Mumsnet Talk

About 3 days ago, DD started to get some whitehead-type spots on her face - just little ones here and there. They're now covering most of her forehead.

We were instructed at birth to use olive oil all over her skin for 6 weeks to keep her basted moisturized, which we had been applying after nappy changes etc.

Since the spots have shown up, we've only been wiping her face with water (cotton wool) and not putting on the olive oil (the rest of the body is still getting it)
we haven't washed her face more than once aday.
Is this right?
should we carry on doing this?
should we be doing anything else?
should we still put the olive oil on?

thanks!

my dd had newborn spots as well all over her face
we didn't do anything except the usual wash with water
they went fairly quickly
think it's fairly common

beeeeee





bgy ubony ;rcoke.'z;w4oe/xz\bbbbbbbbbb]



bethan mx.a;s74656372u8nhxsbdfr,z.;aw839w0oq

Never heard about the olive oil thing, but DD2 was the spottiest baby on earth until about 8w old. From what i could work out, they were because a baby's skin takes a while to adjust to being in the outside world. Wouldn't olive oil be a bit heavy for a newborn's skin?

Not heard the olive oil thing (DS 9 weeks) so can't help there but I can tell you that DS gets spots too (not as many by the sounds of it though), they clear up on their own, he gets bathed every couple of days and only has his face washed if he gets particularly messy, the rest of the time we just wipe the milk off him with a cloth

heavens - baby typing for you?

The olive oil was because she was 16 days late, so her skin was a bit cracked and dry.
(we do it mainly on her body - joints etc, we only were doing the face once a day, anyway, so yes, if it's too heavy, it's probabyl good we stopped that)

thank you, all.
Glad to hear it's normal, and that we don't need to do anything extra.

Dd had this on and off til about 9 months -also would get this sort of heat rash thing if snuggled for too long against wool/certain types of man made fibre . I think it's quite normal and she did grow out of it.

Nickel - sorry, it was my 4 r old DD. Can you guess her name

I was going to say it sounds like baby acne to me, my daughter had it badly. it clears up on its own once their bodies settle down

It's normal - I remember asking my GP about it at the six-week check. They cleared up soon after that, though. Interestingly, he told me that in lots of countries they don't wash babies at all, really - just clean with water and then rub with olive oil. I've certainly used OO on DS and it works pretty well. Better than using baby oil, which is mineral based/synthetic.

we're debating whether to give her a full bath (water only, of course)
We have just been wiping her with the water-on-cotton-wool till now.

A water-only bath won't hurt. We started bathing quite early and at 4 months he LOVES them and has them every day. But I just think newborn skin is weird and prone to weird rashes/spots that are alarming when you see them but seem to cause babies no problems!

DS had baby acne - lots of white headed spots and the skin was very red and inflamed. I didn't do anything for about 6 weeks (I didn't want to be seen as overreacting) until I went to the HV for something else and she suggested I go to GP as it had been going on for so long. Saw the GP same day who prescribed a hydrocortisone cream and within about 48 hours there was a drastic improvement. I so wish i'd seen my GP earlier. I would go along and see if they feel anything would make a difference.

Just to add the spots didn't come out till he was 4w and lasted till he was about 10 weeks when we got the cream.

I'll keep an eye on it, then.

Thank you.

Totally normal! We had them and some red spots for about a week or two.

My son had the same, they soon covered his entire head, neck and scalp, some were really yucky and it looked so painful (still look back at the photos and cry!), but rest assured they soon clear up after a few weeks. We used Avent Magic Cream towards the end when his skin was really rough and dry and I'm told their Bottom Balm is the same. Just watch out they don't go really sore and angry looking with green pus as they can become infected and your LO may need antibiotics like my son did. Good luck, hope it clears up soon!
Xxx

I've had great success using a very dilute and mild facial soap (clarins) in warm water wiped with cotten. Then after I put on aveeno moisturiser, Totally cleared them up in 2-4 days.
Def wash the spotty face morning and night with something very mild.

It's normal - is caused by hormones from your system working their way out of theirs, I think?

Obviously don't pick them or anything, they should clear up by themselves.

Completely normal, think it's sometimes called milk rash too. DS had it horribly for a few weeks but it cleared up on it's own. From what I remember we didn't do anything differently, still bathed him as normal etc. Was so hard not giving into the temptation to squeeze them though! <spot fan>

My kids had this, it is due to hormones from the mother passing to baby and normally clears up by itself.

Completely normal. Just don't pick or squeeze them no matter how big they get as you might scar the skin.

When my ds was born he was yellowish and had a lump on his head (nothing serious just a bit jaundice and got a bit squished after my waters went early) and then when that started to fade he got spots. Loads of them until he was about 10 weeks old. Some days were worse than others but he was generally quite spotty.

I still thought my yellow, spotty, lumpy-headed gnome-baby could be a baby model. I was literally a bit insane because of the hormones!

I ended up ringing the MW to check, because they'd spread to her chest.
They said it still sounded fine, but to check with the GP just in case.
GP saw them, went "yep, they're fine, nothing you can do to help, just keep cleaning and they'll dry up of their own accord"


thanks to MN, otherwise I would have been panicking like mad about it!

oh, and they're starting to clear up, but I have to sternly tell everyone that it's not a bloody rash!

aww, Katie i know what you mean though!