Inevitably, as the baby approaches her 1 month birthday, I see the emergence of baby acne all over the previously smooth skin on her face. I say inevitably coz this has happened to each of our 7 babies. And speaking with other new moms, I have found this to be true of their almost 1 month old babies as well.
Must be some hormonal stuff going on.
But back when I was a new mom, almost 11 years ago, I freaked out when I saw my baby’s face covered with baby acne. And in his case, it even covered his body! Now, I suffer from eczema (badly in my late teens and early twenties and less so since then) so the 1st thought that came to mind was that my baby had eczema!
It didn’t help that he was often crying in the early days and so we mistakenly concluded that the rashes must be making him miserable. So like any good, clueless 1st time parents, 🙂 we rushed him to the paed. Unfortunately, our regular paed was off-duty so we had to see his stand-in.
This dr recommended a steriod cream to be applied all over my baby’s face and body! I nearly fainted. Lol! I kept questioning the dr on the necessity of it but he insisted that it was correct and necessary.
As an eczema sufferer, I know all about steriod creams & their side effects. I wasn’t about to apply steriod cream all over my newborn’s delicate tho rash-inflicted skin. If it had been just a spot or two, I probably would have done it. But on the whole body??? No way!
So the next day, I insisted that we bring the baby to see our regular dr. This time we were told that it was just a case of baby acne and it was perfectly normal. But to lessen the irritation to his skin, we were to bathe him in a soap-free wash (I can’t remember the name now. No, not Cetaphil or QV Wash. Starts with a “L”).
Imagine that!
Going from applying steriod cream to just leaving the rash alone. Totally opposite treatments. You can bet that I never saw that stand-in dr again!
And no, even tho’ the rash cleared, he still cried alot! His fussiness back then was not due to the rashes at all.
So if you have a newborn with baby acne, leave it alone! Just continue washing his skin with cooled boiled water. It will disappear as quickly as it appeared. And please do not apply steriod cream all over his delicate, sensitive skin unless you are really sure it is eczema and not just baby acne. Of course the cream makes it all go away and baby has nice smooth skin again but you are actually thinning out his skin in the process. Do use steriod cream sparingly and only as and when necessary. Don’t use it like a moisturiser! 🙂
Oh – and ignore all those comments about your baby’s face at his/her 1 month birthday party 🙂
5 Comments on Baby Acne
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john had such bad acne i almost cried. and now he has recurring eczema on his face which is also just as awful, especially when it’s red and peeling. anyways, i was recommended this cream called a-derma which uses rhealba oat as its base ingredient to treat atopic skin in babies, children and adults, and so far it’s been working for john. so no more steroids. phew!
BTW I love your blog!
Mine has ezcema and you’d never believe the kind of advice I have: rubbing saliva on babies’ face, use the soiled diaper to wipe their face. Nearly EVERYONE I meet seem to have some advice to offer. Once I was on the lift and some people were touching my baby and asking why his face was so spotty, I replied: “because people keep touching his face”. They quickly remove their hands. Hahahahha!
hey sheza – did you read my “Unwanted Advice” post? It s so directed at people like that! 🙂 I dont know what it is about babies but they attract a lot of dirty hands. Haha! I hate people who pry open my baby’s fingers so that they can shove their dirty fingers into my baby’s! It’s like – hey! where have your fingers been lately???
Oh & the dirty diaper “cure” is just so disgusting!
Hey, I just read in the newspaper that Saliva has antiseptic/antibacterial properties, leh! *haha* So it might be true.
But I’m sure it’s NOT for baby acne! That’s for certain.
Yah had that baby acne thing for our kids. Interestingly, after I kept away from heaty confinement foods, it went away. When I touched heaty foods again, acne will appear. Even the red dates tea.
but i am not taking any confinement food! and i stopped red date tea last week. in fact the bb acne sprouted AFTER I stopped the tea. So…not true for me la 🙂