Pimples

[Karen99]

My DS (14wks) constantly has a few pimples spread across his cheeks (not milk spots). I am breast feeding, could it be something in my diet (or lack of)? He's gaining weight steadily so I'm assuming my milk quality is good, but can't think what else it could be.

He's so cute I would love to get some photos without these intruders!

Totally, irritatingly normal IMO. It's hormonal within the baby, nothing to do with your milk at all (BTW milk is milk, there are no variations in 'quality' regardless of what you eat and drink). And these spots invariably appear the very minute you want to get out there and show off your baby or book a photo session.

. Granny, who hasn't seem him since wk2, is coming to stay the night tonight and I was hoping he would look gorgeous! (Of course he still does with or without them! )

You always want your baby to look perfect but unfortunately it is very common for them to get spots. Out of my 8 friends who had babies at the same time as me 4 of the babies had some or other skin problems - either spots (hormonal as aloha mentions) or very dry skin...cleared up after a short while. DD had spots for about 6 weeks - on her face ..... looked like a bad case of acne....have to say that it bothered me more than her!! Also timed with when granny was over from SA to visit ! HV diagnosed it as excema rather than the common hormonal spots (as it was very dry) ....I am also breastfeeding so got all panicky about my diet - cut out all sorts of things from my diet as I was also worried it was an allergic reaction to my milk.....even stopped eating chocolate and started drinking horrible lactose free milk in my tea - which was a huge effort on my part as it tastes yuuuk and i am addicted to chocolate my one luxury. None of my dietary changes helped so IMO really not worth worrying about changing your diet. What did help in DD's case was not using fabric conditioner and putting an emollient (50 50 cream) on at night and using Oilatum in her bath rather than usual baby bath products with perfume in them.........and in retrospect heer case was definately an allergic reaction to perfumed products... as soon as I stopped using these products her skin cleared up - her skin is beautiful now at 5.5 months.

My dd2 is the same age as yours and is prone to them too, although the teenage-style acne has cleared up. I think we just have to go with it, unfortunately.

Ditto cradle cap, dammit.

All of our skin conditions (DD?s baby pimples and cradle cap, DP?s Eczema, MILs cracked hands and even some scars on my hands) cleared up when we switched to using natural cleansers and detergent rather than chemical -based ones ? we watched what we were eating so carefully but hadn?t been thinking about the gunk we were absorbing through our skin. I?d check the ingredients of your bathroom products, the ones that worked, and are still working best for us can be ordered online here . You need to enter code FFF07029.

IMO babies don't need anything at all except water to clean them - no products, natural or otherwise.

My little boy had these from about 16 weeks to 7 months and I was advised to moisturise his skin. This I did but it seemed to make it worse, every morning he'd wake up with new ones. I got really stressed about wondering what I was doing wrong as all the other babies I saw had lovely peach complexions. In the end I gave up doing anything and just cleaned his face with cotton wool and water as I had done previously and sure enough they cleared up. This also seemed to coincide with him cutting his two front teeth although we are not allowed to say that anything other tahn cutting teeth is a teething symptom so I shall say it was a coincidence. He is now 11 months and coincidentally he is now cutting his next two bottom teeth and the spots have reappeared !!! Although I know they will go eventually I hope they will disappear by his first birthday......

Thanks for all of the replies.

My mum (Granny) has had lots of fun with DS today (but has now gone, 2hr drive away I miss her tonnes) and of course thought he was BEAUTIFUL . She said all three of hers had these spots and she too agreed it wasn't anything to do with diet.

DS has only been bathed in water since wk2 after both Sainsburys and J&J products dried his skin out (he was born with beautiful skin) and is moisturised with Olive Oil. Face is washed with cotton wool and water.

He is very much a hand sucker and now that the drooling has started to overflow all the time it might be he's wiping this all over his face? Otherwise I'll think it's hormonal. I must admit I think I'd prefer him to have the odd spotty than eczema (which also runs in our family).

Will take a look at the Aloe website, Waterbaby. May also get some Oilatum (sp?) for the bath.

Another quick question - if you make the effort to ease the cradlecap with Olive Oil, does it come back in weeks to come? Is it best to leave it if it's mild to see if it sorts itself?

Motherinferior,what have you done?

Are Granny's great!!!! :0