My 11 yr old DD's skin

[pippitysqueakity]

She is nearly 12 and will be going to Secondary in August.
Recently she has had a few blackheads on her nose and we have got her Boots facial scrub pads with witch hazel and tee tree and a facial scrub wash and moisturiser from Good Things.
Both DH and I had rotten skin when young and worried she is going the same way. This last week she has a little crop of spots on her chin despite being meticulous in her cleansing and this morning two full on yellow headed spots.
She is not physically well developed and does not look like puberty has a grip yet although can have hormonal seeming mood swings.
Any suggestions of what would help her avoid the misery of bad skin? Any other products I should let her try? BTW she puts sudocreme on any eruptions at night.
(Hope this is right area for this question?)

[DrankSangriaInThePark]

Effaclar duo by La Roche Posay.
Has transformed my dd aged 11's skin. It is amazing.

[DrankSangriaInThePark]

I'm not an expert, but am on a long running thread about skincare and I wouldn't think a facial scrub of any kind would be good for young skin.
Caroline Hirons came onto the thread and recommended me LRP physiological facial wash.

[DrankSangriaInThePark]

The thread is called Amazing Faces, if you ask on there, there are some real experts.

[pippitysqueakity]

Thanks Drank, I take your point about the scrub, but was recommended on a teen skin thread so we thought we'd try it. It is very gentle, but obs inefective too, so not hard to give up
Will give the Effaclar Duo a try. Does your daughter need a moisturiser with it? If so, do you use the same range?
Thank you for taking the time to help.

[Kennington]

Effaclar duo blue coloured toner water
I would avoid too much sudocrem too but cod be wrong on this

[lurkingaround]

Try the efaclar range, they have moisturisers as well. If your DD's skin is oily she may not need a moisturiser. It seems likelybecause of your and yourDH history, that she is genetically loaded to develop acne, unfortunatrly. I would be keeping a v close eye for cystic acne. And then hop on it and get referred early for a derm opinion.

[Greenstone]

Effaclar duo, pronto. Just once a day at night should be enough. Wish it was around when I was 11.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I bought Effaclar AI Targeted Breakout corrector for my teen DS. He had really red patches either side of his nose. It has really helped these .

He uses Cetaphil in the shower and Neutrogena Visibly Clear Blackhead cleanser ( clear liquid , orange lid)

Sometimes in Boots they have a 3 for 2 on skincare .


My DD is a product junkie , at the moment she's using Good Things Papaya and Liquorice ( lilac tube) in the shower and Anne French ( which was around when my mum was a teen ) or Soap and Glory Drama Clean (which she 'borrows' from me)

Muslin cloths to cleanse. Work out cheaper in the long run and they exfoliate. Try Sainsburys (Dirty Works)

[cerealqueen]

Are they blackheads or sebaceous filaments? As the latter are normal!


sebaceous filaments

[paxtecum]

Drink water, stop eating anything with sugar in, don't replace with sweeteners. Cut back on dairy products.

[IHaveBrilloHair]

Dd likes the freederm range, her skin is looking much better with it.

[mimiasovitch]

The effaclar duo has transformed my dd's skin. She's 11, not hit full puberty yet and her skin was starting to concern me. After 3 weeks the difference is amazing.

[Looseleaf]

Have you focused on nutrition too- eg as much veg and good food as you have time for? I often think food can make a difference as I'm getting a lot of comments about my skin which have never had and have been blending Nutribullet drinks (basically blending raw kale with fruit ) and I love the drinks

[Walkingonsunshine00]

Cheap cleanser
Witch Stick and aveeno moisturiser work on my dd (14) dry skin

[pippitysqueakity]

Some great reviews for the effaclar stuff, have amazoned the duo, so hopefully will help. I think they are blackheads as single, with slight raised skin around them.
Will google cystic acne, ty for the advice.
Am very keen for her not to have bad skin trauma, it is soul destroying.
Thank you so much for help.

[Greenstone]

Check back in a few weeks and let us know how it's going. I really do rate the stuff.

[stonelog]

Fgs stop with all the needless synthetic chemical promoting. She's 11; it's hormonal; no cleanser in the world is going to stop her body producing too much sebum from time to time. It will balance itself out eventually if you let nature take its course and try and help her avoid stress. In the meantime you'd be better off promoting healthy body (and face) image attitudes rather than making her feel like her puberty is a problem that must be solved with commercial crap, to which skin can react in often unpredictable ways.

The diet advice in this thread, however, is much more sensible.

[lurkingaround]

All well and good stonel, but sometimes acne is not so straightforward. It can scar, can be unsightly and psychologically can be v debilitating. If OP's DD has a few spots I agree with you. But given the early onset, her strong family history I would be calmly working on it.

There is no definitive evidence on diet and acne. But there is some evidence that dairy is best avoided, tho you need to make sure there's a good alternative source of calcium. If you are having milk, full fat is best.
Sugar is pro-inflammatory, so best avoided or controlled. That includes fruits. (Limit them)

[DrankSangriaInThePark]

stonelog - I should clearly have asked for your 'expert' opinion when my 11 yr old was sobbing about the state of her face and begging me to let her stay off school until her fringe was long enough to cover it.
Thankfully people on here (including Caroline Hirons who was kind enough to give a lot of us some advice) told me about Effaclar and less than a month later I have my smiling happy confident daughter back.
I trust that should your own children find themselves in this situation you'll be giving them some of the mouth you've given us.....

[Sallystyle]

Stone, that is bollocks.

I had years of bullying due to acne. I had no self- esteem left and I walked for years with my head down and cried every single night about it.

If only my mum promoting healthy image attitude stopped the other kids from bullying me. Drawing pictures of me with my spots passing them around the school and following me around calling me names so I ended up with no friends at all. Oh I didn't want to go out either after school. No bloody self image talks would have stopped me.

There is a lot you can do for acne now a days. People should take advantage of it. Acne can be a self-esteem killer and the scars that last for years are no fun either.

[Sallystyle]

No bloody self image talks would have stopped me feeling like shit or getting bullied that was meant to say.

[pippitysqueakity]

TBF, my DD is not raising concerns about it and I have not 'blamed' puberty, if anything we are embracing it with chats and new rights and responsibilities etc.
I still have issues with my skin which are definitely hormonal and spent a lot of my late teens and early twenties on antibiotics which I know is not so common now. My skin has never 'evened itself out'. My DH still gets the odd stinker occasionally.
DD eats well, loves fresh veggies but maybe does eat too many sweets which I will discuss with her.
She has a few issues (very small and petite for her age) which she deals with very well and I just don't want her to have to fight any battles she doesn't have to.
Apart from which, spots bloody hurt!! .
Thank you everyone for your input, will let you know how we get on.

[Cocolepew]

Spots on the chin are usually hormonal, she could take a muti vitamin for teens/women. I've found vit b complex has helped my dd.
A light concealer might help for breakouts to take the redness out.
My DD uses a Simple moisturiser especially for teen breakouts.
I'm going to check out the effaclar stuff too.