Cradle cap is a common occurrence in infants. You can tell your baby has cradle cap by looking at his scalp. Cradle cap will look like thick, brownish red scales on your babies scalp.

Cradle cap doesn’t harm or hurt your baby at all. It will, supposedly, go away by itself over time. Some parents choose to do nothing and let the condition resolve itself. Other parents want to speed up the process.

As my children had light colored hair, I found that the cradle cap was very obvious and I grew tired of the comments from people and relatives. Nowadays, they sell cradle cap shampoo, which I have never tried.

Instead, I’ve always used the ‘oil remedy’ with my children. Any sort of natural oil can be used but olive oil or baby oil are the most common oils I heard to be used probably because most people have them already on hand.

You can begin by rubbing the oil in your child scalp gently especially if your child is very young and still has ’soft spots’ on their head. Let the oil sit in the scalp for around 15 minutes. The oil should begin to soften the scales during this time.

Take a fine toothed comb and begin to gently comb your child’s hair. The scales should comb out somewhat easily. Some babies don’t mind this process, and others are bothered by it. If your child is bothered, you may want to do a small section of scalp each day. After you comb out your child’s hair, wash the hair with baby shampoo. This should remove whatever was left on the scalp, or was stuck to the hair during the combing process.

If your child’s cradle cap continues to worsen, or spreads beyond his or her scalp, or you have concerns, it’s advisable to contact your child’s doctor for medical advice.