I searched this forum and can't believe there's nothing about acne here! I could really use some feedback from those of you who either had acne as a teen yourself or have successfully outsmarted acne with your teen. Please tell me what you used.
My dd is 13 and has had increasingly severe acne on her face, chest and back starting at about age 10. We are natural/alternative health people, so we first tried homeopathy, which has been so effective for our whole family for many issues. It didn't help at all. We tried some dietary changes, nothing. Actually, it began to get worse. She washes well with benzoyl peroxide, which is supposed to be best for killing acne bacteria, although we've tried many kinds of natural and non-natural wash alternatives.
So I took her to a dermatologist who recommended she try a course of antibiotics, which I was really against, as she'd been on antibiotics only once in her life up til this point and that was for whooping cough. I'd been so careful about medicines, but I didn't feel there was a good alternative, so she went on minocycline (combined with a topical medicine as well). After 6 months, there is no real change, so the doc wanted to try a sulpha antibiotic. On the very next day, a friend of dh posted a photo of his baby with something called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, caused by...you guessed it: sulpha antibiotics. This can be FATAL, even when you stop the meds.
So now we're at the Big Guns if we want to keep treating the acne and hopefully make it go away. Dh took Accutane as a teen, experienced no serious side effects and has been acne-free for something like 28 years. But I just got online today and read the side effects and they are staggering...Crohn's disease...etc. Again, these are some side effects that do not disappear when you stop taking the meds, they can cause lifelong problems. Even severe acne doesn't seem worth risking lifelong medical issues.
What do you all think? What's your experience?
My dd is 13 and has had increasingly severe acne on her face, chest and back starting at about age 10. We are natural/alternative health people, so we first tried homeopathy, which has been so effective for our whole family for many issues. It didn't help at all. We tried some dietary changes, nothing. Actually, it began to get worse. She washes well with benzoyl peroxide, which is supposed to be best for killing acne bacteria, although we've tried many kinds of natural and non-natural wash alternatives.
So I took her to a dermatologist who recommended she try a course of antibiotics, which I was really against, as she'd been on antibiotics only once in her life up til this point and that was for whooping cough. I'd been so careful about medicines, but I didn't feel there was a good alternative, so she went on minocycline (combined with a topical medicine as well). After 6 months, there is no real change, so the doc wanted to try a sulpha antibiotic. On the very next day, a friend of dh posted a photo of his baby with something called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, caused by...you guessed it: sulpha antibiotics. This can be FATAL, even when you stop the meds.
So now we're at the Big Guns if we want to keep treating the acne and hopefully make it go away. Dh took Accutane as a teen, experienced no serious side effects and has been acne-free for something like 28 years. But I just got online today and read the side effects and they are staggering...Crohn's disease...etc. Again, these are some side effects that do not disappear when you stop taking the meds, they can cause lifelong problems. Even severe acne doesn't seem worth risking lifelong medical issues.
What do you all think? What's your experience?