13 year old daughter’s skin

[Bernie23]

My 13 year old is struggling with her skin. Currently using cerave and have tried cetaphill cleanser. She is wanting to try some of the ordinary products but I’m not sure. Would her skin be bad enough for a doctor to look at it?

Have you tried an antihistine cream? An acne breakout can be affected by all sorts. My two eldest girls have quite bad acne affected by their monthlies. We’ve been to the GP and put eldest on the mini pill which has helped lots but not entirely. Diet plays a huge factor most recently my eldest is drinking gallons of lemon water which flushes her out. With most products you’ll need to painstakingly stick to them for a month before changing else there’s no benefit. We wash their pillowcases 3 times a week and have found Dermalogica great. We did have a skin consultation in Sephora of all places and a great guy suggested a few different products. Make her wash as soon as she comes in from school too they rub their faces unwittingly all day long. GP prescribed a rather strong cream but left what I can only describe as burn marks which then turned to eczema. It’s trial and error x

Yes, definitely take her to the Dr. I would recommend using clay masks a few times a week.

There’s a product by Tropic called Pure Lagoon, it’s really gentle but you put it on after cleansing and before moisturising. It is meant to correct the skin’s micro biome. I find it so good, wish I’d found it as a teenager. You can try it and if it doesn’t suit you can send it back within 30 days and get your money back

looks like acne both my kids suffer from it, go see the GP as over the counter treatments rarely work and I’ve tried them all including The ordinary, which made my daughters skin peel and quite sore.

Definitely worth seeing a GP, it would be classed as mild to moderate acne. It looks like it’s worse on her chin and jawline (although can’t actually see her forehead etc) which is generally typical of hormonal acne. It might respond well to the pill if you are both open to that (NICE recommends combined pill rather than progesterone-only (mini pill) as that can actually make acne worse @BeMellowAquaSquid). Could it be PCOS?
Otherwise there are a range of options, they will usually recommend benzoyl peroxide if you haven’t already tried it, either in its own or in combination with topical antibiotics, or adapalene. It can be quite drying though. The Ordinary is good and was actually recommended by the GP my daughter saw, but she was already using it. She likes the niacinamide serum, the salicylic acid (anhydrous one in oil) and the squalane cleanser and moisturiser. If topicals don’t work then they will offer oral antibiotics in combination with something else.
Don’t minimise the effect of acne on young people’s confidence and self-esteem, and don’t feel you are wasting your GPs time.

Yes bad enough for GP and if GP suggestions do not help, get a referral to a dermatologist. Do it this coming week because next week in England we will be banned from calling or going to the GP to ask for an appointment. We will all be filling in online forms, that will then be ‘triaged’ and we may or may not get a GP appt a few days later. 😫

If you can stump up the £300 or so for a consult with a private dermatologist, it may be worth it. Often trying things that do not work (even things suggested by a GP who isn’t a specialist), can exacerbate acne and cause permanent scarring- both facial and mental.

Be very careful with the lemon water, it will destroy her teeth

@SummerFeverVenicewe have had an online triage system at our GP practice for years and I have to say it is wonderful so please don’t assume it will be a negative experience. If it is a new system for your practice there may be some teething problems but it actually makes it easier to get an appointment and means that the receptionists aren’t making the decisions about who gets seen. There is no rush to call at 8am to find there are no appointments left. If you need to be seen that day then you get seen, if it’s not urgent then it might be a few days or even a week. But I have submitted a form mid-afternoon and still been seen the same day, which I don’t think would happen with the usual 8am phone scramble. Often they will requests blood tests ahead of your appointment so you can have a more meaningful consultation. If you are able to submit photos then they may actually just issue a prescription without having to go in for a consultation (especially if you are specific about what you want - eg I want to try topical treatment first rather than oral antibiotics, I have already tried xyz). And if you can’t access the online system (old people etc) then you can still phone (but the lines aren’t clogged up) and they will fill out the exact same form for you so everyone is treated the same.
Dermatology waiting lists are very long at the moment, even going private can take a while. The GP won’t refer you unless you have tried a couple of different treatments first or it’s very severe. But I do agree that you should probably take her to the GP rather than waste time and money on OTC stuff that probably won’t work.