9 year old child, itching scalp, bleeding, lumps under scalp and hairloss...HELP!!!!

[Tara8453]

About a month ago, I noticed my 9 year old girl, had extreme dry scalp with flaking. I tried all different types of conditioning oils (blue grease, Dr. Miracles, etc). I tried have also tried dandroff shampoos, thinking maybe if I try treating the scalp with dandruff shampoos then it would get better - not much help there either! Well, now, its gotten worse. Now its itching, not as much flaking, "but" she scratches til there are sores and they (more than one) bleed! I have also noticed that she has lumps under her scalp (again more than one)! There is nothing to these lumps under her scalp, although they are bigger than a pimple and are hard to the touch. I am trying not to worry, which will end up worrying her. None of the lumps were causing her pain. Until today! I touched one of them on the side (near her hairline) and she squimished in pain!?! And to top it all off, she is losing her hair in the center of her head! At first it was a small patch (quarter size). Now its grown, into about 3 or 4 quarters. I am seriously worried. But dont want to panic my child in the process or stress her out! I have been looking at these blogs and I just need some advice, can anyone please help a mother whom is really getting scared out of her mind?

[Mommietlady021]

Im having the same problem with my 32 month. Im not in full agreement the the dermatologist. She referred to it as build up from crust but its not build up its actually a knot/lump in her head and Im not sure what to do. My next step is to go back to our family doctor that referred us to dermatology and ask for a MRI of her head.  I believe that the fact that she also has dry patches with the loss of hair is making them misdiagnose her. This is really scary hoping someone can help since this is an old post hopefully someone has gotten answers.

[ShawtyRedd86]

Going through the exact same thing withy four year old I appreciate y'all comments cause I need to try the mineral oil and Neutrogena first before I go to the ER....this hurts me to my heart to see my baby scalp like this thanks again..

[cherylof6]

I need help! my daughter is 2.5 years old.  For the last 3 months she has had a really crusty bleeding back of neck she scratches so badly. AND she also has red spots on her skin. They will go away and then return.  The spots show up everywhere. They resemble chicken pox. She must have like 50 scars on her now. I have taken her to the childrens dermatologist specialist and he couldnt explain what it is. So any body with any ideas i cna take to him will help.  

[LetsGoNatural]

What u said sounds exactly what my 6month bby is going through however I dont believe its causing any pain I took her to the doctor and inquired about it I was told the lumps are from th dry skin and olive oil her (pure organic) I also purchased some pure vitamin E oil , sweet almond oil and E ointment for the ruff areas in her head which smoothes it I only use the ointment as needed however I use the vitamin e oil a few times a day her skin is very sensitive the alighest things flares up a reaction I say stick with natural it works try it some of the same patches were also on her face it has cleared up alot u can see the difference over night ALOE VERA is also good taken directly from the plant rub the sap in the scalp I dont rinse it I leave it its safe and causes no irritations a lot of things they have on the market has all sorts of things in it if u read the back some has alcohol which drys out the skin u find it n grease shampoos soaps , they have products that are soap free (shampoo )which does not dry out the skin and scalp u can buy these products from vitamin word the gnc store online and some stores browse the web for natural remedies for research it see what everyone is saying besides its the safest good luck .........(cherrie s)

[shell1984172]

ok my daughter is 10 months old and she have the knots and bumps in her head that have pulse in them i have tried the shampoo that the doctor gave me and i dont work i dont no what to do

[WoRkZ]

Hmmm... it looks like I really can't seem to be able to communicate all I have to in one brief post. LOL

I just wanted to say that chronic "baby cradle" seems to be linked to psoriasis. My daughter had 3 very different symptoms when she was younger: Those crusts on the scalp, dark red spots on her skin (That we had to treat with hydrocortisone! Nasty stuff!) and toe nails that seemed to be affected by a funghi at first (but anti-fungal treatments had no effects).

This eventually lead our dermatologist to diagnose her with psoriasis. The doctor also predicted that most symptoms would go away in the years to come (two of them did)... but that they may also come back at anytime later on in life. I admit that was not such a good news... :+/

[WoRkZ]

Oh, BTW: Nowadays we don't wash her hair everyday. It seemed like it was too hard on her sensitive scalp. So we now do it every other day. We've also been very careful not to expose her hair to other soaps. I rince her tar shampoo using the little hose-like shower (I don't know what that's called in English either LOL)...

Her scalp never sees to itch nowadays... and that's a really good thing considering that if she removed a crust by scratching it, it would bleed!

Oh, and another thing: The Neutrogena shampoo has to be left on the scalp for at least 5 minutes to be affective. And I must also say that there is one drawback: It doesn't smell that great. My daughter never complained because we started this treatment when she was still very young... but older children will certainly complain. So the longterm success of this treatment will depend on your negociation skills. ;+)

[WoRkZ]

Hi Michelle!

LOL  I didn't know the name of that condition in English... thanks for writing it. :+)  In French it's called "chapeau" (which translates has "hat"). My daughter has had this for 4 years now... so it has now become part of family life. It's way less stressful for us all now that we know it's easily treatable.

It's pretty clear now that mineral oil was the great find here: Not only does it help crust, but it seems to soothe the scalp underneath it.

Anyway, glad I could contribute something.

[momtofourboys]

Thank you for this information my little guy has "baby cradle" still according to his doctors. I have tired dandruff shampoo like they suggested and I had now tried baby oil he is 5 and this had been going on since he was at least 1.
I will try this as well
thanks again and to Tara thanks for posting this question
michelle

[WoRkZ]

Hi Tara!

I really hope I can help you with this as my 6 year old daughter has a problem similar to yours. She has dime-sized crust patches that regularly appear on her scalp. It tends to go away during the summer but comes back during the autumn. First off, I strongly suggest the dark red shampoo from Neutrogena (the one with tar in it). That's the ONLY shampoo (or soap of any kind) that should touch her scalp... because it's the only one that I know which cleans without the use of detergents. It should help a lot.

Another thing that has really helped with my daughter is to use mineral oil on her crust to soften them up so they can be removed. We do that once a week on saturday evening and we can then remove the crust on sunday. That way her hair is not greasy during her school week.

Believe me, this knowledge did not come easily to us and we've worried a lot for her before we found how to address the problem. But now that we know how to treat it, she doesn't loose her hair under the crust anymore... that reassuring. Lately we've been told by a doctor that this is caused by a small hormonal problem and that it should go away later on in life, probably during puberty.

I really hope this applies to your daughter too. Good luck!