12 replies to this topic

[happydaze22]

My 11 year old daughter has moderate to severe acne. Initially, the worst pimples were on her forehead, between her eyes and on her chin. Now she is also struggling with ALOT of blackheads/whiteheads on her cheeks (just on either side of her nose). She does not get cysts (yet).

The dermatologist started her off on Differin. After 8 weeks and no results, he switched her to .04% Retin A every other night with Duac every morning. After about 8 weeks of that, he told her to do the Retin A every night and convinced me to have her try microderm abrasion to clear up the blackheads and whiteheads and that the medicine would then keep them away. She begged me to try it... it had absolutely no affect except to make her skin too sensitive for me to put on the Retin A for like 3 days. After about 3 or 4 weeks of the Retin A .04 every night and Duac in the morning (with no results), he switched her to .1% Retin A micro every night with Duac in the morning. It's been about 3 weeks and still no consistent results. About 2 weeks ago, I added in mandelic acid 30 minutes after the nighttime face washing and at least 30 minutes before the Retin A. Today I also added a daily multi-vitamin and fish oil pills to her diet.

She never complains to me about her skin and I do not make it an issue but, she started middle school this year and I'm SURE that the condition of her skin bothers her. None of her friends even have a pimple let alone a whole faceful. I know she is growing weary of the face washing and applications with no apparent results. She been on some regimen or another for 5 months with no improvements and of course has had the boughts of horribly peeling and dry skin which I cannot put any moisterizer on because its so raw the moisturizer burns her. The pimples in the peeling areas are quickly replaced by new pimples, so she is NEVER pimple free, or even close to it.

I really don't want to put an 11yo on an oral medication. We never tried any of the over the counter stuff (i.e. proactive, etc). Am I missing something? Should I just keep encouraging her to stay the course? I feel so bad for her and I think she is so brave.

Any advice would be very appreciated.

Thank you!

[wishing2Bclear]

I'm really sorry. Don't try the over the counter stuff, it never worked for me, and it only made me more discouraged.

I'm 13, turned 13 on june 28th. I've had acne since I was 11. Ive only recently been cleared up. My new regemen has worked wonders, and while I have it up on my log, I thought I woulg give you my regemen, with every little detail, because maybe it will help.

Morning-
step 1.
wash with prascion and clarisonic. leave on while I brush my teeth. If I don't have any cleanser left, I mix ground-up oatmeal with manuka honey and use that. Pat face dry with a clean paper towel.

step 2.
rub moogoo MSM cream all over, even on my eyelids and lashes (helps my lashes grow).

(these are the steps for my makeup, I dont know if your daughter wears it, but it really helped me deal with going in public when my acne was at its worst)

step 3.
apply makeup forever HD primer all over my face, right when my moustirizer sinks in.

step 3.
mix maybelline 1 drop fitme foundation with a squirt of aveeno positively radiant moisterizer. apply to face with costco blush brush (my foundation brush broke haha). Let dry. take left over of that mixture and apply to undereye circles and blemishes with a concealer brush. keep in mind, this provides light coverage, I used much heavier coverage when my acne was at it's worst, but I hate looking fake, and your daughter may like just a little bit of coverage, which is what this does.

step 4.
take neutrogena skin clearing powder and apply lightly to forehead, nose, and chin, to take down shine.

step 5.
any eyemakeup.

To remove makeup-

step 1.
put a little bit of hemp oil on a paper towel, and place towel over eyes and remove eye makeup with it.

step 2.
mix ground up oatmeal with water, scrub face for a little while, wash off. the makeup should be gone. pat face dry with a clean paper towel.

Night time-
step 1.
wash face with prascion and clarisonic, leave on while I brush teeth, and remove my contacts. If im out of prascion ill use the oatmeal manuka honey mix.

step 2.
pat face dry with clean paper towel.

step 3.
apply a large pea sized amount equally over my face.

step 4.
a few minutes later, apply moogoo MSM cream.

step 5.
apply ground up oatmeal and water miz to any spots.

Theres my routine. it's gotton me clear. I wish your daughter luck, and to remember for a while me and my friend had a face full of acne, i mean everywhere, and on our backs and chest too, and we still got more guys than the majority of our clear-skinned friends. I bet your daughter's stunning, and if you want to raise her sefl-esteem, you could try getting her into sports if she doesnt already play, and making her hair as nice as possible (i have great tips on haircare, message me if you want them, having nice hair helped me when I had bad skin)

[happydaze22]

Thank you so much for all the GREAT advice!

I have been letting her wear a little eye makeup and it really makes her feel special. I've been afraid to let her wear any coverup because I thought it might make her skin WORSE but you've given me some great things to try. And I hadn't thought about the hair!

On the positive side, last weekend she got a little too much sun. This ALWAYS seems to improve her acne and, once again, it did. But since then, things have really looked alot better! I can still see all the blackheads but they aren't inflamed anymore. I stopped the mandelic acid because she said it burned. I think there's just too much going on with her skin right now so we're giving the mandelic a break. She's actually able to go to school with only some small pimples and mild redness. Most of the little pimples are on her forehead so they aren't screaming out like the ones on her cheeks were.
So the regimen looks like this:

Wash with gentle cleanser in the morning.
Wait 10 minutes
apply Duac.

Wash with gentle cleaner about 45 minutes before bed.
apply retin A .1% right at bedtime.

I'm thinking about switching to the .04% on her chin because it's ALWAYS dry, peeling and painful but still always has at least one big red pimple. We still have a bunch of the .04% left, since that was our second attempt (after differin).

We use Blue Lizard physical block sunblock (dermatologist approved) because regular sunblock burns the skin of my son and I. But now this sunblock is starting to burn her face. Not sure what to do about that since we live in South Florida and she plays sports... I tried another sunblock sample from the dermatologist, but that burned too. Anyone found a gentle sunblock that is non-comedonic?

Hopefully, the improvement wasn't only because of last weekend's sun exposure... maybe this medicine is FINALLY starting to work. I can DEFINITELY see the blackheads quite clearly now, so I'm hoping the next step is for those to continue to work their way out.

[unlovely2011]

i live in south fl too, so understand the need for sunblock. i use the neutrogena spf 35 sunblock for my face. it burns a little bit but it goes away in a few moments. i think that is just a result of having sensitive skin due to genetics, products, and overall roughness. in addition to my atralin/aczone regimen, i've found it surprisingly beneficial to simplify the things i do to my face. i no longer use a cleanser with any SA or BP, just a very pure neutrogena cleanser. & i don't always wash my face twice a day. i try to "listen" to my skin. if i wake up with a mildly greasy face, i won't wash it right away. i'll let my natural oils sit on my face for a while. if it's very noticeable i might just splash a little cool water on my face and then put just a little SPF moisturizer. i think it's important to remember that your skin wants to be clear and healthy (except in some severe cases where there is obviously some hormonal component), but sometimes the things we do to it make it harder for it to maintain that natural balance. i think it's best to be using only the gentlest cleansers on her young skin, ESPECIALLY if she just started with the tretinoin. it's not just going to get better, it's going to get worse first, but that's no reason to overly irritate her skin with additional chemicals and attention.

[Espinilla12]

Have you heard about Atralin gel. It's much more gentle on the skin. I have very sensative skin, and this is the only thing that has worked for me.

"ATRALIN™ (tretinoin) Gel 0.05% is
a prescription acne medication that is formulated with a combination of moisturizing ingredients that you won’t find in any other prescription acne treatment."

I also use CeraVe lotion and cleanser. Both are extra moiturizing. Sometimes I just use the lotion. They also carry lotion w/ sunblock.

Anyways look up the Atralin website.

Edited by Espinilla12, 16 September 2011 - 10:25 AM.

[happydaze22]

Lovely2011 and espinella: thanks for all the product names. I'm going to try the extra moisturizing wash and ask the derm about atralin at our next visit.

Today she's definitely worse than she was a week ago but better than she was a month ago. The acne seems to crop up in unchartered territory. For instance, she never had it on the sides of her face, so I don't apply any retin a there... now it's showing up there but the 'old places' look better than they did (but far from clear). So I'm applying the retin a to more and more of her face. The pimples have returned to the area between her eyes and the middle of her forehead. I don't really get it... Things were looking so good there... So we're back to the mandelic acid after nightly wash and thirty minutes before the retin a.

The blackheads are still there and now they're getting inflamed again, so her face is bumpy and red. Someone told me an aspirin paste might help because the medicine reduces the swelling. Maybe we'll have time for that tomorrow night.

I'm starting to think that 10 minutes in the sun might be the best solution...

[wishing2Bclear]

The sun helps my skin too, so it may be helping your daughters. Have you tried oatmeal? Using it sounds crazy, but it REALLY helps. You just grind some up, mix it with water, and use it as a mask. In fact, you may even be able to use it instead of your gentle cleanser... it's worth a shot.

[macconnolly]

I have just recently started to see a Derm and deal with my acne. She prescribed Aczone, and it has been amazing. I have been using it for a week. I totally agree with you that we need to listen to our skin! I don't wash my face on a regular basis, and I play football every day for 2 hours. I wash it usual in the shower, but when I wake up and when I go to bed, if I wash my face that much, plus use the Aczone, it just makes it red and VERY irritated, I think that you've got it totally figured out! I never had "Horrible" acne, but it certainly was noticeable!

There really isn't that I can add, but you really do have the right idea. BE GENTLE! I have sensitive skin, and it just get irritated!



Good luck!

[unlovely2011]

you really should not be spot treating with retin a. the directions say to use a pea sized amount spread over your whole face, following the directions is going to get the best results.

[happydaze22]

I'm pretty much putting it on her whole face now. I just wasn't putting it way over on the sides of her face bc there was nothing there. seemed like there wasn't a point to causing the red and peeling when she didn't ever have any blemishes in that area. But in the end , she never got the redness or peeling there... That happened predominantly on the cheeks and chin.
She got a little sun again today and looks a lot better. I think I'm going to try 10-20 min a day during non-peak hours.

[tothatesacne]

I'm sure you might have noticed this but it doesn't seem to have slicked that the Retin-A has done nothing then burned her face. The exact same thing happened to me. First of all, the Retin-A is harsh on the skin and being on the sun a lot while using it is a bigggg no no haha. It just FRY'S your face and i feel her pain, i remember how badly it burned!

here's a few things to try:
1. make her wash her face with cold water. if she's using hot water, it opens the pores and spreads the bacteria around her face which very well might be why it's spreading to new weird places. cold water seems less comfortable to wash with but after I got used to it I found it actually very refreshing.
2. use a moisturizer. you could even use one with sunscreen in it, so you get both those bases covered. But with the washing and the harshness of the retin-a... you definitely need to try and replace the moisture that you're stripping the face of.
3. Honestly... you might want to go back to the derm and ask to try her on an antibiotic. there's one's out there that have been known to cure her type of acne up with no problem.

When you think about it, would you rather be putting all these harsh chemicals and topicals all over her face for the next few years, that just end up burning it, and rarely even have been proved to help. or would you like to help her body give itself a little boost to fight away the acne, and allow her to wash and moisturize with the gentlest products and let her face be happy?

I've gone through all of this, and although my acne was worse.. i definitely wasn't nice to my skin with the billions of topicals and stuff i was using on my face. now i am on accutance as a last resort, but if I would have started antibiotics earlier in my fight against acne, who knows.. this might have been prevented!

i know i keep saying this but again... i don't reccomend retin- a at all. the burning and dryness and flakyness was totally not worth it since i never got clear and all i ended up with was an angry face.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER. if she doesn't realize it now, she will DEFINITELY appreciate all the stuff you're doing for her eventually (:

[MsAbbie]

Hi! Avene have supper-gentle sunscreens for oily skins. Also Elta MD have one spf46 with niacinamide (one form of Vitamin B3=assists to improve skin microcirculation) adequate to oily and acneic skin. Both available is Dermstore.com
Consider on putting her on VitBcomplex + vitamin C (Nature's gate, Solaray, etc) for minimizing inflammations on her skin (It totally worked for me!).

About water, I agree with tothatesacne, always lukewarm to cold water. Avoid vapour when she is in the middle of a breakout.

Nourish her: avoid pork and processed food like dounughts, McDonald's, Pizzahut that agravate acne

[travelzd]

first I want to say that you sound like a sweet parent.
I wanted to say that duac plus retin-a worked miracles for me so maybe just give it time?(and don't do anything but this) Also it sounds like you are changing things around alot maybe pick something and stick with it, no matter the results for 2 solid months ( I no it is hard I am presently struggling with the switch around method also but i think consistant treatment is a must)
I use purpose which is moisturizer plus spf oil free derm gave to me.
A dermatologist also reccomended bare minerals make up , it has spf, and is supposed to not effect skin negatively she could wear it in the mean time to get through this and it will look like she is not wearing make up (it is a powder)
and I also agree with the previous post that some antibiotics or birth control pills might be better than all of this, if she is responding so poorly, or maybe get a second opinion from another derm?