Baby Acne / Rash

Adnada

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Dec 12, 2013
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Any recommendations for my nephew, 8 weeks old, who was born with baby acne and little rashes? It is getting increasingly worse. Mom is breastfeeding. She eats a decent diet, but not particularly low in PUFA. Recommendations and explanations for the cause of these issues in a newborn would be great!
 

tara

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Mar 29, 2014
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I'm not an expert or particularly experienced with this. I'm a mum, but didn't have to contend with serious rashes.

I was told when I had mine that 'milk rash', which looks like many fine pimples, is very common and almost always resolves itself within a few months. It did for mine, but it was fairly mild to begin with - mostly on the face. I don't know if it has any particular significance wrt mums diet or anything else.

Is baby getting some regular sunlight?

Sometimes rashes can be from dry skin or skin exposed to dampness - eg nappy rash.
When mine were little I used an oil/beeswax wax mix I bought, not not then being aware of issues with PUFAs. If I was doing it again, I'd try something more saturated.
I got lots of good advice on my thread asking for help with a rash recently. Based on that, what I'm now using and finding helpful on my own skin, which developed rashes in the last few months, is a mix of coconut oil, cocoa butter, beeswax with a little lanolin and vit E mixed in. Cocoa butter by itself seems to be helpful, too, but it's quite hard, so it takes a lot of effort to apply it over a large area. Similarly, petroleum jelly was helpful, but did I say it takes a bit to get across my large b**? :lol: I would expect a tallow-based moisturiser would be another good alternative, if this is part of the issue.

If they are using soaps and moisturisers with dodgy ingredients, maybe consider if they could be contributing to the problem? Or even any soap at all can be a bit tough on sensitive skin. Some babies find wipes with alcohol to be too drying.

I think sometimes babies can also get idiosycratic mild allergic reactions to particular things mum eats. But that can be a bit hard to track down, and probably not worth pursuing with exclusion diets unless it becomes serious and prolonged.

There is some evidence that breast-milk composition is affected by mum's PUFA intake. Might make a difference if mum could reduce that, but no guarantees, and I imagine you wouldn't want to apply too much pressure.
 

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