dry skin or cradle cap?

Livi's scalp is so dry that it's flaking everywhere, which looks great with her jet black hair...gross!!!

How do I know the difference between newborn dry skin and cradle cap? Morgan had cradle cap a few times, but not till she was older. Livi has a lot of dry skin on her back, by her ankles and on her arms still...obviously her head too.

Also, those with dark haired kids...if it was cradle cap, what did you use? With Morgan, I would use olive oil, but it was VERY hard to get it all washed out. Would be harder on dark hair!

 

my DS had cradle cap. it does look gross like real bad dandruff but with bigger flakes coming off. his was just on top of his head though. i used the gentle naturals cradle cap care. it worked but it took awhile. i have heard of people using dandruff shampoo and said it worked well. i haven't used it because it was all gone by the time i found out that little secret. HTH :hug99:

 

My DR told us to comp a bit of Olive Oil through the hair. We also put Aquaphor on their head and my SIS In Law who is a hairdresser swears that the Paul mitchell Baby Shampoo gets rid of cradle cap.

 

My kids had it really bad. Even now at two (twins) and four (ds), that had some patches of excema on their scalp. When they were babies I used baby oil and a fine tooth comb. I first scrubbed their scalps with it, then combed it out, then washed with baby wash. Our ped recommended a natural baby wash. We did aquaphor baby wash at the time. There is an excema wash and cradle cap wash made by Gentle Naturals.

 

QUOTE(2xthelove @ Apr 6 2008, 01:04 AM) [snapback]706961[/snapback]
my DS had cradle cap. it does look gross like real bad dandruff but with bigger flakes coming off. his was just on top of his head though. i used the gentle naturals cradle cap care. it worked but it took awhile. i have heard of people using dandruff shampoo and said it worked well. i haven't used it because it was all gone by the time i found out that little secret. HTH :hug99:


I was goign to try dandruff shampoo, but was afraid it would be too harsh on her skin since she's only a few weeks old. It worked when I used it on my other DD, but like I said, she was older (a few months) at the time. I think Livi will be getting an olive oil treatment tonight!

 

Oil (especially baby oil since its petroleum based) will just make it worse. Cradle cap is actually over stimulation of the sebaceous glands in the skin of newborn babies, most likely due to the mother's hormones still in the baby's circulation. The glands release a greasy substance that makes old skin cells attach to the scalp as they try to dry and fall off. It builds up and drys into a scaly surface (cradle cap) if you are putting oil on this it will just add to the problem. The best thing is to shampoo the hair and use a very fine tooth comb and slowly comb it out. When I say slowly I mean over several times. Over a couple weeks it should go away.

 

Our pedi told us to use Selsun Blue dandruff shampoo at their 2 month appointment. Josh cleared up pretty quickly, but Jake still has patches. In addtion to the shampoo, I also would coat their hair with baby oil gel ( a lot easier than the liquid) for about 10 minutes before their baths and then I would follow it with the shampoo. Our pedi also told us to leave the shampoo on for 5 minutes before rinsing.

 

My ped recommends Head and Shoulders, and it works great! Just be careful around her eyes!