Cradle Cap and its Causes

It is also known as seborrheic dermatitis, cradle cap is a neonatal disease commonly found among the babies of two to three months of age. It has been given some other names like crusta lactea, milk crust, honeycomb disease etc. The area that the disease affects becomes yellowish, patchy, greasy, and scaly. It generally occurs on the scalp of a newborn baby.

Places like the nearest side of ear, the eyebrows and the eyelids are the commonest among the areas where this skin condition occurs. However, it may occur in other parts of the body as well. In this case, it is known more as seborrheic dermatitis than as cradle cap. In most of the cases, the disease is rather mild; in rare cases it can be severe.

The exact reason behind cradle cap has not been defined properly. This is probably because the disease is harmless and do not irritate the baby in any way. So, it is not thought to be necessary to make extensive research on its cause. Moreover, the disease disappears within a few years, two to three years, even without any serious treatment.

Yet, research made on the real cause behind cradle cap has come out with various consequences with the result that dermatologists are not unanimous on this issue. Some of them opine that the disease is caused by over active sebaceous glands in the skin of the baby. These glands are passed to the baby from her mother and remain active in the baby’s circulation.

There are other dermatologists who opine that cradle cap has something to do with skin yeasts known as Malasezia fur fur. A third group of specialists believe that the skin condition occurs due to immature digestive system of the baby. The digestive system of a newborn cannot absorb sufficient biotin and other vitamins of the B-complex; hence the disease occurs.