How to Get Vaseline Out of a Baby's Hair

I'll never forget the afternoon I went to my mother's house after work to pick up my nearly one year old daughter. I walked in and reached for her to give her a hug, and noticed immediately that her hair looked pretty greasy. What was the cause? My mom, God bless her, an old-school mother of two herself, decided she'd 'fix' my daughter's cradle cap with Vaseline.

Anyone who's had Vaseline in their hair can tell you how hard it is to get it out, but imagine a squirmy baby with a very sensitive scalp who has this gunk stuck in their hair? Here are some tips for you to use to get Vaseline out of a baby's hair.

1. Baby powder
This is the method I used myself, after seeing a suggestion online. Make sure to use only 100% pure cornstarch, because anything else can be quite dangerous to your baby's lungs. Even so, make sure you're in a well-ventilated area and apply only enough powder to cover baby's hair, making sure to work it through the hair to the scalp. Leave on for a few minutes (five at most), then wash baby's hair with a good clarifying shampoo.

2. Baking Soda
If you have baking soda in your house (and most people do), one well-known concoction you can try is 1 teaspoon of baking soda mixed with about a handful of baby shampoo. This is a popular option to get Vaseline out of a baby's hair. Just slather the mix onto baby's head during their bath, leave on for a few minutes, and rinse, repeating if necessary.

3. Baby oil
One technique for getting Vaseline out of a baby's hair that's all the rage on the internet these days is baby oil. Many moms recommend generously running baby oil through baby's hair and scalp, then rinsing in the bath. It may take a few rinses with warm water to get the oil out completely, but the moms who have tried this swear it works every time.

4. Dawn
Dawn liquid dish soap is gentle enough to use on animals in the wild, so why not your baby as well? I asked my pediatrician, and she said while it's safe to use on baby's scalp, to take extra caution not to get it in their eyes. If you can be careful enough and use it only on baby's scalp, this dish soap can work wonders to remove the Vaseline and still keep your baby's hair soft. Of course, she'll smell like clean dishes afterwards, but it's a small sacrifice.

One more tip, just as a general rule of thumb: from the experience of many mothers, make sure to use lukewarm to warm water instead of cold water.. Colder water actually makes the Vaseline stick even harder to the scalp and hair. And above all, make sure to just laugh and not stress about it, because really, it's only a temporary issue. Happy cleaning!

Sources:
personal experience
pediatrician
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