It’s the bane of any mommy’s existence. Especially if the baby has dark hair. I’m talking about that scaly, white flaky stuff that shows up on baby’s head. Cradle Cap.
I wanted to share my natural treatment for cradle cap today. Little k ended up with it by 4 weeks and it took me awhile to figure out how to get rid of his cradle cap without those chemical laden baby shampoos.
I may be wrong, and I would love for you to chime in if you think I am, but I’m nearly positive that cradle cap is a result of hard water. I asked my mom if her babies ever had cradle cap and she said that we all got a little bit every now and then. So I asked her what she did for it, she said “nothing”, that it went away on it’s own.
My mom has a water softener. But it runs out of salt on occasion. Jason and I on the other hand have city water. It’s not horribly hard, but it’s not as soft as what I was used to. At 4 weeks there was one small patch of scaly stuff on little k’s head.
Then we went to Oregon for a week. 4 showers in the hard water at my in-law’s house and I cannot even begin to describe how bad it was. His entire head was covered and a simple hair brushing made it look like snow.
I am certain that the hard water is what brought on his cradle cap.
The first natural treatment for cradle cap that some-one recommended to me was to rub oil into his scalp and let it sit for 15 minutes. I used an organic olive oil and rubbed it in. Within a minute his head smelled horrible. Like rancid oil/filthy dirty body. I couldn’t stand the smell and tried washing it out.
It took probably 5 shampooings to get the smell out, and now his poor little head was worse than ever!
I figured the oil would work but didn’t want the smell so I tried something different.
My natural treatment for cradle cap:
Before little k was born, I made an herb infused shampoo/body-wash with organic baby Castile soap. The baby shampoo recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of jojoba oil. I made a new batch of baby wash and instead of 1 teaspoon jojoba oil, I used 2 tablespoons of my herb infused baby oil.
Next time he got a bath I put the shampoo on his head, scrubbed it in a bit and let it sit while he played and rinsed it out at the end of his bath. It took about 5 washings to get rid of it all, but once again my baby had a pretty head with non-flaky hair!
It seems to work like the straight oil soak, but there is no stink and it’s easily done during bathtime.
This natural treatment for cradle cap really works well. I continued using the baby shampoo with extra oil in it and make sure to scrub his little head good each time. Every once in awhile I have to let it sit on his head a few extra moments to remove a little buildup, but usually just rubbing it in good does the trick.
Did your baby(s) ever get cradle cap? Do you have a natural treatment for cradle cap?
Ann says
October 17, 2014 at 9:46 amHi there,
In response to your article. I don’t believe that hard water is to blame at all. I think it’s because us mums are so careful with the soft spot we just don’t rub off the naturally occurring dead skin cells on there. If it was due to the water ALL the babies in your area would have it right ??? The olive oil treatment works perfectly
All the best
Ann
Kendra says
October 20, 2014 at 9:51 amHi Ann… I think a lot of babies in my area do have it. 🙂 My brother in law and his wife live at my in-law’s where Kolton’s cradle cap got really bad, and their son had craddle cap horribly. It was also all over his head and not just near the soft spot.
Someone on fb suggested candida as a culprit which I had never heard of.. Who knows 🙂
raisingcropsandbabies says
October 21, 2014 at 2:26 pmAll 4 of my babies had cradle crap (that was my endearing term for it). I’ve done a slew of things to get rid of it and it would always come back rapidly, so I just started giving up with each of them… being thankful for their heads full of hair to cover most of it up. Some babies have issues with it getting inflamed and red and that’s when I would have diligently worked on it, but, fortunately, my babies never had that reaction. It was just merely annoying.
The pediatrician told me more fair skinned babies get it (mine were see through! haha). She also said that babies who tend to get it also have ezcema (my 3rd son only fit that description though)… don’t quote me, but I believe she said it’s a kind of ezcema.
I remember my mom combing and combing one of my boys’ hair to get the cradle crap out and working so hard, his poor little head bled… not worth it. haha.
Kendra says
October 21, 2014 at 2:32 pmYeah, all that combing can really hurt them. If the “crap” was red and inflamed I’m sure it would be some sort of ezcema. Kolton’s was just white nasty buildup…