Cradle cap, it is gross, it is scaly, and it can make your otherwise super adorable baby look like like something from a Sci-Fi flick. Luckily, it can be cured with one product, which if you are cool like me, is already hanging out in your kitchen pantry.
A got her first bout of cradle cap just a few weeks after coming home from the hospital and while there are several products on the market to treat this common ailment, as always I was on the search for a more natural approach. From my brief stint in working in a daycare, I knew that a common fix for cradle cap is baby oil, but since I refuse to put a byproduct of crude oil on my baby’s delicate skin I went for my trusty old coconut oil.
First I washed A’s little head with some warm water and castile soap. This helped to soften the scaly mess and got rid of any loose skin cells. I dried off her head and massaged the coconut oil into her scalp, covering her head with a hat to let the coconut oil do its magic for 10-15 minutes. Then I gently back brushed her hair to remove the dead skin. A really liked this part, probably because cradle cap can sometimes be itchy. Most of the oil was absorbed into the skin so I didn’t see the need to wash her hair again, I just put on another hat to keep any leftover oil off of our clothes. That’s it, super simple right?
One coconut oil treatment and I was able to keep the cradle cap at bay for months. I only recently had to treat her little head again. Is there anything coconut oil can’t do?
