Toddler with brownish flakes on scalp?

[tribalmax]

Hi everyone,

DD will be 3 this summer. Today I noticed that she was itching her scalp. When I looked closer, I noticed that she has brown flakes. They look like dry skin flakes, but they are kind of greasy.

Any idea what this is or what I can do?

She does have food allergies. So this could be part of a reaction - although she has never had this happen before.

Any ideas would be great!

Thanks!

[Gitti]

Those are signs of food allergies. I don't know enough about it but wanted to your thread up.

[Mizelenius]

Interesting-- my toddler has some too. It looks like cradle cap. No known food allergies here.

[angie3096]

My 4 year old DD gets that. Two things make it go away. 1. Cradle cap lotion on her head (yes it makes her hair greasy. I put it on overnight and wash it in the morning, or just let her be greasy all day. Who cares?)
2. A DHA supplement like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Nutri-West-COM...6867810&sr=8-1


Angie

[BowenTherapist]

dd had that too, seemed like cradle cap, so that is how i treated it. it went away with scrubbing in coconut oil into scalp, letting it sit over night, then combing scalp to get the flakes off. kinda yucky but it worked, picking the flakes off didn't wasn't painful to dd

[benharperfan]

dd who is 2.5 still has that on her head...i was told cradle crap as well. it went away with mustela cradle cap treatment...

interesting about the food allergy thing though. the more i read, the more i am convinced that the food allergies i think dd has but ped doesn't seem to take seriously maybe DO need to be looked into further!

[jaidymama]

My son has it too and has food allergies. Now that we've been on allergy meds for a few weeks, his scalp thingy is gone.

I don't think true cradle cap happens beyond infancy. But I'm not that experienced in the world of all things baby.

OMG! I am such a dork... I didn't even see it was you... and to think I almost passed off really bad advice. Call me.

[sbgrace]

Cradle cap (dandruff essentially). I did the coconut oil thing too...left it on for quite a while and the massaged and combed (I used a clearn toothbrush and my fingers mostly). He actually didn't mind after I got going...I think because the itching was driving him nuts.

We've always had fish oil (cod liver) so that didn't help in our case nor did oils taken internally (including coconut).

My son does have food allergies as well. Shortly after the cradle cap thing he started getting hives and a rash. We did have allergy testing and figured out what foods were causing it. He has environmental allergies as well. I don't know if the the food allergies were connected to the head thing or not but it is possible.

Oh the allergist recommended only olive oil (extra virgin to be most pure) on the skin of allergic kids. I've sort of done that though I really think most olive oils are contaminated anyway so I sort of question it. I like coconut on him but I know that is an allergen for some kids.

[tribalmax]

Originally Posted by jaidymama

My son has it too and has food allergies. Now that we've been on allergy meds for a few weeks, his scalp thingy is gone.

I don't think true cradle cap happens beyond infancy. But I'm not that experienced in the world of all things baby.

OMG! I am such a dork... I didn't even see it was you... and to think I almost passed off really bad advice. Call me.

JM, HA!

This is the first time we have bumped into each other on a thread I think! TOO FUNNY! Let's talk today sometime. I didn't know L had this on his head too???

Thanks for all the ideas everyone! I talked to another mom locally last night who said that she had the same thing on her kids (and they have NO food allergies) and that it was because she was using the bathtub water to rinse the shampoo off when she washed hair. This is exactly what I do with DD. She said that the build up from the shampoo can clog pores and create something very much like cradle cap. She suggested rinsing with only fresh water and using cradle cap remedies.

We washed DDs hair last night and rinsed with fresh water, then used a stiff brush to get the flakes off. I will put some oil on her head today -- but it is like 95% gone -- so we shall see...


Thanks everyone!