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Cradle Cap
What Causes Cradle Cap and How Do You Treat It?
By Keath Castelloe Low
Both of Michelle DeGrappo's children had a mild case of cradle cap. "I didn't try too hard to get rid of it because I didn't like having to scrub the top of their heads and I knew it would eventually go away," says the mother of two from Charlotte, N.C. "I ended up buying an expensive cradle cap shampoo, but later found that just using some olive oil before her bath worked better to loosen up the scales. The only problem was she had so much hair that the oil made it look like we used the product in her hair for a few days!"
Tanja Cilia, a mother of three from Malta, Europe, tried massaging her baby's scalp with almond oil and gently combing it with a "nit comb" to get the scales out. She also tried seawater.
Cradle cap can be a nuisance. "Some parents worry that cradle cap means their baby is dirty, has an infection or has an allergy to something in their diet," Dr. Shu says. None of these is true.
"Some parents consider cradle cap to be a stigma similar to dandruff, which is another mild form of seborrheic dermatitis," Dr. Shu says. "Other parents are bothered by seeing the greasy scales and constantly pick them off, like you might do with a scab. Unfortunately, just like scabs, if you pick off a scale that's stuck to the skin, it will bleed."
Many parents find it difficult to resist picking, but Dr. Shu says that picking can just make the problem worse as it can lead to irritation and infection. Picking may also cause some of your baby's hair to be pulled off with the scale, resulting in a baby with patchy hair that no longer covers the cradle cap that most people (other than the parents) didn't notice in the first place, Dr. Shu says.
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