2 Questions About 5 Month Old.....

My 4-month-old had really bad cradle cap. Following the pediatrician's instructions and my own previous experience, I rubbed olive oil on his head, let it sit for a few minutes, and comb it out. Then, I washed his hair with Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp shampoo (that was the ped.'s recommendation) and massaged Aveeno baby lotion into his clean, dry scalp. It was amazing! The cradle cap hasn't been bad since. When his scalp starts looking dry, I use the H&S again. I always do the lotion, no matter what.

I've used Playtex drop-ins for all three of my boys and very, very rarely have a problem with leaking. I use the bags that you pull over the top; I've had better luck with those than the pre-formed drop-ins. As long as I make sure the nipple is pulled all the way through and screw the lid on tightly, they don't leak.
My boys are sloppy drinkers, though, and always leak from their mouth. I just tuck a wash cloth under their chin for every feeding to catch their mess and then toss it in the wash.

My 4 month old son had cradle cap also. My dr told me to use Head and Shoulders. It worked great! Just have to be careful to not get it in the eyes. I've also used a very gentle toothbrush to lightly scrub the scalp and I think that helped as well.

If it went away originally, and is back with avengance, it is more than likely she's developed an allergy to something. Look at everything that touches her, and see if anything is new. A peds allergist will tell you it's nothing to worry about and to treat the excema, but find a natruopath that works with NAET. Excema in a child this young is more often based from an allergy. I noticed you are in St. paul, google Heartland Healing. Ms. Jody is based out of Hastings, and has treated/ healed a number of my friends for issues from allergy to eggs, milk, glycerin, and is even working on a friend with an 18 mth old with a deep set allergy of something when a ped's allergist said they really don't know what causes an allergy or how to treat them.

Good luck!

Soak her head in Baby Oil - we used the one with aloe - and then take a fine tooth baby comb and comb front to back, back to front, and then front to back. Wash with your regular baby shampoo - make take 2-3 shampoos to get the oil out. BUT you may have to do the oil 3-4 times over the course of a few days - don't do it more than once a day or her poor scalp will be raw! After 3-4 times it should be completely gone.

As for the bottles - perhaps you are over-tightening them? I had that problem with some of our bottles - If I over-tightened them they would leak. We used mostly Evenflo and rarely had trouble leaking, but when you shake them you can't have the cap on - you have to put your finger over the nipple hole.

Good Luck!

Try the cheap regular Gerber Brand bottles.

I was told to try Vinegar on cradle cap. I didn't get to that point but almost tried it with my daughter. We used alot of Olive Oil on our daughter's head as the Dr. said this was the safest. It worked ok.

Just a quick note about the bottle problem...

I could never figure out how you were supposed to mix up the formula in a Playtex Drop-in, so I just bought a cheap container with a flip open spout (Rubbermaid brand, I think) at Wal-Mart and mixed the formula for the day and just kept it in the refrigerator. Using the pitcher was much easier for us than making one bottle at a time!

For the cradle cap I would suggest any kind of oil. This is what I did with both of my kids and it worked quite well. Put some oil, I used sweet almond oil, on their head and let it soak in for about 10 min, then brush and wash---so saily until it clears up.
For bottles I use the Born Free glass bottles and I have never had a leak--ever. They are great bottles. I know Born Free makes a plastic one also, but I have never used the plastic so I do not know about those. Good Luck

Bottle: we use MAM as our go-to leak free bottle. They have a few more parts to wash b/c the vent system is in a screw on part on the bottom, but they are pretty leak free. We got them at Babies R Us about a year ago, but probably are available elsewhere as well. I thought they were "middle of the road" price-wise.

Cradle cap:
WIth my first son, we used baby oil at night time. We put it on his scalp and let him sleep with it in (we used a burp cloth to protect the sheets!) then we washed it out in the morning. WIth my second son, he had much more sensitive skin and so we've switched our whole line of products up. Out the door with johnson and johnson products (love them but they're full of chemicals!). I switched to goat's milk soap and really rub it in when bathing. It cleared it up within a week!! Every child and their skin are different so I hope one of th suggestions may help.
As far as bottles:
it's been awhile but we always used Advent or Playtex drop-ins and they weren't always perfect, but check how hard you tighten them. Sometimes if you overtighten them (weird I know) it can make them leak a bit.
Hope I was helpful and have a great day!!

I also used the Gentle Naturals (the one with the disney characters on the bottle) and it worked great! It was gone after 2 uses with my son.

For bottles I have Dr. Brown bottles and I have never had a leak with them. They are middle of the road price wise. Congradulations on your baby.

Mustela cradle cap shampoo. it is expensive but works like a charm. we also loved Dr. Brown's bottles.

For the cradle cap...Don't use any baby shampoos. Try Burt's Bees (I'd suggest Neutragena T-Sal but at 5 months that might be too much). You can also rub aquaphor into the affected areas. Leave it on and the next day, wash her hair and then massage it with a soft baby brush or tooth brush...The patches should be loosened by the aquaphor and come out pretty easily. Of course, he can take a couple days for the aquaphor to completely come out.

What worked like a charm for us with cradle cap was Gentle Naturals Cradle Cap Remedy in the green bottle with disney characters on it in the baby care aisle. My son had the ickiest cradle cap ever with huge thick scales and he was losing all his hair. I put the gentle naturals on before his bath, used the fine comb that we got from the hospital and gently "lifted" (super ick factor here) the scales from his scalp. He was completely cleared up in about a week.

I haven't read all of the posts so someone might have already mentioned this. Baby oil worked great for our daughter's cradle cap. We would use just regular baby shampoo during her bath and then put a little baby oil on her head after the bath. That helped to loosen it up and it would brush right out.

I used playtex for all 3 of my boys. I noticed the older ones from my 1st son (almost 8)were harder to crack the bottom by over-tighening. The newer ones would weaken in the dishwasher and easliy crack if my husband screwed the bottom on too tight.

my son had bad cradle cap from about 2 months to 6 months, i wasn't all that concerned about it so i just washed his hair and decided to wait it out. i noticed though that when i started using a little bit of hairspray (cheap suave pump spray kind), to get his hair to stand up that the cradle cap disappeared, i just sprayed it on my hands and worked it through his hair it cleared up very quickly. good luck

I see someone already mentioned this, but I'll say it again...we use a variety of bottles, Parents Choice, Soothie, and Evenflo and none of them leak unless you overtighten them. I noticed that the bottles leaked horribly when my husband would prep the bottles, but not when I would prep them. It was because he tightens them more than I do. We noticed it was harder to overtighten the Soothie bottles, so they leaked less.
Soothies we can shake up with the caps on, but you can't do that with the Parents Choice or Evenflos. We just put a finger over the nipple and shake.

Sorry my boys are 8 so been out of the bottle business for a while but I am a hairstylist and can tell you ABC hair and body wash by ARBONNE will clear up the scalp problems.

Cradle cap: Gentle Naturals (green bottle, Disney characters) worked for my son after 2 uses, as well. My only complaint is that I still have a mostly-full bottle, as he never got another case of cradle cap! Good luck.

Our dr recommended T-Gel shampoo for cradle cap and it worked. We used it every night for a few weeks (so washing by the sink if it wasn't bath night). She was only a few months old at the time, just had to be more careful about not getting it in her eyes. We still use it periodically when she seems to be itching her scalp and starting to show signs of returning.

Also, our doctor said to avoid the J&J baby shampoo. The "no-tears" chemicals can actually be not the greatest for the hair, so just use body wash on the hair as well.

We used Avent bottles and I found they didn't leak too bad - as long as they were upright when traveling with them in a bag. For future reference though, the Avent sippy cups are much worse at leaking than Playtex or Gerber, so I'd avoid those!

I, too, have had great results with both the Mustela shampoo and Dr. Brown's bottles.