Looking after your child’s hair is just like looking after any other part of their body and hair needs attention and proper nurture to keep your child’s scalp lovely and healthy. Luckily, hair care for babies and toddlers is fairly straight-forward and common sense as long as you keep a few golden rules in mind.
For babies:
We are still not entirely sure why some babies are born with a lot of hair and some are born with hardly any, though it’s generally believed that it has something to do with the mother’s hormones and genetics. Whatever the cause there is no healthier option between the two, and babies’ hair tends to start changing very quickly, either falling out or growing. When your baby’s hair starts to settle and grow more consistently you’ll need to consider how to care for it. Here are a few top tips to keep in mind:
- Wash your baby’s hair infrequently. You don’t need to wash your baby’s hair very often, maybe just once or twice a week as you bathe them. Initially it’s best to just use water and as they get older you can introduce a gentle baby shampoo.
- Be gentle when you massage the scalp. If the follicles are stressed too much your baby could start to lose hair unnaturally and it will become weak and break.
For toddlers:
As your babies grow older their hair will start to thicken and by the time they have a full body of hair you should be using a baby shampoo. At this stage you should still be washing your child’s hair reasonably infrequently. The oil glands in the scalp are still not fully developed and this can end up drying out their head and hair.
- After washing comb the hair immediately when it’s still wet. Use a wide-tooth comb to get out small knots before they have the chance to become bigger ones.
- If your child has especially thick or curly hair they might be more susceptible to tangles and knots. Using a sufficient amount of conditioner will help to minimise these tangles and make brushing easier.
- Always use soft and gentle brushes and products specifically designed for toddlers. Toddlers have more sensitive skin, so make sure you’re using a product which takes this into account.
Common complaints:
A lot of babies and toddlers suffer from cradle cap. It’s a very common condition where a rash or general redness will develop on your baby’s scalp and large chunks of skin can cling to the hair, a bit like dandruff. Cradle cap is absolutely nothing to worry about unless it’s making your child’s head itchy or uncomfortable, and even in this instance is unlikely to be serious. If it is cause discomfort, the best thing you can do is rub some gentle oil into your baby’s scalp and leave it to soak for an hour. Then very gently rub the scalp in a circular motion with a soft brush to get rid of excess skin. This will leave the scalp looking quite red, but this is nothing to worry about. If cradle cap comes back you can just repeat this in a couple of weeks. Be aware that cradle cap isn’t the same as dandruff, so you shouldn’t be using an anti-dandruff shampoo at this age.
Follow these top tips, use your common sense and your baby or toddler should develop a full and healthy body of hair.
What a cute baby! Love this post.