Your baby is only a few days old, he is very tiny and helpless, and suddenly a rash or small pimples appeared on a small body? Parents, and sometimes even a pediatrician, find it difficult to determine whether it is an allergy or the so-called acne of newborns. Therefore, it is important to know what acne is, how it looks, how to distinguish it from allergies and how to treat it (and whether it should be treated at all).
What is acne?
Acne of newborns manifests itself in the form of acne, red, with a white purulent tip, very similar to youthful acne (see photo above). They can pop out on the cheeks, forehead, nose, head, even ears, less often on the neck and back. The rash does not itch, does not cause the baby any inconvenience. Appears in 25 - 30% of children. Medical name -neonatal cephalic pustulosis.
Reasons for the appearance
Some parents think that acne appeared due to improper care of the baby, non-observance of hygiene rules. This is not true. The cause of acne is an excess of maternal hormones in the blood of the crumbs, as well as the imperfect work of the child’s sebaceous glands, which do not have time to cope with the increased load during hormonal changes in the body.
Do I need to be treated?
Acne in newborns is not an infectious or allergic disease (it is a hormonal rash), it does not need to be treated.
Acne is not contagious.
It is not necessary to smear the eruptions that appear with brilliant green, fucorcin, chlorophyllipt, potassium permanganate and any other antiseptics. It is better to carefully wipe the affected area with a decoction of a string or chamomile pharmacy. Keep your baby's skin clean and dry. You can lubricate acne a little with Bepanten ointment every 3 to 4 days (the ointment will dry the rashes).
Note: you can not squeeze purulent pimples. Recovery from this will not go faster, but the inflammation will increase, the infection can get into the wound. In place of extruded acne after healing, ugly scars may remain.
Acne goes away by itself after maternal hormones are completely eliminated from the body of the baby, and the work of its hormonal system returns to normal. The healing process can take from two weeks to one and a half months. After acne there will be no traces left (of course, if you did not try to squeeze them out).
Consultation of a pediatrician is necessary in any case. He will make the correct diagnosis, give recommendations for care and treatment. After all, it is very easy to confuse acne with manifestations of a food allergy or urticaria. But allergies and urticaria should be treated!
Do not confuse acne with allergies
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- The appearance of pimples with acne and allergies is significantly different. With allergies, large red spots or a small red rash appear on the baby's skin, there are no white purulent tops. Acne is manifested by acne, red below, white purulent tips on top.
- The skin inflamed with allergies itches, the baby is worried, combing acne, and acting up. A rash with acne does not bother the child, he behaves, as usual, eats well and sleeps.
- Acne appears most often on the cheeks, forehead, or head of a baby. Allergic manifestations can be seen both in separate places (on the buttocks, back, cheeks), and throughout the body of the baby.
- With allergies, the baby's stool, redness of the cheeks, rough spots throughout the body, severe gas formation, abdominal pain, and vomiting can change.
Important! Read about food allergies. (manifestations, symptoms, treatment)
How to prevent allergies:
If the baby is allergic, treatment should be carried out strictly under the supervision of a doctor.
In any case, the appearance of a rash should alert parents, therefore, without delay, show your baby to a specialist. Follow his recommendations, keep the baby’s skin dry and clean, be patient, and gradually the purulent heads will dry out, then the redness will disappear, and the baby’s delicate skin will again become clean and healthy.
We repeat! Acne is not dangerous and does not cause any inconvenience to the child.
Keep in mind: in addition to acne in newborns (i.e., children from birth to the first month), there is acne that occurs in babies after three months of age and older. It has the same hormonal basis and can take a very long time - even up to three years.
To compulsory study:
- Newborn baby skin care;
- Proper hygiene of the smallest (good to know);
- See what common skin problems are common in newborns;
- About pimples on the face of infants - https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/zdorove-rebenka/pryishhiki-na-litse-novorozhdennogo-prichinyi-i-kak-izbavitsya.html.
We had such pimples, but we did not even have time to get scared, because there were not many of them, only on the cheeks. Passed by themselves in about a week, well, maybe one and a half. Every morning, my son wiped a decoction of chamomile, and in the evening they bathed in a series for the first month.
Zinc ointment or desitin can be lubricated, in children this rash often happens. This is clearly not acne, it seems to me that only teenagers have acne. Although they are treated in the same way, I take zinc ointment and metrogyl for my son. The recipes are the same at any age.
In the eldest son, seborrhea was manifested in such a way, they were removed with advantan and metrogil. But he was older when acne began to appear. Then the crusts climbed. And the youngest is not three months old, and all in such a rash. the pediatrician says it’s not like an infection or an allergy, watch. But I’m worried - how can you observe when all the skin does not understand what it looks like. I wipe it with chamomile just in case, but I don’t know what to do next.
We were prescribed a metrogil, read the instructions, didn’t even smear it - until the age of 12 it is impossible at all.Treated with cindol, it helped a lot.
We also have this from birth, only acne was much larger, like teenagers. We did not try to crush them, and in these places blackheads (acne) were formed, in large sizes, as in an adult they are on their backs. The son is already 10 years old, and all the time he may have ulcers on his face (about two to three), and then in their place are hard blackheads. Our doctors shrug their shoulders, a simple examination and in response: they see nothing wrong. In recent months, there have become more similar acne, on the chin, on the nose and next to it, on the eyebrows and forehead, and also on the earlobes and inside. I already cry and don’t know how to deal with it. He has it almost like that of adolescents, only from the hospital itself to this day (10 years).