4 week old skin, is this normal? Pic attatched

[AwkwardAsAllGetout]

Dd is 4 weeks old and since last week has been getting spottier and spottier. The skin around her eyes is especially sore looking and since yesterday looked awfully flaky. The spots are very sore and red with a little head on them. I’m trying to keep her clean as she’s a fairly sicky baby, but I don’t know if bathing her everyday is making it worse? I’ve stopped using anything in her bath and am just using water. I’m breastfeeding her, could it be something I’m eating that she’s reacting to? Is it worth a call to a HV or is this just something I need to wait out til it passes by itself?

Looks a bit like eczema which is common in babies. I would call the HV because it does look quite sore. I used to bath my baby every night but she developed eczema so I only bath her every third night now because the water and heat was making it worse. I also use Child's Farm Moisturiser because the cream that doctor gave me was useless (although it can be used as soap so I'm doing that instead of baby products).

If you're breast feeding it could be something you are eating that she has an intolerance to - dairy is often a trigger for eczema.

She's very cute! What a lot of beautiful hair!

patient.info/skin-conditions/skin-rashes/erythema-toxicum-neonatorum

I should add that site doesn’t have pictures but you could google for examples. It’s really common and not harmful.

My 3 week old is similar though it started at about 10 days with him - the spots are hormonal from pregnancy/birth and the dry skin is them acclimatising to the outside world from being under water for 9 months (my son was a week overdue and the midwife said he'd "overcooked" so his skin is quite peelly all over - mostly gone now though). Chances are it will sort itself out on its own so I wouldn't over react and start making lots of changes to diet or anything especially if nappies are normal. Using no bath products is a good idea, they don't need anything at this age really, an don't bath too often as it can affect the skins natural processes. Maybe worth a reassurance chat with the HV though if you're worried? With my older son who also had quite bad skin it started a little later at about 3-4 weeks and was all gone by about 6 weeks.

Both mine had these kinds of phases in the first months. Their skin reacts to suddenly not having your hormones and to not being underwater. I was told that daily baths were too much.
I used a very light moisturiser for sensitive skin from the chemist (not any of the supermarket sensitive skin products, they caused rashes).
Why not ask the HV so you can put your mind at ease?
I hated taking them out like that as I thought people would think I wasn’t taking care of them but I never could see that it caused them any discomfort.

Normal, both mine were like that. Please don't start rubbing products on their brand new delicate skin!

Totally normal. I was told it was baby acne when my daughter had it. I used childs Farm moisturiser on it which helped enormously. Coconut oil or grape seed oil is also great.

Normal, seconding the Child's Farm recommendation. Ds has beautiful clear skin after a week.

Worth a call with hv. Your dd is beautiful btw

All mine went through a spotty phase. She is beautiful.

@AwkwardAsAllGetout my DD had skin like that, but hers didn't improve and just got worse and worse. It was also bothering her (itching) and was accompanied by incessant screams of pain. I was advised by my doctor to cut out dairy, and that worked really well. Your DD's skin is more than likely just the normal reaction lots of babies get to being in the outside world, but if it doesn't improve or she starts acting as if she's in pain, I'd take her to see a GP. I left it too long with my DD and ended up needing a steroid cream.

That looks like baby acne to me? It is the textbook time for it. My 3rd had it quite badly. I tried lots of different things but it cleared up by itself by about week 7. No harm to mention it if you're seeing a HCP anyway at some stage, but it's likely very normal and will pass. Oh and yes it's more common in breastfed babies, but it's due to maternal hormones rather than diet afaik.

Baby acne, my DS has this and it's a reaction to not having your hormones any more. Please don't use oils and creams, they can make it worse. Leave it and it will go eventually, I think it took about a month.

Baby acne. My DS had it. Cleared up on its own after a couple of weeks.

Looks like normal baby acne, especially if mostly on the face. Both my babies have had it, usually fades over a few weeks. Products on the skin or restricting your diet won't make any difference as the cause is hormonal as PP's have said.

No useful advice- but what a little cutie

From about 3 weeks to 10 weeks I’ve very few pics of my babies 😂 Poor things always hit the pizza face phase badly.

They are just getting used to so much stuff in the outside world. And can get horrific rashes and spots for a period.

Aw, my baby looked like that! Quick trip to the GP, as it might be eczema. Don't put anything in the bath, wash only with water. Congratulations!

Aww thank you for all the lovely comments. She IS lovely but it just looks so uncomfortable for her. I had to cut out dairy when feeding my ds as he had CMPA which he thankfully grew out of. His allergy was very obvious though, he came out in hives if I even sniffed at dairy. She has started to throw up quite a lot after feeds though which was another of his symptoms so I’ll give a few days dairy free a whirl and see how it goes. Ds also has eczema though he’s grown out of his food allergies, so I’ll get the child’s farm cream too as even if it’s useless on dd it will be nice to use on ds. Thanks for all the advice x

Very normal. Please dont worry. Congratulations on your beautiful baby.

My DS had exactly the same, sweet almond oil was brilliant at soothing it and moisturising and it cleared it up within a few days. He'd had his for a good while by that point.

We've since used it for any skin complaints since, also brilliant to apply and then put child's farm moisturiser over the top to help seal it in. Fab stuff. Use it on me too.