Hydrocortisone for cradle cap? Wwyd

[mezzona]

My DD has some cradle cap issues mostly on her eyebrows and between her eyes, not so much on her scalp, but some. Dr Rxd hydrocortisone 2% in the evening for 3 days at a time. Would you think it's necessary? Any solution without having to use steroids?

[BabyBearsMom]

Does the cradle cap bother your DD? My doctor tells me that if it isn't bothering her, and its just that I don't like the way it looks that I need to get over myself (he said it nicer than that, but that is what he meant, and in retrospect, I agree with him). The only thing that really worked for me was I would put some olive oil on DD's head and rub it through her eye brows (just a tiny bit on the eye brows), let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then I would brush through her hair with a soft bristled brush to get the scaley pieces off. Then run the bath and rinse it out. I did this every day until DD grew out of it (not until about 5 or 6 months old).

As a side note, we have to use cortizone on DD's little leg folds because she had very bad eczema and it used to get badly infected. It wasn't bad and it cleared up her eczema promptly.

[mezzona]

Thx for your reply! Very helpful. It doesn't seem to bother her at all and I didn't mention my opinion to the dr, she just straight up rxed! And said it is to control the oil production. Hmm. Anyway I will try the olive oil.

[BabyBearsMom]

Thx for your reply! Very helpful. It doesn't seem to bother her at all and I didn't mention my opinion to the dr, she just straight up rxed! And said it is to control the oil production. Hmm. Anyway I will try the olive oil.

That is weird. Our pedi is really conservative and rarely rx's anything. Poor DD had a cough for 2 months and all she would give us was a nebulizer with saline only. It did eventually work though. They are big on not giving prescriptions unless absolutely necessary, which I like.

[RunnerDuck]

We used selsun blue on my son's cradle cap. I seem to think it was almost totally cleared up in 1-2 uses. You have to be really careful not to get it in their eyes though... steroids are mostly an issue with prolonged use, and OTC stuff isn't very strong - I wouldn't be worried about using them, but I don't think it seems like the best course for cradle cap. Never tried it, though! Dandruff shampoo worked great for us!

[Purple18]

I mostly used the olive oil with both of my sons with terrible cradle cap and brushed away large flakes with a gentle baby hairbrush. Both also now have excema that without treatment can get infected - we've had a few requiring antibioitic ointments, 1 reqiring an antibioitic orally and another an antibioitic shot. So we really try to keep it under control so they can do what normal boys do. Sometimes with the bad cradle cap, I used the 0.5% hydrocortisone - especially around the ears and on eyebrows - I could only find it in Walgreen's brand OTC - they also have 1% so I wouldn't go right to the 2% unless the skin was cracking and nothing was working. I have so many steroids for my sons for the excema from my pedi and from a pedi derm and they have both said, start with the lowest strength possible and work up if need be. We use the ointment forms whenever possible and use tons of cetaphil cream and aquaphor ointment and we usually get the job done.

[ThreeofUs]

Some people also do a baking soda wash, I think. Search for "cradle cap" and you'll find the recipes.

Why use steroids when you can do olive oil and other natural things?

[DrSally]

We've used olive oil and a soft toothbrush or very fine comb. I've heard selsun blue works too. I would go that route before doing hydrocortisone.

[Pinky]

We've used olive oil and a soft toothbrush or very fine comb. I've heard selsun blue works too. I would go that route before doing hydrocortisone.

Same here... olive oil and then a soft baby brush in circles on the scalp and then shampoo out the olive oil. (helps if you leave it on there for a while before brushing). We repeated this a few days and it was fixed.

I think it depends on how severe your DC's case is and if you have tried other things to fix it yet.

[bubbaray]

I think everyone needs to take into consideration that (1) her dr has Rxd the hydrocortisone for a reason and (2) some of the "home" remedies suggested are NOT appropriate for the eye area, which is where the child has the cradle cap (per original post).

JMHO.

ETA: AND this thread is OLD.