PICS: Baby Acne or Allergy?

[J2]

Pls look at my 6wk old DD. Her skin was clear and over the past several days has developed into what looks like it could be:

- baby acne
- contact rash (maybe when in contact with my breast/skin?)
- some other random rash
- allergy (food allergy through my breastmilk?)

So her face hasn't always been like this. It just developed the past several days. I haven't changed anything new into my diet and i haven't changed soaps or laundry detergent. It's all only on her face and scalp, not her body. Though it does look like she has sensitive skin in general all around. She had diaper issues in the beginning which have now cleared up. And the skin on her body looks sensitive too, like a red spot (not bump) here and there, but not many.

Happened to see the ped yesterday for an unrelated reason and ped sounds like she doesn't really know for sure what it is. Said it kind of looks like baby acne but could be irritation from something else, like leaning against my breast.

Thanks for looking at the pics! I wrote a similar post yesterday, but now I have pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...7/CIMG0028.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...7/CIMG0029.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...7/CIMG0033.jpg

[J2]

I took pics of her skin...it is in this thread. Please look if you have the chance. http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=997257

OOPS...I was suppose to have posted this in another thread!

[nalo]

Well, she's gorgeous!!! But I'm sorry to say that's not baby acne. I'm not a doctor but I work with babies for a living and feel pretty confident in saying that's not what that is. Baby acne is generally little white heads scattered throughout the t-zone area, not a pervasive rash all over the face. Since it's only face/head my first thought would be a contact problem with any soap/skincare products your are using and/or detergents that she is frequently rubbing against while nursing. Can you get a totally allergen free detergent today (I think Country Save or something close to that name is a really good one) and make sure you only wear clothes that are washed in that and also refrain from using any soap or lotion or anything for a few days and see if there is any change. My DD has never had skin issues as part of food intollerances so I can't speak to if that looks like a food reaction/eczema.

[matey]

I replied yesterday too. Your baby's skin looks just like my ds' skin at that point, when the doctors said baby acne. It wasnt baby acne, just the start of a huge skin ordeal.

[Mrsboyko]

Probably an allergy. My DD had what her doc claimed was "the worst case of baby acne" he had ever seen. Yea, not acne at all, definately allergy, specifically dairy, egg and oats.
This is her at about 6 weeks old.
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...t=IMG_0187.jpg
It was everywhere on her face, even on her eyes and in her ears.

When we just kept letting it go (thinking it was normal and all), it progressed into this welt looking stuff around her eyes. See her right eye?
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...t=IMG_0207.jpg

This is still how she looks if we give her something she shouldn't have as hers is a true alergy, not an intolerance.

[matey]

Sharing Our Pics - I think most of them zoom when you click on them

This is the only pic I could find when he started out being bumpy. My picture taking goes dramatically down when his skin is bad.
About 5 weeks
The bumps isolate onto the forehead and side of face. I remember taking this picture because his skin looked better than usual.
About 2 months old
And this delightful 3 month picture
3 months
Another 3 month picture
Then I started the TED and he looked like this one week later
One week later from above picture

Then I had some bad advice and ate some wrong things, and screwed stuff up, and his skin got bad again. Then I went hardcore off dairy, and later I dropped all top allergens. Since then I have learned about his sensitivites to egg and soy. His skin is now clearer. We really only have problems if I accidently eat something with secret dairy, but it rarely happens anymore, because I have really gotten much better at hidden dairy.

In the picture in my siggy he has a couple scratches on his forehead. This was after a burrtio that was supposed to be dairy free, but it rashed up his skin and upset DS intestines and messed up DH too, who is also dairy sensitive (we found out throughtout all this), so he had scatched a little.

[J2]

Originally Posted by Mrsboyko

Probably an allergy. My DD had what her doc claimed was "the worst case of baby acne" he had ever seen. Yea, not acne at all, definately allergy, specifically dairy, egg and oats.
This is her at about 6 weeks old.
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...t=IMG_0187.jpg
It was everywhere on her face, even on her eyes and in her ears.

When we just kept letting it go (thinking it was normal and all), it progressed into this welt looking stuff around her eyes. See her right eye?
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...t=IMG_0207.jpg

This is still how she looks if we give her something she shouldn't have as hers is a true alergy, not an intolerance.

Your baby's picture is so clear - and it almost made me cry! Because that is exactly what my daughter's skin looks like...EXACTLY like that first picture you posted! ANd it also on her eyelids and ears, like you mentioned!

sigh....no dairy for me now. I suspected I might have to cut that out. DS appears sensitive to dairy so I knew it was a possibility.

I think I'll cut dairy out today. Even though I just but a really yummy dip the other day that has feta and cream cheese in it and is SO good and SO expensive! But...I'm thinking this is needed...to cut out dairy.

Thanks for posting your pic!

[J2]

Originally Posted by matey

Then I started the TED and he looked like this one week later
One week later from above picture

What is TED?

[matey]

The Elimination Diet

[J2]

Do you have a link about information on that?

[J2]

I should probably go off eggs too since DS registered allergic to eggs on a blood test. He didn't actually show allergic to dairy, but we think he is.

Wow...I still can't believe how similar my DD's face looks to Mrsboyko's DD! Amazingly the same. And same location and age at the time and everything.

Matey - I haven't been taking very many pictures either...for the same reason as you, that her skin doesn't look so great.

[changingseasons]

Check out my blog (link in sig) for elimination diet info. TED is actually total elimination diet, and ED is just elimination diet. TED is a lot more restricted and very hard to do while BFing.

[Mrsboyko]

TED is very difficult. I would start with any know family allergies and take it from there. If you see all the symptoms clear up then you can try a trial of some of the eliminated foods. If there are still some lingering issues, or new ones appear (this is common in allergy kids, the big allergens cover the not so bad ones) then you can do a TED. I would not suggest trialing dairy or eggs till your DC is much older as there is a chance they can be outgrown, but repeated exposures can make that chance smaller at every exposure, at least that is the current thinking.

One thing i didn't realize was a symptom of allergies was her BM's. She would have constant watery BM's many times a day. We were seeing 8+ blowouts a day. No little cottage cheese curds at all, just water. Once the dairy was gone, she got normal BF poop! I was shocked.

[J2]

Originally Posted by Mrsboyko

One thing i didn't realize was a symptom of allergies was her BM's. She would have constant watery BM's many times a day. We were seeing 8+ blowouts a day. No little cottage cheese curds at all, just water. Once the dairy was gone, she got normal BF poop! I was shocked.

She has had very watery poos with no seeds or any consistency to them. They were all often green. I knew that could have been an allergy or an oversupply issue. She also wasn't gaining well from 2-5wks of age. But I have been trying to resolve the oversupply issue for the past week (wks 5-6) and her poos are returning to normal BF poos and she is gaining more weight, within normal range.

Some of the signs of oversupply and allergies overlap. Looks like for us they were oversupply issues, but now we have this skin issue to look into.


Thanks everyone for the help, sharing your experiences, and the pictures!

[matey]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

TED is actually total elimination diet, and ED is just elimination diet.

Forgive me, I slipped

[changingseasons]

Originally Posted by matey

Forgive me, I slipped

You were really close though.

[matey]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

You were really close though.

[Chinese Pistache]

Beautiful babies all around!!

My kids have all had baby acne to some degree or other, but it was like DoulaMary said, little white heads around the "t-zone" area.

But, I do see some similarities between my ds and Matey's baby. My ds had a little crustiness between his eyes and in his eyebrows. I kept putting lotion on it thinking his skin was dry, but it never really went away. He was also my only child that had cradle cap. My allergic dd didn't have skin issues at all until she started on solids, so it was new to me. The thing that made me start eliminating more foods, though, was the combination of his skin with his green mucusy poops.

Originally Posted by laurabelle1317

She has had very watery poos with no seeds or any consistency to them. They were all often green. I knew that could have been an allergy or an oversupply issue. She also wasn't gaining well from 2-5wks of age. But I have been trying to resolve the oversupply issue for the past week (wks 5-6) and her poos are returning to normal BF poos and she is gaining more weight, within normal range.

Some of the signs of oversupply and allergies overlap. Looks like for us they were oversupply issues, but now we have this skin issue to look into.


Thanks everyone for the help, sharing your experiences, and the pictures!

I'll try to find the link, but there was a thread about this. It may not just be that the symptoms of oversupply and allergies are similar, but that they feed each other and are part of a similar root problem. http://www.mothering.com/discussions...pply+allergies and http://www.mothering.com/discussions...pply+allergies

[J2]

Well...my first dairy free experiment...for myself that is - I've experimented with other things for DS...anyway, my first dairy free experiment is dairy-free green bean casserole. We'll see how it turns out. I'm not getting my hopes up though!

I was going to make the green bean casserole for Thanksgiving dinner...but now I won't want to if I can't eat it anyway. And DH's family probably will not want a dairy free one if it doesn't taste the same as the traditional. Last year I made 2 new things and neither one turned out very well. This year, I need to make sure whatever I bring is good!

[kjbrown92]

Green beans with bacon and shallots. Really good. Really fresh tasting. And no dairy. (and easy too).