What can I do for DD's severely dry scalp?

[gatorsmom]

She has terrible eczema which I can never get to completely go away. She gets it in her hair too and so far the Pediatric Dermatologist can get the eczema on her scalp to go away but the medicine gives her severely dry scalp. It must really bother her because she scratches it so much she draws blood. I only use California Baby SuperSensitive body wash on her hair. The only way I"ve found to keep the scales and dry scalp at bay is to rub Vaseline into her scalp after I wash it, making her look greasy and stand up funny (a la Flock of Seagulls). She spends about 2 days looking like that then the Vaseline soaks into her scalp and her hair looks ok. There has to be a better way.

Any ideas?

[lizajane]

olive oil? leave in conditioner? wish i knew!

[bubbaray]

There are various prescription ointments and lotions that you could use. I would highly recommend going to a pediatric dermatologist. If she is drawing blood, she may very well have staph infections and need a systemic antibiotic. DD#2 was very very sick with "just" eczema and had to do 2 or was it 3 weeks of Keflex when she was 5mo. We have a variety of topical Rxs now for her condition, which have all been used on her scalp at various times.

Until you can get to a specialist, you can use Vaseline or Aquaphor.

GL!

[bubbaray]

OK, just re-read your post. Keep up with the Vaseline. It works, so keep using it.

Skip the California Baby. Switch to something like Cetaphil cleanser -- you want something that is non-soap.

You also might need to bathe her more often -- our derm recommended two times per day initially. We did daily and it seemed to help -- the key is to apply Vaseline immediately while the skin & scalp are still damp.

HTH

[gatorsmom]

OK, just re-read your post. Keep up with the Vaseline. It works, so keep using it.

Skip the California Baby. Switch to something like Cetaphil cleanser -- you want something that is non-soap.

You also might need to bathe her more often -- our derm recommended two times per day initially. We did daily and it seemed to help -- the key is to apply Vaseline immediately while the skin & scalp are still damp.

HTH

I'm so glad you replied. I was hoping you would since I remembered your daughter has bad allergies/eczema. I KNOW that bathing her more often would help her, I honestly just don't have the time. My day is nonstop craziness from the moment I wake up til I fall in bed 15 hours later (ok, i do occasionally surf the net but it's more like a minute here, a minute there). The best I can do is bathe her everyday. Maybe I"ll just stick with the Vaseline.

Unless someone else has a magic solution? (thank you for the idea of trying Cetaphil).

[bubbaray]

I totally understand.

I don't mean you have to really BATHE her, KWIM? You just have to dunk her in water. Make her skin wet and then trap the moisture in with the Vaseline. The docs here actually recommend just water, no soap, no cetaphil, just a water "dunking".

[mamicka]

I totally understand.

I don't mean you have to really BATHE her, KWIM? You just have to dunk her in water. Make her skin wet and then trap the moisture in with the Vaseline. The docs here actually recommend just water, no soap, no cetaphil, just a water "dunking".

Melissa is definitely the resident expert, so I'd try exactly what she says :). But I was going to also say, just use water when bathing. You don't really need anything to get her clean anyway. When we were dealing with really bad ezcema, putting on the Vaseline/lotion/whatever needed to be done *immediately*. Even waiting 1 minute, literally, made a huge difference.

[gatorsmom]

But I was going to also say, just use water when bathing. You don't really need anything to get her clean anyway.

Really just water? Doesn't all that stuff build up on her skin? What about soap around the diaper area?

[bubbaray]

We never had a problem with buildup. We did use Cetaphil most of the time, but when it was really a bad flare up, just water.

[gatorsmom]

Thank you for the info. I'll try this strategy going forward.

[DrSally]

DD has some flakey patches on her scalp. Prob nowhere as bad as what you're describing, but I rubbed some olive oil in and took a soft toothbrush to the flakes. Not sure if this would be advisable for already raw skin? The Aveeno babywash did not get the grease out and now she looks like a total greaser! Both my kids have dry skin (not really eczema), and we put Eucern daily moisturizing lotion on right after bath and then a layer of Eucerin cream on the extra dry sopts. Baths really seem to help with the hydration.

[mamicka]

We never had a problem with buildup either. I know it sounds totally crazy, but we rarely use any kind of soap or anything to wash my 5yo. He bathes once/week (for us, bathing less frequently worked better than more often) at most & he is the cleanest smelling boy ever.

[ohiomom1121]

I don't know if this applies or not, but DS has had horrible dry flaking scalp since he was born also (he's 2 1/2). During the winter it would crack and bleed and big scales would be stuck in his hair. If I tried to pull off the scales it would pull clumps of hair. Gross! I tried the baby oil/toothbrush thing, various shampoos, but nothing worked. Then I found online that you can use dandruff shampoo on a baby who is older than 6 months. I bought him Head and Shoulders and within a few weeks it was completely gone. AMAZING. I was nervous that it would hurt him on the areas that were bleeding but it didn't bother him at all. Good luck!