Babies' skin is supposed to be perfect, so how come your bundle of joy doesn't look flawless? Newborns go through a lot to enter the world and most end up with some skin conditions. These imperfections shouldn't alarm or bother you, they certainly aren't bugging your newest addition (nor should they affect her later in life). Here are a few things that may show up:
- Premature babies and even some full term can be born with a soft, fine hair (lanugo) covering the skin. This fur should disappear after a few weeks.
- Any splotchy, peeling or cracking in your newborn's skin is normal and should improve over time. If it appears on her head it's called cradle cap and should clear up on its own after several months.
There are others including baby breakouts so read more.
- Baby acne is very common, and doesn't usually last more than a few months. Don't try to treat the blemishes yourself with creams or over-washing, it's best to just let it run its course — the acne will eventually go away.
- Milia is another condition that is normal (and looks similar to baby acne) and harmless. The small white spots that occur on baby's cheeks and nose should fade within a few weeks.
- Any small red spots on her forehead, eyelids, lips, and/or neck are caused by stretched blood vessels, and should disappear by the time she is 18 months old.
In the case of your wee one's skin conditions, patience is the best medicine. If you think your babe is experiencing something more serious (perhaps from an allergic reaction), contact her pediatrician.
Valentino
Office
Calida
i thought my first daughter's baby acne was measles and i was really frightened. i remember calling the pediatrician's office and the nurse laughing at me
it was covering her neck and back and didn't look like acne, how was i to know?
also, most of the links on lilsugar haven't worked this week. and when i go post a comment it doesn't let me in the comment box, it forwards me to the next story. anyone lese having this issue?
1My son is 10 months now and still has cradle cap. It's driving me nuts!
2I freaked out at baby acne the first time, too. But I discovered that unscented baby wipes are awesome at clearing it up. My daughter still gets it occasionally, so I wipe her down and within 24 hours it's gone again.
My advice for cradle cap is not to let it go and see if it clears up on its own. A lot of times, it doesn't. We do a little olive oil on the scalp, let it sit for a few minutes, then rub in some dandruff shampoo and let that sit for a few minutes before scrubbing with a brush and rinsing. Obviously with that you have to be very careful not to get any in the eyes.
And lastly, ANY small red spots aren't caused by blood vessels.
Most are and will go
away, but some are variations of birthmarks. My daughter has one on her eye that I thought was a stork bite all this time, but we just found out it was a birthmark.
3My son has a huge stork bit (or so we assume) on his forehead, Greggie. And other small ones on his eye and nose. We were told they were from blood vessels and should fade, but really haven't much yet, so I'm not very optimistic. I think we will have to look into laser removal when he's older. He's so fair skinned that it's very obvious.
4My oldest son's stork bites definitely faded, but they're also in areas covered by hair so either way they wouldn't have been noticeable after awhile. I will also consider laser surgery if my daughter's eye birthmark stays as dark as it is now.
It did take over a year for my son's storkbites to fade, though, so there is hope.
5my husband has a niece who was born with a stork bite on her forehead and it is raised but there is no color left and it's really tiny now (pencil earaser size). it was about the size of a nickle. she's 9 1/2.
my middle daughter had one on her upper back that was bout 4 inches by 2 inches. it went away suddenly when she was about 5 1/2.
6Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.