How can you tell a newborn acne from heat spots?

Like newborn acne, heat pimples in babies are a harmless skin condition. Especially in hot weather, high humidity or too warm clothes, these pimples typically appear on skin areas that are under a lot of stress. While newborn acne appears on the face and head in the first weeks of life, heat spots appear on the neck, under the arms, in skin folds or in the diaper area.

They can appear all through life. The reason for heat spots is that the pores of the skin are still very small and can therefore clog up more quickly than those of adults. Learn here what you can do against heat spots?

How can one distinguish a newborn acne from an allergy?

First and foremost, in the case of an allergy it is always important to observe when the rash occurs, what the overall condition of the child is like and to consider what changes can lead to an allergic reaction. Has a new detergent or care product been used? Before you touched the child, did you touch a particular item that left traces on the hands?

Allergic reactions on the skin are often manifested by very itchy skin symptoms. These can be spread over the whole body. The newborn acne occurs preferably in the places where the sebaceous glands are most numerous – such as the face.

Therapy

Since neonatal acne usually heals on its own within the first 3-6 months of life without any consequences, a therapy is actually not necessary. In order to support the healing process, care should be taken that no baby creams, oils or lotions are used, but that the affected skin areas of the newborn are simply cleaned with mild soaps and then kept dry without excessive irritation. The fragrances often contained in conventional baby creams can sometimes have a skin-irritating and allergic effect.

In addition, care should be taken to ensure that the little ones do not scratch the possibly itchy skin areas, as this can, in the worst case, lead to inflammation and infection, which makes it difficult for the newborn acne to heal quickly and without consequences.Also the squeezing out of the little pimples by the parents should be strictly avoided, as this can also lead to inflammations or infections. Furthermore, dabbing the affected areas with chamomile solutions or breast milk can be tried. A thorough cleaning of the affected areas is highly recommended.

Any manipulation of the pustules and comedones should be avoided in order to avoid creating an entry port for infections.

In neonatal acne, no further treatment with creams is usually necessary. Neither itching nor scars occur.
The newborn acne therefore heals by itself.
In contrast to this is the infant acne (Acne infantum), which occurs around the first year of life. Since scars can remain with this later childlike form of acne, creams are used for prevention. These contain so-called keratolytics (horny solvents) such as benzoyl peroxide or azelaic acid.
Sometimes an antibiotic addition to the cream is necessary. Erythromycin or clindamycin is usually used here. Creams in this form are only necessary in the case of newborn acne in very severe cases, which occur very rarely.

In order to prevent the newborn acne from worsening, care can be taken to ensure that the affected areas are always nice and dry. It is therefore also not advisable to expose the affected areas to constant irritation with moisturizers.

Dabbing the affected skin areas with breast milk is one of the alternative remedies – the effect lies in the anti-inflammatory and antibacterial ingredients of breast milk, which can support the healing of newborn acne. Other homeopathic remedies that can be used are the Schüssler salts potassium bromatum and calcium carbonicum or calendula-based ointments and pure, virgin olive oil.