Baby smelly and crusty behind ears

[Anticyclone]

Feeling like a terrible parent, realised a week or two ago that our 8 week old smelled a bit behind the ears, and perhaps we hadn't been as diligent at washing them as we could have been.

There seemed to be a kind of crusty deposit, which we then started cleaning with cotton wool and water, leaving quite red skin underneath.

Two weeks on we've been carefully washing behind the ears, and the crustyness and smell keeps coming back, what could it be?

My two theories are either something similar to cradle cap which is all over his head - or when he is on his back, posseted milk is dripping down his face and pooling behind his ear!

Anyone else experienced this?

My DD had a bit of this and it was due to milk - quickly cleared up and we made sure to take extra care washing that area. Hope it clears up soon.x

Yup, we had this with dd under her chin at around the same age. Also felt like terrible parents. DSIL advised (without being preachy for once) that the redness was from it not drying properly. We introduced johnsons baby top to toe wash in the bath to get it clean (i don't have a problem with this stuff, many do as I am sure will come later in thread...) and then dry it with a hairdryer on low (she loves this) and treat any redness with a smidgen of sudocream which clears it up almost overnight.

I am to the same conclusion, either cradle cap or milk, I used dentonox cradle cap shampoo on her head, and lathered behind her ears and it disappeared. Took a little while to go from her head though

Hi. My DS had something similar to what you described, it was eczema, the doctor prescribed some mild steroid cream and it cleared up in a couple of days. He's only ever had eczema there and backs of knees a tiny bit. Hasn't come back. If it's red after cleaning I'd get it checked, dirt /milk unlikely to cause that (I'd have thought?) in any case, don't feel bad, we do what we can! In the rush of life a few centimetres of baby are easy to overlook :)

DS still gets this at 4. Doc said it's caused when their ears have extra wrinkled skin behind them, close to the side of their head and dead skin builds up. If he's prone to eczema or dry skin it makes it worse.
Best solution we've found is to clean crustiness daily and use a thin layer of sudocreme behind each ear if it's sore. One night's application of sudocreme clears it up it up for months.

Just noticed that your baby is tiny! Just 8 weeks, mine was 8 months, so what I've said may not be advisable at all...

Impetigo? Not uncommon in young children and will need treatment.

If things don't improve after washing, drying well and perhaps using some sudocreme then take a trip to the GP.

It could be eczema, at nearly 7 the backs of my DDs ears often get like this, we have some Fucidin cream on prescription for it, but that's probably not appropriate for such a young baby. again not really relevant yet, but we find her ears always flare up badly after she's been swimming.

I had same thing, also on tiny baby. I could see it was because we hadn't been cleaning him properly (also felt like terrible mum) so knew it wasn't impetigo or similar.

I started by using sudocreme (it's so miraculous) and when that had cleared up the redness and weepiness a bit, started cleaning carefully and gently with a bit of johnson's baby shampoo - a very mild solution in warm water.

Worked a charm.

Wow, thanks for the great responses. I think we will go down the simplest route first and see how thorough cleaning and sudocreme works. And if that doesn't clear it up, we will investigate the other possible causes further.

Wouldn't use a hairdryer to dry, could be dangerous!

sounds a bit like cradle cap.
I would 'wash' with olive oil (on cotton wool) daily to gently clean off gunk and to keep the skin moisturised.

I am glad you've had good advice and am posting purely to say that your title made me miss the smell of newborn baby - yes even one having a crusty moment!