Baby

Babies have silky, glowing skin and perfect soft hair, right? So how come your precious infant has thick dandruff, goopy eyes and pimples across those plump little cheeks? What is all this yucky stuff and why is it happening to your baby?

That was Julia Strub’s question when she noticed that her daughter, Ada, just six weeks old, had a yellowish-white crusty area on the top of her head. She didn’t have much hair, and what she had was very blonde, so the cradle cap was quite visible.

“It was mostly around the fontanelle,” Strub explains, adding that she’d been reluctant to brush or scrub that area because she worried about hurting her baby. Around the same time, Ada also developed what Strub calls “goopy eyes” — a whitish discharge with a tinge of yellow. It coated her lashes and sometimes made it hard for Ada to open her eyes after sleeping.

“Yeah, she looked pretty gross for a while there,” acknowledges Strub. Fortunately, though, these two conditions — and many others that can affect babies — usually disappear quickly either on their own or with a little help from mom and dad.

Cradle Cap

“Cradle cap can look pretty bad,” says Elaine Weir, a public health nurse with the Guelph-Wellington (Ontario) Public Health unit, “but most parents seem to know what it is and don’t worry too much.”

According to Weir, residue from no-tears baby shampoo — which is hard to wash out completely — is one cause of the crusty stuff, so rinsing your baby’s head thoroughly is a good preventive measure. (Other culprits may include your baby’s shifting hormones, as they cause excessive oil production and flaking skin.) A gentle scalp massage with every shampoo can also be helpful.

But if the cradle cap is already there, looking ugly, what can you do? “Don’t pick at it,” warns Weir. “You can end up making it bleed and leave scars.” Instead, she recommends massaging in a few drops of baby oil or vegetable oil to loosen the thick layers. Leave it for a few minutes, comb out the cradle cap (assuming the baby has some hair to comb), then finish with a good shampooing. “Expect to do this at least three or four days in a row before it clears up,” Weir adds.

In Ada’s case, Strub skipped the oil and just brushed her daughter’s hair thoroughly with a soft brush after her daily bath. “It probably took two weeks to clear up completely,” she notes.

Goopy Eyes

“There are different degrees of goopy eyes,” explains Weir. “If the discharge is clear, whitish or pale yellow, then it is probably caused by an immature tear duct, which is small or slow-draining.” This will usually clear up as your baby grows. Until it does, Weir suggests careful cleaning, using a separate cotton ball and clean, warm water for each eye. Gently massaging the area from the outside of the eye down to the nose may also be helpful.

If your baby’s eyes are stuck together with a thick, sticky, green or dark yellow discharge, she may have an infection and need prescription eye drops.

Infant Acne

Yes, it’s just what it sounds like — a preview of puberty. Zits on your beautiful baby’s little cheeks, nose and forehead. Infant acne (which usually appears between three and five weeks of age) is caused by your baby’s hormones nudging the whole oil-producing system into action. Then it subsides again until — you guessed it — puberty.

The treatment? Keep the area clean and dry. Don’t put any creams on the pimples, or try to scrub or pick at them. Weir adds that infant acne is normally confined to baby’s face. If you see a pimple-like rash appearing elsewhere on his body, you should check with your doctor.

All three of these conditions typically show up early in your baby’s life and disappear in a short time — although eye infections and cradle cap can return, and tiny tear ducts may take up to ten months to grow. In the meantime, just don’t plan any major photo shoots.

The Breast Cure

If you’re nursing, the remedy for your baby’s “yucky stuff” may be closer than you think. Fresh breastmilk contains anti-bacterial elements, explains public health nurse Elaine Weir, and is soothing on sore eyes or itchy scalps. For Julia Strub, a little squirt at each feeding worked wonders on her baby’s goopy eyes: “It was all gone in just a couple of days,” she says. For a bad case of cradle cap, breastmilk can also help, according to Weir, especially if the baby has scratched the area and caused it to ooze.

March 2003