Baby acne

My son had clear(ish) skin when he was born. Of course, like all newborns his skin did peel but at first there were no spots on his face.

Come a few days later and he developed milk spots on both his cheeks and heat rash on his forehead and neck. My poor little baby had spots everywhere and like any concerned mother would I took him to the GP right away.

She told me it was normal and that 80% of babies develop “baby acne” and it will clear up between 6-8 weeks.

“6-8 weeks?? Noooooooooo!!!” I thought to myself. I knew it didn’t hurt him because he wasn’t crying or showing signs of being in pain. I think it was more so because it was just not nice to look at so I wanted it gone right away. But I had to remember that his skin was adjusting to life outside the womb and that the baby soft smooth skin may take a while to come through, but it will.

At first I used olive oil on his skin, then switched to aveeno baby. But when I saw that the rash just wasn’t clearing up fully but week 8, I did more research on skin care for babies and kept coming across this cream called doublebase which is supposed to be good for this sort of thing. And slowly but surely I can say his rash is finally starting to clear up fully. Baring in mind we are now in week 10!

I was also advised NOT TO USE JOHNSONS by my GP, not that I did anyway!

Not sure why health professionals don’t warn you before hand that baby will not have smooth soft skin straight away so you can at least prepare yourself mentally and not worry when it does happen - so mums to be keep an eye out for this and don’t panic. It will pass!