There are many white spots on the baby's face

There is no need to worry if your baby has a lot of white spots on his face, because this is likely a symptom of miliary rash, which is commonly known as prickly heat. In the summer, or when you are in a hot and humid environment for a long time, it is normal to get prickly heat. This skin problem does not require medical treatment. Parents only need to do a good job of hygiene and skin care for their baby. Here is some knowledge about miliary rash.

It was found that the baby had some small white spots on his cheeks and nose at birth. Due to excessive sweating that could not be excreted, the skin at the opening of the sweat glands became acutely inflamed, commonly known as prickly heat. Milia are harmless and common, affecting around 40% of newborns, most often on the upper cheeks, nose or chin. Some babies may have only a few, while others may have many.

In fact, these milia are neither painful nor infectious. They do not require treatment and will disappear on their own after two to three weeks.

They often appear in the first week after birth and are distributed on the face, head, and intertriginous areas. There are four typical types of prickly heat in clinical practice:

① Miliaria alba (milliary crystalline): transparent blisters the size of a needle tip, with no red halo around them and easy to break. Generally no symptoms. It is absorbed within 1-2 days, leaving only slight scaling.

② Red miliaria is prone to occur in the armpits, elbows, forehead, trunk, etc. The skin lesions appear in batches, appearing as densely arranged needle-sized papules and papulovesicles, surrounded by a red halo, accompanied by a burning and itching sensation. There is mild desquamation after the rash subsides.

③Pustular miliaria (pustular miliaria) is mostly developed from miliaria rubra and is prone to occur in skin folds and the head and neck. The lesions are densely packed papules with pillow-sized shallow pustules on top. Bacterial culture was negative.

④ Deep miliary rash (deep miliary rash): It is common in the neck, trunk and other parts of the body. The lesions are dense, noninflammatory papulovesicles that coincide with the sweat pores and increase in size with sweating. Generally no itching.

Treat symptomatically and keep the affected skin cool and dry. The main preventive measure is to avoid sweating. An air-conditioned environment is more suitable. Hormonal lotions are often used for treatment, sometimes with 0.25% menthol added. However, topical drug treatment is not as effective as improving the environment and wearing less clothes.

Neonatal miliary rash is not a disease and is usually absorbed on its own 4-6 months after the baby is born and does not require any treatment. If parents want their baby's miliary rash to disappear quickly, they should never squeeze it with their hands, because the baby's delicate skin cannot withstand such cruel abuse from adults' fingers squeezing it hard. It will be injured due to squeezing, and then cause local infection. Do not apply topical medications or ointments on the rash at will. Topical ointments often contain a certain amount of hormones, which will affect the baby's endocrine system after being absorbed through the skin. The correct way should be to clean your baby's face, nose tip and other areas with milia every day, using soft gauze dipped in warm water to wash them. Try to keep the water temperature between 37 and 40 degrees to avoid adverse stimulation from excessive cold or heat. Be gentle, just like appreciating a work of art, caress gently, and be careful to protect these small particles and not to scratch them, so as to prevent infection. Slowly, your baby will have skin as smooth as water.

Attention should be paid to ventilation and heat dissipation of the child, wearing loose and breathable clothing, and keeping the skin clean and dry. You can choose external medications, based on the principles of cooling, astringing and relieving itching.