Cradle Cap

I was just talking to my best friend about our kids' cradle cap issues, and how I finally figured out how to wage war on it and win. For three months now, since Elias was about a month old, we've been tolerating the gross, scaly, yellow crustiness of his scalp. I tried olive oil, coconut oil, Vaseline, and shea butter. We've picked it off, scratched it off, scrubbed it off in the bath. Nothing worked, it just kept coming back after we thought we had conquered it.

Even his pediatrician couldn't offer any helpful advice. Noah had cradle cap for a few weeks too, but it had resolved itself by the time he was three months old. I knew I didn't want to try any medicated ointments or creams, so I slept on it and decided to try a new plan of attack.

The Honest Company had just come out with a new line of bath and body care, and since their products have worked so well for us in the past, I thought I would give their Nourishing line a try. I'm pretty sure little Elias inherited my dry skin, which means that we really need to keep him well moisturized in order to beat this cradle cap.

This was the plan:

1. Every single day last week, I treated his scalp with a bit of coconut oil for an hour.

2. Then, I washed his hair with Honest's Perfectly Gentle Shampoo + Body Wash, while brushing his scalp in a circular motion with a baby hairbrush.

3. After rinsing, I applied the Deeply Nourishing Conditioner and brushed him some more.

4. Finally after washing out the conditioner, I patted him dry and immediately applied a dollop of their Deeply Nourishing Face + Body Lotion. After that soaked in, I brushed him some more and dabbed a bit more of the lotion on him.

I noticed a difference almost immediately, and after three days, a vast improvement. After the fourth day, we've pretty much nearly gotten rid of it completely! Since it's the winter and we've got the heat on, applying the lotion at the first sign of dryness is key. I think that as soon as his scalp starts to get dry, the sebaceous glands in his scalp overproduce oil, which then leads to clogged pores and crusty scaliness.

I'm seriously so pleased that this worked! At first I thought that washing his scalp every day would make it worse, but so far it's only gotten better. High five for mommy perseverance!