Has anyone had experience of cradle cap type thing in older children?

[Kelly1978]

My older two children had cradle cap as babies which has coem and gone, but now it seems to be back again and they are 6 and 4. Theire heads are really scaly, with thick crusts of skin flaking off, nothing like normal dandruff, and I have to be careful because if I rub it too much, their hair comes off with the skin. Poor dd is looking very thin on top. We've been to the GP several times before, even had medication especially made up at the hospital but with no real luck.

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dd still has it . We use a Rausch Willow Bark shampoo but not sure where you cna get it readily in UK.

try warm oil treatments .. massage into scalp and leave on for an hour / overnight then wash out

try extra-mild shampoo

A pharmacist told me that head and shoulders would be far too harsh and said I shouldn't use it on the kids. I daren't be too abrasive, as last time dd ended up with big bald patches

Will look into warm oil treatment, thanks.
We've tried quite a few different shampoos, with no luck. My latest attempt is with an indian hair oil.

They always used to react to Johnsons shampoo, then I foudn a children's 2 in one loreal that they were ok with but looks like I am going to have to try something new again. Any shampoo recomendations?

you could just try washing their hair with acqueous cream (put some in your hands and make a lather with some water) .. it doesn't make bubbles but is cleansing enough for little ones ... although you'd need soap after a warm oil treatment (use a light vegetable oil .. not an extra virgin one and warm over hot water or in microwave but be careful of how hot it gets)

try to avoid washing daily

yes, can't remember what we did though

one thing that definitely helped was not washing their hair often - like only once a week or every two weeks

I know it sounds disgusting but it seemed to really help

yes my ds did too, quite old, HV said treat it like you treat a baby's! but i can't remember what that was!

dd2 did start to get very small scabby patches again (not to baby extent of patches of hair coming off) but I used vosene/head & shoulders and it did clear it up. She's 8 now. Worth a try. Maybe depends how bad it's got?

Hi, my ds gets this (he's now nearly 4) and I was told to increase the 'good bacteria' in his gut to help get rid of it permanently. I bought some yogurts, and vitamins, with pre and probiotics and it hasn't come back since...not sure how, but it seems to have worked! There is also some info on this method if you google it (I seem to remember). hth

My son had it at around 5 years old, i covered his head with loads of hair conditioner, really massaged it in and then combed it through with a nit comb and then rinsed - it all came out and i havent had to do it again

found that the nitty gritty anti-nits lotion had the added benefit of getting rid of my 3 year olds cradle cap (she is milk intolerant and it gets bad if we haven't watched her diet carefully enough).

My 8 year old son still gets this - is it yellowish, like proper cradle cap? I cover his scalp in oil - olive seems to work by far the best - massage it in well, then after it's soaked in for a good few hours I use a nit comb to gently lift the crusty bits off -you have to be a bit careful or it can bleed. Then wash as normal - may need two shampoos to get it all out. Weird, isn't it?

DD is 2.5 and still has cradle cap, the best treatment I have found is combing conditioner through with a nit comb while wet in the bath and then rubbing diprobase cream into her scalp.

Also, Halos and Horns shampoo seems to help as very mild.

It is yellowish, yes. Oil doesn't seem to be helping much and I'm nervous of trying to comb away the skin because the hair comes off with it. I think I might have to try something like head and shoulders. Or buy dd a wig!

My ds had this until he was 7 or 8. I think I carried on using that Dentinox cradle cap shampoo.