How to Prevent Cradle Cap: What Do You Need to Know?

If you notice dry, flaky skin on your baby’s head or eyebrows, they may have cradle cap or seborrheic dermatitis. This skin condition is super common in infants and young children. 

Luckily, treating it isn’t painful, contagious, or challenging, though knowing the dos and don’ts of treating cradle cap is essential.

What is Cradle Cap?

Before jumping to answer, how do I prevent cradle cap? it is essential that you first understand what this condition is and what causes it in babies. Cradle cap is a common inflammatory skin and scalp condition in babies.

When adults experience it, it is known as seborrheic dermatitis, or, you can say, a more severe form of dandruff. It usually appears on the baby’s head and eyebrows; however, it can cause mild redness in other body areas, like behind the ears, in the skin folds, and around the diaper area.

Some of the common symptoms that you may notice are:

• Flaky skin
• Thick yellow scales
• Greasy patches of skin
• Inflammation
• Mild itching

Cardle cap in babies is caused when the hormonal changes in their body trigger the production of sebum in the sebaceous glands. These glands start producing excess oil, which, when it reacts to a type of yeast already present on our skin, the Malassezia yeast interacts with the sebum, and this leads to inflammation, scaling, and flaking. 

Can you Prevent Cradle Cap?

Now, the question arises: Can you actually prevent cradle cap? To some extent, you can, but you can not entirely prevent or cure it as it is caused by things happening inside the baby’s body that are not in your control. 

Now let’s take a look at the few things that you can do to prevent future flaking and scaling associated with cradle cap in your baby. 

How to Prevent Cradle Cap in Babies?

Even though this condition isn’t painful for your baby, it’s understandable that you’d want to prevent it. Here are a few cradle cap prevention tips and tricks you can use at home.

1. Wash the Scalp Regularly

One way to prevent cradle cap is to keep your baby’s scalp clean and moisturized with gentle shampoo daily or every few days. 

Better yet, wash the scalp and hair daily with a baby cradle cap shampoo and body wash. One that is specially formulated to help reduce the scales and flakes associated with cradle cap. 

You can use it two to three times a week to clean your baby’s scalp. However, make sure you thoroughly rinse after washing to avoid leaving any residue on your baby’s head.

2. Avoid Picking at the Scalp

If you do notice any dry skin or flakes on your baby, don’t pick at them. This can irritate the skin further and increase the likelihood of more cradle caps. Picking at cradle cap can also lead to skin damage, hair loss, and skin infection in babies.

So no matter how tempting it may look, never do it. 

3. Gently Massage your Baby’s Scalp

Another cradle cap prevention tip is to massage your baby’s head with your fingertips or a cradle cap brush while shampooing. This will help soften and break down the scales and make it easier to remove them.

However, never try to forcefully remove stubborn scales, as this can damage the hair follicles and cause hair loss in babies. 

How to Prevent Cradle Cap Naturally?

Understandably, many parents are wary of harsh chemicals to treat and prevent cradle cap, so they look for natural remedies for cradle cap. Natural methods are all well and good, however, it is essential to know which are beneficial. 

• Breast milk is a great go-to natural remedy if available to you. 
• Coconut oil could potentially help in reducing cradle cap flakes.
• Olive oil and essential oils are remedies that are not necessarily helpful.
• You can also put a humidifier in your baby’s room; supposedly, this can help them retain more moisture, though it’s not a proven remedy.

However, there are chances these natural remedies can cause allergic reactions in some babies and lead to other complications.

Some products, like olive or coconut oil, can increase the residue left on your baby’s skin and feed yeasts that lead to cradle cap. Some say to try testing out small amounts of these kinds of natural products. However, your doctor may not even recommend this.

Before trying any home remedy, it is best to consult a pediatrician. Instead of betting on these, the best way to prevent cradle cap is to use cradle cap shampoo that contains pyrithione zinc as an active ingredient.

Treating Cradle Cap in Babies

At the end of the day, you want your baby’s skin to be as happy and healthy as possible. But sometimes, our search for only natural products or methods can lead us down the wrong path regarding cradle cap. Some natural methods may be better avoided.

Instead you can use a medicated shampoo for babies for cradle cap.  The appropriate shampoo can soothe scaling, flaking, redness found in cradle cap. 

The best baby shampoo to prevent cradle cap is the one that contains zinc pyrithione as an ingredient and is free from any skin-irritating chemicals such as fragrance, dye, paraben, sulfate, and phthalates that can irritate your baby’s sensitive skin.

A shampoo specially formulated for babies and children of all ages can be used daily when the scaling is severe, and taper the use to two times a week when the condition starts getting better. You can also consult your baby’s pediatrician about which shampoo to use and how often. 

Conclusion

Cradle cap is a common skin issue in babies that can cause scaling, flaking, and inflammation on the scalp. Even though it is not dangerous for the baby’s health most parents want to get rid of it fast and prevent it in the future.

A few things that you can do to prevent future build-up of flakes and scales are to wash your baby’s scalp regularly with a shampoo for cradle cap, massage their scalp with a cardle cap brush or fingertips, and never pick at scales. 

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Dr. Eddie Valenzuela

Dr. Eddie Valenzuela is an award winning pediatrician and the founder and CEO of Pediatric Solutions, LLC.

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