We have been battling cradle cap/eczema/flakey head with Mason since he was a baby. He started showing signs of it when he was probably 6 months old, maybe sooner. He has eczema all over and we have a working system for his eczema. I have eczema, which helped when knowing what to do for Mason. I figured he got it from me. I wanted to share what has worked and not worked for us, in case any other mama’s out there are struggling and are frustrated and running out of idea…meet me a month ago.
When Mason was a baby it was easier to manage. He could not scratch his head, I could apply anything and it would stay. First, I noticed eczema on his body and I immediately cut out anything that was scented. Scented in any way bothers my skin and makes my eczema worse. Bye Bye Johnson and Johnson EVERYTHING. This made me sad, because I love the way they smell. I should add that I had multiple friends tell me the Johnson and Johnson baby products irritated their baby’s skin too. Hello Cetaphil lotion in the tub! With this lotion, my life with eczema changed years ago and so we started using it on Mason’s body.
It helped! We apply it twice a day. He also has a tub at school and the girls will apply it to rough spots that appear. For Mason’s head, we used Gentle Naturals Cradle Cap Treatment (amazon.com) and the lovely yellow comb from the hospital. As a baby I would only have to use this one in awhile and it would help. For body wash, we switched to the Fragrance Free Burt’s Bees. Mason seemed much improved until we started real foods.
Now flash forward to about 3-4 months ago. His head started becoming a constant flakey mess. Nothing was working. His eczema on his body even seemed harder to control. I was becoming at a lost. Nothing was working. All the items we had tried in the past was not helping and to top it off, Mason figured out how to scratch his head. What does that mean? Now I know how much it is bothering him. He was starting to get scabs on his poor little head and would scratch even in his sleep.
First recommendation I took was to cut out the Burt’s Bees. It maybe Fragrance Free but it has lots of different oils in it…I read the ingredients after I noticed it had a slight smell. I went on the hunt to find a shampoo for Mason, and someone finally said forget the kid stuff go with adult stuff. DUH!!! What works for me seemed to work for him. What bothers my skin bothers his. I changed his shampoo and body wash to Dove shampoo and wash for sensitive skin. The only problem, avoiding the eyes. Oh well, I thought. I will avoid them and we have.
The second recommendation we received (from multiple people) was to use coconut oil. At least two other people I know with eczema or children with it suggested putting it on his head overnight. This was a God sent recommendation. We use Organic and Unrefined Coconut Oil that we got at our local Fresh Market. If you look at the back of the one I purchased it even has instructions for applying it to hair. Its suggestion says to leave it on for an hour and rinse. During the weekdays at home we apply after school and take a bath and rinse out of his hair before bed. On the weekends, I let him sleep with it in his hair. It has been helping!!!! The scabs are gone. His scalp is still a little flakey but it is improving daily. I deal with this daily and have not use anything smelly for years, even though I want to SO bad. My baby will get used to it and it will just be apart of his everyday life.
Getting better with oil.
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