thank you everybody for your concern! And Sophia thanks you too! I told her that we had to take a minute during naptime this morning to report to all her fans on LIWeddings!
Well, I am glad I trusted my gut. This is a feeling I am growing accustomed to by the way! The trust your gut feeling. I saw a great doctor in my practice (MUCH better than the woman I saw the other day) - this guy looked just like Bill Clinton which was a riot. He was wonderful, and really looked at all the notes on the baby that my regular doctor has taken.
He said she has severe infant acne and agreed that it looked God-awful. He said what is terrible is that the reason it looks so bad is because it's bothering her. And that is why she's rubbing her cheeks against people's shirts and knocking her hands around it. So those actions have turned it all this deep blood red and caused it to dry up and get awful. (the actual acne is not bad it's just like little pimples, but the irritated area is the 'mask looking' part.) He gave me a prescription for 1% hyrdocortisone, which I actually just got over the counter (Aveeno) and he said this will relieve the itch, or burning or whatevever it is that she's feeling. She'll stop bothering it and the redness will go away.
A few facts I learned!:
Infant acne has nothing to do with breastfeeding - you are not passing hormones to the baby. It is the hormones from the pregnancy, from you, that are making their way out. It can last for months...but some days will be better than others.
You can use baby soap, (aveeno wash and lotion is totally fine) just sparingly and no rubbing. Things like aveeno as they are oat based will relieve some of the symptoms the baby feels.
An allergy to something will show up on other areas of the body as well. So an allergy to formula for example would show patches or rashes on the chest, back, ankles, etc.
Eczema will also show patches elsewhere and is most common in babies whose parents or grandparents have eczema.
Cradle cap comes along with infant acne a lot of the time.
Infant acne is not a pre-cursor to adult or teenage acne.
It will not scar unless it becomes terribly severe and the baby can actually pick at it with her nails. In that case you go to a dermatologist to clear it up.
Starts at right about 6 weeks. Mild cases clear in around 2-3 weeks. Cases like Sophia's are known to hang around for a couple of months.
All in all I feel MUCH better. I used the cream, and will continue and hopefully it will start clearing up. I learned a couple of other things that I'll put in separate posts. THANKS FOR YOUR CONCERNS!!!!
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