Cradle cap is a very common condition that occurs for many healthy babies.
It generally develops in the first few weeks of your baby’s life and can last in some cases for up to a year.
While it isn’t very nice to look at and you might feel unhappy that your child has developed it, cradle cap is not harmful to your child in any way and it is not something that you need to be overly concerned with.
Most of the time it will clear up on its own and often attempts that parents make to ‘fix’ the problem can cause it to take longer to clear up.
It is similar to the dry skin that adults get when their oil glands are overactive.
This can produce dandruff like conditions that will usually occur on the scalp but can also appear on the ears and eyebrows.
Where the condition is more pronounced the scalp can appear to have a yellowish crust in flaky patches.
The first thing many parents tend to do when they see this flaky skin it to smother it with oils or petroleum jelly to help moisturize the skin but this can actually make the condition worse by blocking up the pores of the skin.
As the pores are already blocked this will tend to prolong the time it takes for the cradle cap to clear up.
With adult skin an exfoliant will help to remove the dry skin but a baby’s skin is far too sensitive to use this method and should not be used even if some people recommend this method to you.
Time will solve the problem and the best solution is to gently shampoo the scalp with a suitable baby care shampoo.
There are some new baby care products that are starting to address this problem and while they won’t clear up the cradle cap they will reduce the time it takes for it to disappear in most cases.
These products help to moisturize and soften the dry skin allowing the crusty areas to fall away.