My five week old son started getting red spots on his face at about 3.5 weeks I just figured it was baby acne and would get better so I did what the books said and left it alone minus washing it with plain water once a day. Well it's still here and now it feels VERY rough his poor little face feels like sand paper and it's flaky. Which all sounds like eczema but he doesn't seem to itching it. I am at my wits end as to what to do. I have started putting some aveeno baby lotion on it about twice a day but his skin still feels aweful. This is my 4th child and I've never had problems like this before. Any advice on how to treat it? he has his well baby check up next Monday and it doesn't seem to bother him it just bothers me because his face looks so bad and dry and it feels so rough.
I should mention his legs and arms are totally clear. The spots go to about his nipple line on his front and back.
It could be a reaction to something he is touching/clothing. What type of detergent are you using.
My daughter devleoped baby acne on her face and neck at 4-5weeks. I found that Aveeno Calming lotion worked best and mostly overnight. She only needed it for a few days before she had cleared up.
Both my son and my niece had a similar reaction that turned out to be a dairy allergy!
If you are nursing, cut the dairy from your diet. If you are formula feeding, switch to nutramigen or another formula specifically for babies who are not tolerant of cow's milk.
Also, stop with the Aveeno. I haven't seen a full list of Aveeno active and inactive ingredients, but I'm convinced it has some form of casein (the protein in milk) in it, because it aggravated my babies dairy allergy skin issues instead of helping.
If dairy is the problem, it should start looking better within a week of switching.
If I had to guess I would say it is either dairy related or laundry related.
My son also had this and it covered his entire body plus his little head. It was awful! It was also related to dairy. It took me about two months to figure it out and I switched him to soy formula (I was previously pumping and supplementing with regular formula) His problems immediately started clearing up (although with dairy intolerances it could take up to a month or so to completely be free of symptoms) and it made all the difference. He now is able to drink and eat dairy products but when his eczema is really bad I try and cut it down a bit.
Get a Rx steroid cream to use a couple times a day. Other than that I really like Aquaphor but it's pretty greasy so I usually only put it on at night. I use all free and clear type soaps and shampoos, for the most part and even at 3 I still don't use any sort of fragrance lotion on him.
My daughter on the other hand, had similar symptoms and it was directly related to fabric softener. I never put it in her laundry but I did put it in ours and even when we would just hold her or she'd lay on a blanket or something she would break out. I stopped putting it in anyone's laundry and her skin cleared right up. I still don't use it any of our laundry and you know what, I don't notice a huge difference. I will say that I do miss that "fresh" smell that it gives but I don't feel it did much for any other thing. I use vinegar in all my wash loads and that helps.
If it's eczema, and it sounds like it is, lotion & hydrocortisone (1%).
Call the pediatrician, Could be roseola or eczema. He'd know best.
