The Basics on Baby Cradle Cap

A lot of newborns and young infants get the condition known as baby cradle cap, but frankly this particular infant illness isn’t much grounds for alarm.  It happens pretty often on  new babies, and it doesn’t reflect badly on the parents or their care.  Some common beliefs about infant cradle cap, such as that it’s caused by poor hygiene or by the mother’s milk dribbling back to the scalp have been proven wrong.  While cradle cap can have complications if treated incorrectly, it’s ordinarily a pretty straightforward matter to fix it right up.

According to modern  medical classification  there’s only one kind of cradle cap, but older systems used to classify three different kinds.  The older system tends to be slightly more useful to parents who are trying to figure out exactly what they’re looking at.  All cradle cap is the product of overproduction of sebaceous glands on the baby’s head.  The first stage just looks like a lot of oil on the baby’s scalp or hair.  The next stage is when that oil dries, producing a encrustation.  The third phase happens when the greasy crusting gets going inflicting scalp inflammation.

To  effetively treat  baby cradle cap, the child’s head needs to be carefully cleansed.  If you notice and treat it  when it’s still just in the “oily” stage, then a gentle baby shampoo should be everything you need . Of course, you have to use it  every day for a while till the conditions stop  , but it’s still not difficult. If the cradle cap gets to the second stage, then it can help to try using baby oil or vegetable oil on the scalp overnight . This can help soften and dissolve the dried fatty deposits, right after which you can lightly scrub with baby shampoo or conditioner and peel the scales off.

Though baby cradle cap usually isn’t too significant a well being dilemma, if it’s permitted to  progress too far  it can turn into eczema and start causing problems .  Basically, at some point the oily deposits start irritating and inflaming the scalp.  Once the  inflammation has set in  , the skin surface usually breaks. At that point infection usually sets in pretty easily, which can lead to a world of problems that parents will not want to deal with .  If baby cradle cap does get to this point despite your best efforts, it’s a good idea to take the child to a doctor as soon as imaginable..

While the look of cradle cap can be somewhat frightening if you’ve never dealt with it before, as you can see it’s usually not too much of a problem. It’s just one of the more normal experiences of infancy and new parenthood .  So, do a bit of research into baby cradle cap treatment, apply your common sense, and cradle cap shouldn’t be too much of a trouble at all.