Cradle cap be gone!
Lillian has had cradle cap off and on since she was tiny, like around one month old. Cradle cap is a type of dermatitis that affects 50% of all babies. Lillian’s is a mild case compared to some (seen via google images) and for that I’m super thankful! While it is NOT related to hygiene it’s hard not to feel responsible when I see little flakes start accumulating in her hair. There are different methods of attempting to remove cradle cap, and I’ve tried to eradicate Lillian’s three times now.
The first time I tried when she was maybe two months old. She was shedding her full head of newborn hair around that time and I was appalled when I saw her hair was coming out when I rubbed the oil on her scalp to remove the flakes! Of course I realize that she would have shed all that hair on her own anyway, but it made me fearful to try treatment again anytime soon after that! The poor baby was screaming and crying during the application of the baby oil. 🙁 That time I used a soft-bristled toothbrush to gently remove the flakes on her scalp. We thought I’d gotten rid of it for good, but after a few weeks we saw the flakes start up again. 🙁
Try number two was done when she was maybe 5 or 6 months old. This time I tried rubbing olive oil on her scalp and then rinsed that and then used a special cradle cap product (Gentle Naturals Cradle Cap Care). I used a fine tooth comb to gently scrape the flakes. She was fine during this treatment and didn’t even protest the shampooing (Johnson’s Natural HEAD-TO-TOE Foaming Baby Wash) and I thought – again – that this time I got rid of it for good!
Lo and behold, we’d been noticing the flakes starting up again for the last couple of months. 🙁 She gets them on the tip-top or crown of her scalp, with some on her forehead at her hairline, and some behind her ears, and sometimes on her eyebrows. I think they itch her a little bit but don’t bother her in any other way. I just don’t like to see them on her too, because it makes me feel like I’m not doing everything I can to keep her the most clean (even though I do know it has nothing to do with cleanliness!). They’re pesky little troublemakers though that seem to come back eventually every time I scrub her clean!! It’s frustrating. I really hope the third time’s the charm and that we won’t be seeing any more cradle cap!
Here’s our little cutie during the oiling of the scalp phase of the treatment: (Poor little thing is looking a bit alarmed!)
This time I used Johnson’s baby oil again. I rubbed it over her scalp and behind her ears (for her eyebrows I usually use a q-tip) and let it sit for 15 or more minutes. Instead of a toothbrush I again used a fine-tooth comb for her scalp, but I use paper towels to rub it off her eyebrows and behind her ears. The comb I use is actually the one that came in the little kit they gave us in the hospital when she was born, this one here: (I use the side on the left, as the bristles are softer and closer together.)
The method I use is as follows: I hold the comb almost parallel to her scalp and in short gentle strokes I lightly scrape the surface of her head. The flakes have become soft little piles of mush in the oil at this point so they just slide off her scalp and into the comb. I periodically wipe the bristles clean and keep going till I’m sure I got it all. (I have no idea if this is true and based on science or not but I have a paranoid feeling that if I don’t get every last little flake it will then grow back from that!) She was fine during this phase of the treatment so I thought I got off scott free. But then it was time to rinse it in the bath…
Poor baby just started screaming as soon as she was placed in the water this time. It broke our hearts because we HAD to shampoo all that oil off her head! So I worked as fast as I could, this time using her California Baby Tea Tree & Lavender shampoo and body wash. I washed and rinsed her poor little screaming head and then I quickly washed her body. We hate to let her cry, oh it’s so hard and makes us feel so badly for her. Then we quickly got her out and wrapped her in a towel and lotioned her up (Aveeno Baby Calming Comfort Lavender and Vanilla lotion) and then I nursed her to soothe her. She settled immediately with that, and we thought “yay, we’re done with cradle cap!”. But then I took her out of the towel and realized that her hair still looked wet (it usually dries fully within two minutes of her bath) and I felt it, and yep, oily. 🙁 It hadn’t all washed off with the shampoo this time. Oh I felt horrible!! I knew I couldn’t leave that on her scalp but I hated the thought of putting her through a wash again when she was plainly letting us know she was DONE with it!
I had a bit of fun posing her oil-laden hair for some photos (see the cuteness below!), then it was back to the bath.
As we feared, she started crying again immediately. This time we thought of using the sink instead of the tub so she wouldn’t have to go through a full bath again, but it didn’t keep her from crying. 🙁 We put her in her little blue plastic baby tub that we hadn’t been using the last few months (she’s graduated to a larger inflatable winnie the pooh tub inside our bathtub), and Josh held her secure in that on the counter while I used the spray nozzle on our kitchen sink to gently rinse her head after another full lathering of her California Baby shampoo. This time I got all the oil off, whew! After wrapping her in a towel again I tried to nurse her but she was too unsettled to start right away so we took her outside for some fresh air and a change of scenery. That did the trick immediately and she brightened up and smiled and kicked her legs happily. Josh got some absolutely gorgeous and heart-melting photos of her (below) while she was chattering away at “DaDa”. 🙂
I really hope that’s the last time we’ll have to do a cradle cap treatment! (For some reason when I say that my tongue always wants to say “cradle crap”. Oops!) Don’t you just want to kiss her adorable, happy smiling cheeks?!