Our daughter Maia developed terrible scaly skin all over her face and onto her scalp by the time she was 6 weeks old. I used to cry when I stared into her beautiful blue eyes, surrounded by crusts of scaly skin, wishing I could do something for her. I stopped taking photos, and was reluctant to visit people because they would just focus on her skin instead of every other gorgeous thing about her.

We started searching the internet for help but found lots of conflicting advice with little evidence to support it, so we went to our doctor. He told us it was cradle cap (technically called infantile seborrheic dermatitis). We didn't know that cradle cap could effect the face and neck! He took samples, suggested a couple of medicated creams and referred us to a dermatologist, but gave us poor chances of success. He said it would probably clear up by itself sometime after she turned 6 months old, and we may just have to wait until then!

Maia at 6 weeks old showing severe cradle cap.

We also asked him if he had heard of starflower (also known as borage) oil, and if we should try that. He said he didn't know of any reasons not to try it, but hadn't heard of anyone using it either. So we dug deeper, found a copy of the scientific study we had seen referenced and couldn't believe the researchers had a 100% success rate!!! Nothing we had heard of had promised anywhere near those kind of results – it seemed too good to be true. So we looked for reasons why we shouldn't try it. We couldn't find any. But when we tried to order pure starflower oil, we found it was mainly sold in expensive capsules that contained the wrong amount of oil, from overseas, or occasionally in bulk! We were desperate, so we ordered from a bulk supplier – but it was worth it.

After two weeks, we had a follow-up appointment with our doctor. We were a little disappointed because not all the scales had disappeared yet, like in the study. Our doctor was astounded! He had never seen such quick results and asked for copies of the study we had found. He wanted to know how other parents could find starflower oil and we told him of our troubles sourcing it. He volunteered to recommend our starflower oil if we were able to make it more accessible to parents!

10 days later!!!

Two weeks later and my daughter's face was beautiful to behold but the scales still covered the top of her head. I wondered what I was doing wrong. Then a hairdresser friend suggested I massage olive oil into the scales to loosen them. I had tried this before the starflower oil, but removing some of the larger scales had made the skin weep or bleed so I had stopped. What I hadn't realised was that the skin on the face is constantly moving, and so as the skin returned to normal, the scales had naturally broken and flaked off. The skin on the scalp, however, doesn't move much and the hair holds the scales in place. When I softened and removed the scales from her head this time, I saw the skin was perfect underneath!

Maia at 3 months, no scales/cradle cap!

About six weeks after starting to apply the starflower oil, we had our dermatologist appointment. He wondered why we had come as my daughter obviously didn't have any skin problems. I explained that I wanted to know if he had heard of starflower (or borage) oil or had seen its amazing results. He hadn't – but he was dictating notes about it as we left!

I am still dumbfounded as to why no-one knows how EFFECTIVE starflower oil is on cradle cap in babies. This is why I started Borago Baby. To provide affordable, quality starflower oil to mums like me.

Maia's scalp at 4 months old.