infant acne

My 3 week old seems to have developed infant acne. I've never seen a
case like this. Its all over her body. Is that normal, has anyone
else experienced this? She seems fine otherwise, but it looks
terrible, like it might be uncomfortable. Does infant acne usually
cover the whole body, or could something else be causing it? I'm
wondering if I need to keep washing her clothes in baby detergent.

Ericka Kammerer...

Absolutely agreed--some of the baby detergents
are actually *more* perfume-y and harsh than regular
detergents. No need to use them at all.

Ericka Kammerer...

Honestly, if you think the baby has sensitive skin,
by all means pull back on what you're using. I also agree
that babies don't need tons of stuff on them. On the other
hand, baby acne often has *nothing* whatsoever to do with
sensitive skin or what products you're using on the babies
or anything. Mine have had it to varying degrees and
we didn't use much of anything on them. The baby acne
went away without any change in our behaviors. Don't
put anything on the baby to try to fix the acne, but I
don't really think it's necessary to go to the full out
sensitive skin routine over a case of baby acne (even
a pretty significant one). Fortunately, it won't be
too long before it clears up, if that's what it is.

Ericka Kammerer...

A lot of it is just the fluctuating hormones.

Best wishes,
Ericka

Chookie...

It's normal. Noboy is quite sure what causes it, but it isn't serious or
itchy and will pass in a couple of months, then you will see that lovely soft
baby skin.

Sarah

dragonlady...

My son had it like that. It was almost embarrassing to bring him out in
public, since all the exposed parts of his body looked so awful!

I never used baby detergents, so I can't really address that. I stick
to a particular brand that works to keep MY skin from breaking out, and
used that with all the laundry. I tried washing his clothes in other
things once in a while, but none of them seemed to improve things for
him.

This particular kid ended up with excema, as well, but I have no idea if
that's related in any way to the infant acne.