Super bad acne

[Night Elf]

Ds15 has very bad acne. There are huge red patches on each cheek, lots of small pimples on the rest of the face, chin, nose and forehead. He didn't want to do anything about it for the longest time, but now we're trying to clear it up. I'm using proactiv, but only once a day. I know it needs to be done twice a day, but I can see a big difference already. The large patches on his cheek have gotten much less red. I'm fairly certain I see pock marks under the red patches though.

 

So.. is Proactiv the product I want? Would it clear up faster if we did it twice a day? Can it really clear his face up? Is there something else we should use?

[Miss Peregrine]

I have heard that acne.org has lots of good info and it is much less than Pro-active.

[Michelle in AL]

My dd saw the dermatologist for acne and they recommended Cera V facewash and moisturizer. She also had to go on a daily antibiotic. She was already on clindamycin ointment which hadn't worked.

 

I think for some acne, practive isn't enough. It didn't work for her.

[ktgrok]

I'd take him to a dermatologist before he ends up with more scaring. It is an infection, and should be treated. And it can be so damaging to his self esteem too.

[Ellie]

Have y'all considered eliminating dairy from his diet? That really helps some people, including a friend, whose dh's nickname from teen-hood was "Red," because of the acne. She eliminated dairy for other reasons, and within a few months, her dh's face had cleared up such that people who had known him for years didn't even recognize him.

[MtnTeaching]

Have y'all considered eliminating dairy from his diet? That really helps some people, including a friend, whose dh's nickname from teen-hood was "Red," because of the acne. She eliminated dairy for other reasons, and within a few months, her dh's face had cleared up such that people who had known him for years didn't even recognize him.

 

My ds (15) has also been having a problem with acne. He was using Proactive for a while and it worked for a while. Then it just seemed to stop working and was getting worse again. I set up an appointment with a dermatologist.

 

We had to wait for over a month to get into the dermatologist and during that time, I decided to take the advice on other threads here that recommended eliminating milk. My son LOVES milk and was bummed, but it was unbelievable. His face cleared up a lot within just a few days. He tried drinking a couple of glasses one day and sure enough, when he woke up the next morning, it was broken out again.

 

We still went to the dermatologist appointment because he still had a bit of a problem with his forehead and around the nose. The doc was pretty conservative with her treatments and opted to start with a topical treatment that does seem to be working along with a switch to rice milk and me "reminding" him often about wash in face and keeping his hands off his face.

 

Good luck with this. It can be a real tough problem to solve and can sometimes take more than over-the-counter solutions. As we found out with the dairy aspect, there can also be other triggers.