What causes baby acne and how can I help clear it up?
Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at
8:35 am
What causes baby acne on my newborn (on his cheeks and chin), and how can I help it clear up? I give him a bath daily, but it doesn’t seem to help.
Oh, and my baby is a month-and-a-half old, and his billy cord has already healed and has fallen off. A nightly bath has been helping him sleep 3 hours straight at night, and so I’m not too worried about his skin drying out. It’s very supple; I just had question about the acne! Thanks a ton for all the answers! It’s nice to know that it is just hormones and nothing to worry about much.
Tagged with: acne • Baby • Causes • Clear • help
Filed under: Acne Causes
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It’s just a reaction to the air. It’ll go away. Make sure he gets water.
you give your baby a shot of hormones just before birth. This causes breast bumps, baby acne, and even a mini period in baby girls.
Give it a couple weeks and it will clear up on its own.
good luck.
hormones, and don’t worry about it, it will go away…they all get it!
I always washed my daughter’s face with just water, there skin is so different than ours.
Seriously don’t worry about it. Enjoy the baby!!!
You should take him to a pediatrician. It’s too tough to answer this question without being able to see his face. Some babies are born with little acne-like bumps (can’t remember what they’re called) that will go away on their own. If it’s eczema or dermatitis, it can be treated easily with over the counter hydrocortisone ointment. It could also be impetigo which is a bacterial skin infection. This would need a topical antibiotic. Again, a doctor should evaluate him.
One other thing…although you need to keep his bottom clean, you generally don’t need to bathe a newborn daily. This can often be counterproductive because it causes his skin to dry out.
Newborn acne is caused by the excess hormones from the mother coming out of his skin, and nothing but waiting will make it go away. Please do not put any creams, oils, lotions, etc. on his skin…this will do nothing more than irritate it and cause him to be uncomfortable.
Also, a newborn baby does NOT need a bath every day. If you want to take a damp wash cloth and wring it out and wipe him off, that’s recommended, but do not put him in the bathtub full of water. This will severely dry out his skin and cause his umbilical cord stump to stay moist, and it won’t heal properly.