slight bit of cradle cap should i bother or juust leave it?

[babber]

my 7 week old son has a slight bit of cradle cap on a bit of his scalp and some on his eyebrows. if i treat it now do you think that will nip it in the bud or should i just leave it to see if it gets any worse? he's only been bathed in water so far although i've used an olive oil balm on his skin after baths. a friend gave me some baby neals yard shampoo, lavender and chamomole i think - will this help?

I found that DS only got cradle cap when I started washing his hair (water only) - when he was weeny I didn't bother at all with his hair and there were no probs!
Now I just wash it every 3rd or 4th day (he is 11mo)and brush it the rest of the time + he has had no cc for ages.
I think the shampoo might make it worse tho.
My midwife suggested dabbing olive oil on any dry skin at this age, which always seemed to work.

i tend to be a picker and used to enjoy nothing more than a good dose of olive oil and a soft brush,

i found with dd that it always came back particularly as she grew, but personally felt that it was better to keep it under check. it just seemed to get thicker when left.

i also feel that her hair grew better when it was removed!

My DD had this.. I rubbed olive oil in as suggested by the health visitor, and DD woke up in the night scratching wildly so I regretted doing it!

I found it useful to understand what cradlecap is - from what I understand, it's when the scalp produces too much oil so dead skin cells stick to the scalp instead of shedding - so it's not a dry skin problem, more a problem of dead skin not shedding properly.

Another bit of advice I read was to wait until the cradle cap is nice and soft after a bath, then pick it off gently with your (clean) fingernails. I used to do this with DD while I was feeding her, and it didn't seem to bother her at all and her skin underneath was perfectly normal. Once it was all gone I used to give her head a gentle rub with a flannel in the bath every night and that seemed to stop it coming back. I've only ever used plain water, no soap or anything.

DS has persistent, recurring cradle cap.I've had to resort to using Dentinox cradle cap shampoo.I then slop a lot of baby oil on it, andpick it off once it's nice and soft. The oil then getsrubbed off. It's the only thing that works for him.

Thanks for all the advice ladies!

have used olive oil on the eyebrows and already looks better. might try some on his scalp after bath tonight...

If you massage in the oil very gently after a bath, gently GENTLY running over a plastic nit comb (must be plastic not metal) gets it off a treat.

[Mum of older nitty DC emoticon]

cradle cap is just dead skin that's not falling off. baby's skin reproduces far quicker than ours and sometimes it reproduces faster than the old dead skin can clear.
If you're comfortable to massage or gently pick it off then do so.
If you're not comfortable doing this then you can buy extremely soft bristled baby brushes and circular motions over the area will clear it off.
Don't expect it to clear in one session - it may take around a week to 2 weeks to just gently remove a little each day. (depending on how bad it is)

If cradle cap is left untreated and gets very bad, it can permanently damage the hair follicles.

Doctors, Health Visitors etc etc know nothing about cradle cap. If you have a good hairdresser they're a far better port of call.

Hope this helps.

I can advise as a qualified medicine interact assistant,and childcarer,

If the olive oil does not work within 3 weeks, try using Oilatum Shampoo for dry scalps. (In small bottle, a bit expensive about £8.00) But works 1st time.

My dd had awfull CC and after being advised by my mum( a pharmacy technician) and My old boss( A pharmacist) to use Oilatum, I did and It worked wonders. Its gentle on the scalp, keeps the hair soft and you only have to use a tiny bit each time.

You leave it on for 5 min while you wash thier body and then wash it out and hey presto!