Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Anyone know if it's normal for an almost 2 year old to get cradle cap? It's itching her pretty bad. More importantly, any tips for removal and prevention? Preferably less messy than schmearing oil all over her head, then combing? If not, I guess I'll have to break out the coconut oil...darn, tasty coconut toddler head.

My older son never had it as a baby and then, boom, two big stripes of it at age 2. Super weird. I'm not sure what caused it, his pediatrician made some remark about an immune response but I didn't really follow up. We tried coconut oil, olive oil, combing, T-Gel, nothing had any effect. PS I don't recommend the T-Gel, it's super hard to wash out and gave him a rash on his body. :( Finally a few months ago I shampooed him with gentle shampoo, conditioned it, and then went through with a baby comb and gently scrubbed it all off, then conditioned again. It hasn't come back at all. One thing is that it's gross but it's not hurting anything. Good luck!

The boy had cradle cap pretty badly when he was smaller. It went mostly away and then came back when he was about 2. I think I washed his hair with Head & Shoulders (my shampoo) and it went away and didn't come back.

I don't know if I really recommend that, but it seemed to work for him.

Raygold is 2-3/4 and still has a little patch from babyhood that I am chipping away at slowly, but surely. He had it all the time when he was little and I had a great removal method.

I'd stick some kind of moisturiser (oil, cold cream, lotion, etc.) on his head for a few minutes, then wash his hair (something he REALLY fights now, hence the persistent patch) with a mixture of baby shampoo and baking soda, just scrubbing it in circles with an old tooth brush. Then rinse. That is usually enough to remove the cradle cap, although a little combing out of any scragglers followed by a second rinse helps, too.

I don't like oily baby head (and subsequent grease stains on everything), so this worked well for me.

I would never have thought of using an old toothbrush, I bet that works loads better than a comb. Thanks, guys! My little bug loathes hair-washing as well, so this could get interesting lol.

FWIW, Freya had a resurgence at a little before a year, that's hanging on. It's much less than when she was a newborn though.