Four weeks after bringing my beautiful Summer Rae home from the hospital, she developed baby acne. I remained calm, at least not initially. I proudly donned the confidence of my second-time mom status like a sharp mink coat. “Baby acne is common,” “Baby acne generally clears on its own,” and “It’s a lot worse than it looks,” I said to myself over and over.
As a first-time mom, I freaked out over baby acne and it cleared before it even developed into anything, so I told myself I was doing the right thing but just chilling out, washing Summer’s face with a warm washcloth and moisturizing it each day. For the next few days, I started each day by scanning my baby’s face, expecting to discover that overnight, the acne had quietly dissipated like a spring rainshower seamlessly replaced by blue skies and and brightly shining sun. That didn’t happen. Instead, things got progressively worse and the acne began to scab and cradle cap-like flakes began forming on her scalp. And, end scene because, at that point, I could no longer play the role of the calm, cool, and collected second-time mom. I frantically emailed our pediatrician with photos, detailing all that had transpired.
Summer was experiencing a skin condition called seborrheic dermatitis or seborrheic eczema – “Seborrheic dermatitis is a common chronic inflammatory skin condition, characterized by scaling and poorly defined erythematous patches.,” according to the National Library of Medicine. Some, including our amazing pediatrician, postulate that there is a link between the presence of Malassezia yeasts on the skin and seborrheic dermatitis. Thus as a form of treatment, we were advised to treat the affected areas with cortisone. I did as directed and applied the ointment. It did a great job of stopping the flare-ups that were forming, but for the scabs that already existed, when they fell off, they were replaced by large, discolored blotches. The spots were so dramatically hypopigmented. It appeared as though my infant had lost all melanin in the affected areas.
I was completely devastated. Night after night, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, choked with worry. I scoured the internet, reading everything I could find about skin discoloration and hypopigmentation in babies. I began to spiral into despair, which was heightened by a heavy cloak of postpartum anxiety that had me in a chokehold since my daughter’s first newborn wellness visit. Every morning, I woke up frantically and searched my baby girl’s face for signs that her melanin was returning. Y’all, it was not. However, what I did notice was that at the first sign of any irritation, if I immediately began applying cortisone, the irritation did not escalate to the point of discoloration. So I was able to stop the new blotches from evolving into discolored patches, but the old ones were still stark white. I was overcome with immense guilt because I began to feel that had I reached out sooner, my baby would not be dealing with such a dramatic skin condition.
Our pediatrician reassured me that the color would return to Summer’s skin within a few months. But I couldn’t shake my angst over the entire ordeal. I knew my baby girl was still beautiful but I was heartbroken. I felt that I had failed her. I was highly protective of her when we were in public or around relatives who hadn’t met her yet. One day while I was out to lunch with both of my daughters, a little girl loudly commented to her mother about the “brown stuff” on my daughter’s face. Under normal circumstances, I don’t think I would have taken it so personally, but I wanted to burst into tears in the middle of the restaurant.
Despite being told that her color would return, I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that it would not. I played mini-movies about my baby starting school and being picked on or “othered” because of her appearance.
Eventually, I did seek out a second opinion from our family’s longtime pediatrician. She comforted me and explained that the issue was due to an overproduction of yeast on babies’ skin and prescribed ketoconazole to help prevent future flair-ups so that we could stop the cycle of irritation followed by discoloration.
After a couple of months, Summer’s hypopigmentation began to fade and now you can barely tell that she ever experienced discoloration at all. However, those months of uncertainty were brutal, to put it lightly.
I recognize that the world of dermatology has a long way to go when it comes to studying, treating, and diagnosing the way that certain skin conditions manifest on African-American skin. So I guess my purpose for sharing my story is two-fold:
- This is the sort of first-hand account that would have given me comfort when I was experiencing this with my baby.
- I’d like to also share these images so that worried parents may be able to compare them to skin issues that they may be experiencing with their newborns.
