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My little guy has cradle cap. I didn't realize it at first because his hair is so thick (and I was so sleep deprived), but when it started flaking I noticed. All the advice I read says to shampoo more often to keep the scalp from getting oily, but that seems like a very bad idea for my AA son. I've been following the suggestion to put oil on it and brush with a soft bristle brush (as much as possible with his hair, which isn't very), and that does seem to help some, or even just massage his scalp with my fingers after putting coconut oil on his scalp, and that does help it flake away (although then he has flakes of nasty dead skin stuck in his hair that I have a hard time getting out). Anyone have any thoughts or anything that worked?
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What I did when my son got craddle cap was mix olive oil with water and massage that in his head. Then I would take a fine toothed comb and comb the flakes out. I noticed that he tended to get craddle cap if I had washed his hair and not rinsed the shampoo out as well as I thought I had. I just use a tiny dot of shampoo these days and I only shampoo him once a week. I use the olive oil/water message every other day though.
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When I posted this on the yahoo skin/haircare group, if I got 15 posts I got 15 answers...and usually the next poster told me what was wrong with the previous post! I guess different things work for different kids. We just started trying things. What works for us: Someone recommended using s small bit of Head and Shoulders or Selsum Blue right on the area. I know it sounds weird and maybe too harsh for baby hair, but it worked. We put a little on before getting into the bath, then wash his hair. After bath time we put a little Tea Tree oil on the spot(s) and comb through his hair. We wash his hair every third day. I took him into work yesterday, and I was very proud to have several women tell me how pretty his hair is! Good luck!
Pediatrician here- Our usual recommendations are first to try conservative measures: olive oil or mineral oil and a stiff bristled brush daily to get the flakes out. If that's not working after a few days to a week you can step up to Selsun Blue. You put it on as a paste 2 minutes before you bathe him and then rinse it out. Usually that will clear up the seborrhea in a couple of days or so.
You don't want to overwash and dry out your son's hair, so don't start washing more frequently. His hair isn't dirty... but seborrhea is associated with a fungus and that's why the Selsun works.
Keep in mind that Selsun isn't the greatest product for babies according to the cosmetic database, but we only had to use it on our daughter 3 times to completely eradicate the problem. Good luck!