# Severe baby acne = dairy allergy?



## ATD_Mom

DS developed baby acne before his two-week birthday, and it rapidly got worse (and worse). The poor guy is covered - the pimples are right next to one another, covering his entire face and head - all over under his hair, and even has some on his neck and shoulders. He has huge white heads, black heads, just red bumps - all of 'em!

Everyone keeps telling me it's normal - but I just have a _feeling_ there's something else going on, because I've never seen such a bad case before.

In my edition (probably ten years old) of Dr. Sears' The Baby Book, he mentions that their seventh child had early-onset acne that extended far past the face, and he turned out to be allergic to dairy in Martha's diet.

I'm going to remove cow's milk products from my diet, just to be certain. (It's going to be so very difficult. We have a stand-up freezer literally full of food I made for us, and every single container has some kind of dairy in it - mostly cheese or butter.)

I'm just wondering if any of you have ever heard of such a thing? He isn't colicky at all, no other such symptoms. Just wicked bad baby acne.


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## lucyem

My DS screamed non stop for 3 months until we were able to eliminate everything he reacted to. He also had eczema until the dairy was cut out. Eczema like a rash, but not like acne. In my case I could not drink milk or have cheese. But I could eat things like muffins made with dairy.

My older son was diagnosed as allergic to dairy at age 5. We have had to cut it out of his food completely. Its not so hard when you get the hang of it. Rice milk works well for us in cooking and Smart Balance makes a vegan butter substitute which is actually quite good (and I am picky).

Another thought is to take a good look at the soaps you are using and moistuizer. Whenever my kids got actual acne it was usually a result of a soap not being totally washed off or lack of a moisturizer.


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## mclisa

You might consider taking him in just to confirm it is only baby acne.


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## ATD_Mom

I would gladly run him into the doc this very minute if I was sure I wasn't just a crazy first-time mama of a three-week-old. Is this what baby acne normally looks like?

http://www.kgspottery.com/October_2007/09/acne_01.jpg

http://www.kgspottery.com/October_2007/09/acne_02.jpg


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## janiecakes

My son had very persistent, worse-than-usual baby acne which didn't clear up until I cut out dairy when he was around 10 weeks old. It wasn't as severe as the pictures posted, but it was pretty bad.


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## MilkbarMom

Are you on birth control of any kind? With my first, the dr. scared me into taking birth control, and my beautiful skinned baby developed baby acne just like your little one in a couple of days. When I went off the pill, the acne went away. Just a thought.

But if not, I do think it must be something in your diet.

I hope you figure it out


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## ATD_Mom

Okay, so I'm not crazy - either on the "this is a quite bad case" thing, or the notion that dairy could cause it. This makes me feel better. But not really, of course, because ... the poor little thing!

janiecakes - Did you have to cut out _all_ dairy? Including cooked butter and milk, etc.?

MilkbarMom - Not on the pill. I take a children's chewable multivitamin, calcium, probiotics, and fish oil. But nothing else.


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## Ashersmum

My baby's skin looked the exact same way up until about week 7. It has now cleared up and he is fine. I would say if he's not showing any signs of fussiness and only has the acne (not a rash) I would just keep an eye on it. It will probably go away within a few weeks







Both my boys had severe baby acne but now they have beautiful skin!


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## wild_reilly

My babe had severe acne (not quite as bad as yours) as well as a few other things (major diaper rash, green poop, etc.). It all cleared up when I went off dairy.

One thing to keep in mind - acne only makes you feel uncomfortable - it doesn't hurt your baby at all. With my little guy, he had a miserable diaper rash (i.e., it looked like I sat him on a stove burner) in addition to the acne. When I finally figured out dairy as a possibility, I eliminated it completely - anything with any type of dairy in it at all. Pain and discomfort on your baby's part would make me more likely to be strict with removing stuff from my diet. In your case, I would try seriously reducing your dairy, but I wouldn't worry about avoiding the stuff with a bit of butter in it... Just my opinion!

Good luck, mama!


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## crwilson

DD also had pretty severe baby acne, and I too thought that it might be dairy. However, I cut out all dairy (which was very difficult for my cheese-loving self), and it did nothing. It ended up going away on its own after a couple of months. She still has pretty sensitive skin and I found that unless we use all unscented detergents, unscented lotions/soaps, etc. she still has problems. Not just on her, btw, on me too. No yummy smelling lotions, bubbles, or soap for mama right now. You can always try putting a little bit of breastmilk on it too just to try to clear it up a bit.


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## janiecakes

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ATD_Mom* 

janiecakes - Did you have to cut out _all_ dairy? Including cooked butter and milk, etc.?

I did - but a lot of mums find they can keep eating the hidden dairy without problems. I think my little guy may be growing out of it now, because I ate a cookie made with butter by accident over the weekend (it was right beside my non-dairy cookies) and so far he hasn't had any reaction. I'm going to try eating some cheese this week and see what happens.

You could always wait a while longer to see if it clears up on its own. If you decide to cut out dairy, it may take a couple of weeks before you see any change in your baby's skin (if dairy turns out to be the culprit).

Good luck and congrats on the new baby!


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## prairiemommy

I cut out all obvious dairy at 7 weeks due to DS3 screaming. That got better within days but he still had "baby acne" all over his body - including his legs and feet. The sores weren't as large as your DS's but there was more of them, it was more like a carpet of bumps (more like eczema I think).

At any rate, a few weeks later I cut out all the hidden dairy as well and his rash cleared up and hasn't come back since.

I think cutting out dairy is worth a shot - the worst that can happen is no improvement, right? Remember it takes up to three weeks for dairy to clear out of your system completely.

Good luck!


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## wanderinggypsy

Well, it really does look like just a fairly severe case of baby acne to me. It is reassuring to me to see that his overall skin tone is nice and rosy, and that he is obviously bright eyed and plump, as a baby his age should be. However I must say that if your intuition is saying this is something more than baby acne, then you really should go in to see a doctor.

good luck. And btw, that's a little cutie you have there - congrats!!!


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## meggles

My dd had acne like your ds- it came on when she was about 3 weeks old and stayed for 4-6 weeks. It was pretty annoying and I wondered if she'd ever get her perfect skin back, but she did. It went away gradually.

She was also super sensitive to any dairy at all in my bm. She has severe gas issues, so I cut out ALL dairy until she was about 6 months old. She tolerates it fine now. There very well could be a dairy/acne connection here for you. I'd recommend trying to stay away from dairy, even if that means calling on others to cook meals for you, or eating very plainly (i.e. chicken or tofu w/ veggies, etc.)

Don't fre too much--it WILL go away. It just takes awhile. Beautiful babe, btw.


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## mtn.mama

I've had to cut out even trace amounts of cow dairy. Goat milk works fine for us though. The acne was the first thing to get my attention, but the symptoms progressed to eczema, rash, fussy, and pink in the poopy dipes. Turns out she can't have any wheat either.


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## PudnHead

My DD (now 4 months old) had really bad baby acne. Her first pimple starting showing up around 2 weeks (it looked similar to your pictures). It started on her face and got worse and worse. It even spread to her shoulders and chest. I suspected something more than baby acne was going on so I took her to the ped around 4 weeks old. He said it was an allergy.

I know you said that your DS was not colicky, but DD was starting to get colicky too (that was around the 3rd and 4th week so maybe you haven't hit it yet). I was already suspecting milk & dairy allergies because my ds was allergic to milk and eggs and his was very colicky, but I didn't think the baby acne was due to allergies. I read a lot about allergy symptoms in babies but never realized that her "baby acne" was a symptom.

It took a week or two, but her face and body did clear up. I had to take all milk and eggs out of my diet, even the hidden ones. I accidently ate some mayo on a sandwich once (it was only like 1 tsp) and she got really colicky for a couple of days.

Good luck & hope it clears up.


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## wild_reilly

One other thing I forgot to mention in my post... with most babies it is a protein in the dairy they are sensitive to (not lactose, which is what a lot of people assume). The protein takes 1-1.5 weeks to get out of your system, then another 1-1.5 weeks to get out of theirs. So you have to take it out of your diet for 3 weeks before you can really judge whether it's made a difference or not... it took between 2 and 2.5 weeks for things to work themselves out for us after I stopped eating dairy.


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## becoming

My baby's skin was as bad or worse than your baby's until about 6 weeks of age, then it completely cleared up. Now he has days where he'll get a little bit of a rash on his face/neck, but not nearly as bad as it was in the early days. Our doc said it was contact allergy, probably from someone's perfume or laundry detergent on their clothes.


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## katsam

My little girl's face looked about like that for three weeks. It started at week three and went to about 5.5 weeks. There was a little bit on her shoulder's too. I didn't cut out anything, but I might have if it persisted.


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## eastmillcreekmama

My DD had acne that bad or worse. I didn't change my diet and it did eventually go away, I didn't like it and I have a family history of cystic acne, so I was a little worried, but it did eventually clear. You can try eliminating dairy or other things, and it may help, but it may not either! You be the judge and try it out...
good luck


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## Mere

Ds developed bad acne when he started drinking some cows milk around 14-15 months. His acne was mainly all over his cheeks, arms and legs, but it looked like your son's. Like your son, the acne/rash didn't bother ds at all, it just looked bad. Anyhow, dairy was indeed the culprit; we eliminated it and the bumps went away. He's back on dairy now and the rash is back a little bit, but not nearly as bad so he must be outgrowing it. He loves yogurt and kefir so much and eats so little that I'm willing to overlook a few bumps!

Another thing that helps tremendously is a daily dose of cod liver oil. If I forget to give it to him for a few days I can really tell. You might try taking it yourself to see if it helps your ds!


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## thepeach80

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...0/Stuff004.jpg

There's Evan. I was already dairy free by this time (started at his birth), this was soy induced. Turned out later he was soy allergic and intolerant to just about everything under the sun, but he's better now.


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## ATD_Mom

Well, the green-tinged but still yellowish poops have started. Also - he is a very cranky boy at night, and I have been attributing it to gas all along. The dairy thing just seems to be the answer to me.

Yesterday I snuck a cookie - I just wasn't convinced dairy avoidance was necessary. But today I'm convinced, and have officially gone off the dairy. I should've waited one more day ... to have chocolate cake on my b-day tomorrow! Ah well.

Here's hoping my boy is much, much healthier about four weeks from today.

Thank you so much for all of your posts, photos, advice - I heart this place!


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## PudnHead

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ATD_Mom* 
I should've waited one more day ... to have chocolate cake on my b-day tomorrow! Ah well.

Happy belated birthday. Well this is late, but I just wanted to let you know that Cherrybrook Kitchens makes cake mixes and other treats that are dairy free. I have found them at my Krogers (I don't know if you have one where you live). I made the chocolate cake and it is as good, if not better than most box mixes. Here is a link to the Cherrybrook Kitchen website: http://www.cherrybrookkitchen.com/.

Also, one of the icings in the can are milk free. I think it is Pillsbury, but I don't remember.


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## PPK

This is a bit late, but if your baby is allergic to dairy or another food via breastmilk, is the rash/acne only limited to the face and upper shoulders/chest? I thought, (I could be forgetting) that Dr Sears says it would be a full body rash.

Ds got acne from week 2-5, but not as bad as yours...he got some on his upper chest and back too. He was also extremely colicky and gassy around that time, but I hear that's very normal for that age while their dig. system adapts, he' s 8 weeks now and not very gassy at all anymore. I didn't cut anything from my diet. He got green poo around 2 weeks too, block feeding helped within a day or two. good luck to you both!


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## thepeach80

It does not have to be a full body rash for it to be an allergy, it's actually rare to have a full body rash short of actual hives.

We use Duncan Hines chocolate cake as it's dairy free (check the box, I think some stores still have old batches that aren't) and Pillsbury chocolate frosting. Oreos are o.k. too.


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## ATD_Mom

Thanks so much for the cake advise! I actually found a recipe at epicurious for "Wacky Cake" - no milk or butter. It was yummy! It tasted exactly like an EZ-Bake cake. I didn't even know I remembered eating those until I bit into it. Isn't it amazing what smells/tastes will do to trigger a memory? It must have been about 1982 or so when I last had an EZ-Bake cake!

I showed my dad (a pharmacist) the photos of DS's acne, and now he's all worried about him. Geesh - should've kept those to myself! I am learning to get over the loss of the food stash in my freezer and eat my toast w/o butter. I'm very much hoping this is simply a bad case of acne, not caused by anything in my diet, but had to do this elimination thing, just in case.

And thank you so much for the block-feeding tip. A friend of mine from LLL told me the same thing yesterday. She said green poops can be caused by too much foremilk, not enough hindmilk. Which is logical to me, because in the past week he's been doing little 10-minute nursing sessions instead of the 30-to-40-minute ones of the first 3 weeks. Yesterday I started keeping him at the same breast for three 10-minute sessions in a row.

No changes in the green poops yet. Actually, they're also accompanied by a lot of clear liquid, though, which makes me still worry it's diarrhea ...

Crikey. I hope I'm not a worry-wart hypochondriac mama for the entirety of his kiddom.


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## Cersha

My LO has ance JUST like that, only not as severe....my ped suggested that I go dairy free, since she believed it was probably as dairy sensitivy since it came SO early...mine wasn't even two weeks yet. After I cut out dairy, it went away.









Oh, and, for ME, block feeding made the green poops WORSE. I tried block feeding for a while, because I THOUGHT that I had overactive letdown, but the green poops just persisted. I switched back to switching breasts for each feeding, and he has super yellow poops now. Go figure. Somehow my babe got MORE foremilk when I was blockfeeding.

ETA: Sorry, I didn't totally read your post. If my LO was only nursing a little bit on each side, I might keep him on the same as well....but, some babies are VERY efficent at draining the breast quickly. My LO just keeps get faster at it.
Good luck with the elimation and the poopies.









BTW, when he gets to be about six months, you can try to reintroduce dairy into your diet...his intestines will be more mature then.


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## Kindermama

I highly suggest taking him to a homeopath. It will help. It's been my understanding it's from your hormones that crossed over in the placenta. Some babies bodies can handle it, others can't and it takes some time.


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## babygirlmelly

not sure if someone suggested to put calendula cream on the acne. my dd had a mild case and improved dramatically. i use it for everything, any boo boos, diaper rash, teething rash. it's a miracle cream
hth


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## ATD_Mom

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone finds it in a search.

I have been completely off dairy for two weeks now, and am happy to say DS looks a thousand times better. Now he just has regular hormone-induced baby acne.

http://www.kgspottery.com/October_2007/21/15.jpg

And he is no longer fussy at night from being obviously in pain with gas. Phew!

I'm going to attempt to re-introduce little bits of dairy - well, at least cooked butter - in a couple weeks. But for now we're happily sticking with the olive oil.


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## Tilia

That is a good update! Just wanted to add that my DDs baby acne went away at 4 weeks after I switched laundry detergents to Dreft. She can't even handle Charlie's. When she was a couple weeks old, she started getting acne on her cheeks. It cleared up once I rewashed everything.


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## mtn.mama

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ATD_Mom* 
I'm going to attempt to re-introduce little bits of dairy - well, at least cooked butter - in a couple weeks. But for now we're happily sticking with the olive oil.


Hooray!!!! Nice job mama.... we've been off cow dairy for a couple of months now (although we also had to eliminate wheat and sugar for real success). We're able to have goat dairy and recently have been able to add in organic cow yogurt and organic cow sour cream both with live cultures. But no cheese or ice cream or butter or milk yet. I'm very very careful not to restart the problem by getting in a hurry with this. I want her body to forget that it is sensitive to cow dairy (and wheat and sugar) so that she doesn't end up with lifelong sensitivities.


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## msfidget

my ds also had terrible acne at that age. and i was also *convinced* it was something more than just acne. i cut out dairy for other reasons...he was very fussy and the doc suggested he might be dairy sensitive. and his acne eventually cleared up. i don't know if it was the dairy, or if it would have gone away on it's own. but one thing i'm certain...ds never has diaper rash if i'm not eating dairy, but as soon as i start eating it again, his diaper rash comes back.


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