Bridging the Big Pond: Infant skin conditions (and her first tutu)

Over a week ago (perhaps almost two weeks ago now, so hard to tell as time really flies by), Emma started to develop some baby acne. It started across her forehead and maybe there was some around her chin too. We read up about it and learned that it's totally normal, painless, and that there really isn't any treatment other than gently keeping the face clean. Otherwise, it is supposed to go away on its own, sometimes taking up to a few months! So I made sure to gently wash her face daily with a wet washcloth, using no soap or lotions on her face (not that I had used lotions before), as lotions could make it worse by further blocking her pores.

Then it continued to get worse and even spread around her neck and ears too. John started to joke and call her our little lepper (not really *that* funny), and it started to look very dry. I wanted to use lotions, but thinking it was still acne didn't think that was wise. This past weekend it got so bad that her chin started having a lot of large crusty bits that looked a yellowish hue, and the red bumps around her mouth and on her chin appeared more flat than the acne bumps had once looked. I started to wonder if she was getting some eczema.

You can see some patches of the rash in the redness on her forehead and around her mouth in these photos. She's all dressed up for family photos we had taken this past weekend, so I hope the rash doesn't show up in those pictures!

As I read up about eczema I saw that most sites recommended calling the doctor if yellowish crusts started forming on the rash (a sign of possible infection), and I was at a point yesterday where I wanted to call anyway because I was beginning to think this once painless acne "rash" was now looking awfully painful so I wanted to know if there was some treatment we could do.

Sure enough, after taking her into the doctor yesterday afternoon, she did have an infection. They call it impetigo. It's fairly common in infants and young children, highly contagious, and also quite itchy and painful. That would explain why as I was getting her dressed after her exam and I accidentally brushed my finger on her chin as I snapped that top snap of her sleeper she started to cry harder than I've ever seen her cry. :( She turned bright red and stopped breathing for a moment, just as babies tend to do after getting a shot! Then she continued to cry so hard with real tears building in her eyes and dripping down her cheeks, even as I tried to calm her and rock her. I finally decided to nurse her to see if that would help relax her. Poor thing!

Now she's on an antibiotic for the next 10 days to help her get over this infection. We're making sure all of her bedding and Evan's too is washed and we're not letting Evan touch her, at least for this first 24 hours of antibiotic treatment when she's still contagious.

How'd she get this you ask? Well, the doctor thinks that her acne rash may have weakened her skin's natural barriers to protect herself from normal bacteria that are on our skin, and so then the bacteria were able to start an infection. He did not think it was caused by diet, allergens, or anything we might have done/not done...it's just more one of those things that can happen with an infant. (sigh)

In the meantime, though, we are going to stop using bath wash (just do water baths) and are switching to use only Eucerin lotion. While we had already only been using sensitive skin wash (Aveeno) and lotion (Johnson's natural lotion), I guess it might not be sensitive enough. However, this is just as a precaution in case the soap or lotion was the cause of the initial rash and/or could make the current rash worse. Plus, after this rash starts to get better, we need to make sure her skin stays moisturized (even on her face) since dryness can also lead to more rashes/eczema or weakened skin barriers that could then lead to another infection. Supposedly Eucerin lotion is a very thin and mild lotion just for this purpose.

Anyway, so Emma went from having acne, to possibly eczema, to definitely having impetigo. I just hope this all clears up soon so her face can be smooth and soft like it was when she was a newborn, because I miss kissing her cute and chubby cheeks! Speaking of chubby, at just 7.5 weeks old she weighed 12 lbs 2 oz at her appointment yesterday! Granted she was weighed with her sleeper and diaper on (we'll have a more official weigh in at her 2 month check up later next week), but that puts her in the 83rd percentile and would also be why everyone who sees her says she's a healthy looking and/or chubby baby! She's already about to outgrow some of her 0-3 month clothes!