Cradle Cap

I know, I know, I probably should have addressed this months ago! But I had heard that you shouldn't "scrape" at cradle cap. I had also heard that adult dandruff shampoo (a couple treatments of it) will get rid of the flaky skin. I had also heard that you should leave it alone. I had also heard that you should rub at it with an old toothbrush....

As you can tell, I was confused and conflicted! How's a mom supposed to know who to believe?!?

I guess I figured "scrape" or "pick" was virtually the same as scrubbing at it in any sense - so I decided not to do any of those. (Oh the technicalities of the English language!) I also disliked the idea of using adult dandruff shampoo on my little baby! For one, what if I got it in her eyes?!?! For two, that stuff is full of chemicals. and for three, I've heard that with some adults (some brands) actually GIVE you dandruff! Because it's so drying to the scalp. (good job security for the dandruff shampoo people, huh?!)

Then when I started consistently playing with and "doing" Q's hair, I could really see that she still had quite a bit of cradle cap. (as you may have noticed in the pictures) I felt so bad! But I didn't know what to do about it. So I left it. However, as I combed her hair more and was parting it and putting in ponytails and braids, etc, I noticed that it was loosening some of the flakes. Not in a harsh way, just in an "active use" kind of way. :)

So... I decided to try to learn some more.

What I found recently said that you could use oil (coconut, olive, mineral, etc.) to soak the scalp and then gently scrub at the flakes. Then wash the head/hair as usual to get the oil off.

So we tried it tonight! I should have taken pictures to spice up this post.... but I didn't. Anyway, it seems to have worked! I'll know more in the morning when I go to do her hair again, but after her bath tonight it looked very promising!

The details of what I did:
1. Rub lots of coconut oil onto her scalp
2. Make sure it got down to the scalp, not just on the ends of her long hair
3. Using my fingers and a comb, I just gave her a little head massage/scratch - as though I was rubbing her back. :)
4. She got to nurse and watch a movie while I did this so she was pretty happy about it all :) and although I was "rubbing" at it, and maybe even "scratching", and her head did turn a little pink, she never showed any signs of it hurting her at all.
5. Then I put her in the bathtub  :)
6. I used a gentle organic baby shampoo in her hair to get the oil out.

I hope this helps anyone else who might be confused about the conflicting info on cradle cap out there!!