pizza face

If I had to go on the record and pick one of my favorite physical features about myself, I would no doubt say my skin. I have been blessed with no-fuss olive toned Italian skin. I have long been loathed by my friends for not having a nightly "skin regime" and still having clear skin. I remember in college at the end of the night when everyone would drunkenly wash their face and scrub the make-up off from the night uptown, I was likely in the other room still shoveling late night food in my mouth (maybe I should have been washing my face) or already passed out. This worked really well for me because when I got up the following morning I always looked like I had a fresh face of make-up on and was ready for brunch. I can't say that much has changed since then in terms of my skin care. Sure I will get the obligatory pre-period zit from time to time, but that's the worst of it. When I go to the make-up counter they are always stunned when I tell them I pretty much do nothing to my face.

So you can only imagine how upsetting it was when 2 years ago I had to buy clearasil for the first time... only it wasn't for me... it was for my cat. Yep, that was not a typo... Boomer had in fact gotten "feline acne." If you don't believe cats can get acne, look here. I happened to be petting the little guy one night and noticed that his chin was covered in what looked like blackheads. Horrified I started googling and determined that it looked like we had a case of feline acne on our hands. The following day the blackheads started to turn red and I decided it was time to go to the vet. The vet confirmed that Boomer in fact had acne and I needed to start scrubbing his chin 2x per day with facial cleanser and finish the job with some medicated wipe she prescribed. I was now officially spending more time cleaning my cats face than my own. This. Was. Sick. It was determined that he had gotten acne from rubbing his chin around the bottom of his plastic food dish while inhaling his food. After a few weeks of this new face cleaning (which he hated, I might add), and changing his food bowl to porcelain (nothing but the best for my Boom) it cleared up. Only my cat would get acne. I mean seriously....  (I could kill myself for deleting the photos of my phone from his acne, but it wasn't attractive)

Well this little issue seems to have reared it's ugly head again, only this time it's not the cat, but the THE BABY. I decided this this God's way of punishing me for all these easy breezy years of having an acne-free life myself - he decided payback is giving acne to everyone I take care of.  Awesome, not. Seriously, my poor baby boy has acne, and not just on his chin, but on his nose, cheeks, neck, back, chest, and even under his armpits. It's heartbreaking really. Apparently this is a very common thing in baby's and is caused by the surge of hormones that baby's get during the birthing process. Who knew? . I surely did not, and would have liked little warning to be able to mentally prepare myself for this prior to waking up to a 4 week old with pizza face.  It's also twice as common in baby boys versus girls. Anyway, I spoke with the pediatrician and she assured me that it will go away on it's own... but not to touch it and just wash and dry it daily. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to not order ProActive and start bathing him in it? Babies are supposed to have skin like budddah, and his is more like raw hide.

Here are some close up's of his face from the other day...

Honestly it doesn't look half as bad in these pictures as it does in person. I mean, it's B-A-D, bad. It actually looks decent in the pictures. Whatever, it's not. His poor neck and chest and everything! The good news is that he is completely unphased by it, it's only his mom who is freaking out. Regardless, please keep your fingers and toes crossed it goes away quickly!  "They" say it usually clears up in a few days, and is almost always gone by the time the baby is 8-10 weeks old. We're going on two weeks - please don't let it be 4 more.