the only thing to work is Dentinox cradle cap shampoo. Available at pharmacys ask for it cause some keep it behind the counter. I use it all the time on him (only once a week), keeps the yellow stuff off his scalp and allows the dry skin to flak off with little itching (we are always going to have some). Try different scissors on his nails as well I found a big difference with the way some left his nails.