Teen daughter acne

[M48294Y]

Hello, have name changed for this to protect dd's privacy.

She is 15 and has quite bad acne. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say she is about a 7. Her skin is bumpy and she has loads of whiteheads and blackheads, and a few big red spots. It gets worse when she is premenstrual but atm doesn't really clear up between periods either.

She washes her face twice a day with a witch hazel foaming wash, then uses a deep pore cleansing toner on cotton wool, and uses a scrub wash every couple of days. She uses a facepack once pw. We have tried steaming her face and a blackhead remover to extract the blackheads, but some of them are very deep!

What else could she do? I am loathe to take her to the GP for a prescription because a) she has to take quite a lot of medication for another chronic health condition and b) a teen I know fairly well has developed jaundice from her acne medication!

We are comfortably off and I would be happy to pay for deep cleansing facials for her, whilst at the same time not wanting to give the message that her skin is a problem that needs to be solved and that beauty is anything more than skin deep.

Sorry that was absolutely epic! Thanks for reading and wwyd?

parissont no it's not me, my acne when I was a teen on my back at least was close to this, my face was severe too though, years and years on antibiotics/Dianette/creams then Roaccutane, which worked. I have to watch my son with it now, he won't go to the doctors about it though. Glad you could advice and help your daughter.

Omg, that photo. It looks so sore. I wouldn't even attempt to treat acne that angry looking without advice from a dermatologist. Any other course of action could do more harm than good.

Unlike most on this thread I would be ver reluctant to let a child of mine have Roaccutane. I had it twenty years ago when it was very new and I suffered terrible with anxiety after taking it. I lost see veal tarts of my life to the effect it had on my mind. I had a good friend at school who also took it and suffered similarly, in fact she's never successfully come off Prozac since her reaction to Roaccutane.

My skin did clear and has remained clear but I'm not sure the trade off was worth it at all.

"See veal tarts" was meant to be "several years"!!

OMG OMG OMG JACKANDDIANE!

What an overreaction.

My dd's spots are nothing like that linked picture. Atm she has three spots on her forehead and a couple on her chin. He acne is like mine at her age, except I lived at a time when the appearance of teen girls was not as fetishised.

Many thanks for the suggestions on this thread. We will ditch the witchhazel cleanser and keep trying.

It's certainly not to be taken lightly uncooked but I've heard so many stories of how it's literally changed people's lives for the better (including me). Your side effects are on the extreme side compared to most - I just suffered from dryness and itching.

Hold on OP, you started a thread about "really bad acne" and now you say your DD has 5 spots

oh then piss off OP

She's got teenage spots then not acne.

Ok if she has 5 spots she probably doesn't have acne which is graded a '7' out of 10

So OP your daughter has a few spots not acne at all. Unbelievable.

As per my post above, my DD's prescription for Roaccutane was very carefully monitored. The dermatologist was very cautious about the dose he prescribed and calculated the weeks every time we saw him. We were aware of the side effects and discussed the difference the meds were making regularly. It is a strong prescription that has to be used responsibly. However, I know from my own experience that having acne for decades damaged my self-esteem and affected my confidence immeasurably. I was not prepared to put my DD through that same trauma - and it is trauma, it's not a few spots here and there, it's awful and debilitating and it crushes you and makes you feel ugly. I wouldn't hesitate to use it or request it for my DC again if it were ever necessary (which it won't be).

OP if it isn't that bad (that photo looks so painful and definitely needs medical attention) and you don't want to go down the medication route I'd actually go to basics and try cidal soap and sudocreme.
I get adult acne and always use cidal soap - which seems to keep it under control (when I visit family and use their different soaps it flares -although it could just be the change in diet/water I guess.)
My DD (15) so far has only had the odd spot (touch wood -reading bees post has made me worry) She washes using cidal and occasionally (twice a monthish - when she feels like it/remembers) uses a scrub (it is the apricot kernel one - Apre?). I know her friends are using all kinds of lotions and potions for their pretty normal (imo) teen spots - and their skin isn't as clear as DDs.
And lots of suedocreme at bedtime works well on mine...fewer new ones and often have almost disappeared by the morning, heals any breaks (I pick at them when I am thinking ) and I have fewer blackheads. If I forget for a few days I can tell. I think DD puts it on her odd spot too -since hearing me rave about it - only discovered how good it was about about a year ago.
(I was using some ancient Tesco rip off suedocreme/nappy cream that seemed to work even better than the genuine stuff - when I need a new pot I'm going to try that again - although they might have changed it by now...)
But if your DDs get worse or is really affecting her confidence I'd get off to the GP...

She is 15 and has quite bad acne. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say she is about a 7. Her skin is bumpy and she has loads of whiteheads and blackheads, and a few big red spots.

Ok, so the thread has moved on -

7 out of 10 - I am comparing her to her peers and schoolfriends! I don't actually know anyone with acne like the linked imagine, am quite sure I have never met anyone with a severe problem like that either. Surely that is quite rare?

Apologies, I didn't know one should refer to "spots" rather than "acne". My mistake.

Ok if she's got a couple of spots and isn't bothered then just leave her. A hot cloth cleanser is nice to use. If she has loads of whiteheads and blackheads she probably does have acne though.

To be absolutely precise mrsmugoo, I said dd had "quite bad" acne, not "really bad" acne.

I would say the picture is 10 out of 10.

But that is nothing like what I described in my op.

Dianette and Clinique 3-step.

My dds acne wasn't as bad as vulcanwoman's either. I think she posted the pic to show that some acne is severe enough not to be cured by Witch hazel. It was very brave of her to do so.

If her pic is a 10, then dds was a 7. Small angry red spots all over forehead and cheeks. Her whole face looked very very sore.

She could do with going on the pill because of the other chronic condition I mentioned in my op. It has been suggested by the hospital consultant. Perhaps we'll go down that path.

Proactive+ is great. Worth a try!

I must admit, I've never seen anything like the photo either.

If, by any chance, the chronic condition is endometriosis, the pill is well worth trying.

If it's just a few spots then it's worth trying cetaphil. It's really gentle which I think is much better for the skin than harsh cleansers. Use a hot cloth/flannel (clean one every day) to wash it off, this has an exfoliating effect without being really rough on the skin like some of the 'face scrubs' you can get.

Surely that is quite rare? not as rare as you might imagine, people suffer, stay indoors, cover it up best they can with make up. I think by starting a thread like this you are unaware of people's suffering with regards to this and other skin conditions. Anyway hopefully this thread has helped and educated in some way. One positive thing to come out of suffering with a severe skin condition, I think, it makes you a more compassionate/understanding/not so judgemental person.