My daughter has had KP since birth with RF characterized by flesh-toned and red bumps and flushing on her cheeks and chin. I had been using Lazer Cream and Gormel Cream (20% urea) with pretty good results, but lately she's been looking pretty bad and I was told that the older she got, the less pronounced it would be!

I'm interested in hearing about any skin care routines that anyone has used that have worked to help reduce the appearance of RF on their children (or themselves). She started Kindergarten this year and I'm really afraid of her being teased because of her skin (she hasn't been yet, but there's a long way to go!)

Julie

How long has she had the kprf on the face and how bad was it originally? I have kp on limbs not too bad and my toddler son has kprf on face and kp all over. Poor thing had a bad case of it when he first got it. I am talking especially the face angry and red and very bumpy. Since he is a lot younger than your child he uses milder active stuff. But we have a regimine that has really softened the skin and if not much else the skin is much more hydrated and moisturized.

I use cetaphil wash for the face (have tried some handmade soaps and such but like the feel of this much better) and body. And when done I use an oil (sweet almond oil, apricot kernel are some good ones) once daily. Also, I use eucerin creme (the crisco like stuff) or aquaphor a couple times a day to help keep the skin moisturized. This is on top of the active lotion I use to help with the bumps and redness.

As for improving the redness on the face it seems like the face is a hard one to fight (with us the limbs respond wonderfully to treatment and the face has improved but I can tell it is here to stay) so I do what I can to moisturize and take heart in that it looks a lot better than when I first started. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

She has had it on her face, arms, and to a lesser extent, her thighs since she was born. It was never too bad for her first few years and my ped told me it would get less noticeable as she got older, but it has been really bumpy and red for the last few months. The bumpiness looks horrible; like lots of whiteheads all over her cheeks and chin and if I could make that look better, we could deal with the redness!

I finally broke down and made an appt with a dermatologist for next week...it doesn't seem like most people have had much luck with them, but I'll try.

Thanks for sharing what you use with your son...I do use Cetaphil on her and Lac-hydrin Five, but maybe I'll try the Aquaphil (which I use on my son's allergy induced eczema) and see if it helps any. I'm going to also try to find the new Eucerin redness line and see if it makes a difference.

Good for you make that appointment. I have had one bad dermatologist who seemed to know less than me (after all this research I have done) and did not care and the other was fine. We have to remember that this is a case to stay more than likely and it has it has its ups and down. We too have been told it gets better with age but no one can say for sure huh??

Anyway, our second dermatologist gave us a prescriptoin for redness when it really acts up and told us if the kp gets worse to come on in and he can assess the situation as warranted. Since my child is so young I really do not use it unless absolutely necessary.

Based on what you are describing I am assuming it is pimply these day?? Here is what I have tried and it can't hurt. When a kp pimple comes up I dab some hydrogen peroxide on it a few times and I also put a tad bit of boudreaux's Butt Paste on it (I know, a diaper rash cream but I read some other mom using it and went online to their website and people have used it for other skin conditions). I do this a couple days and if it is a bad pimple and I want to help it heal I use bacitracin to help it heal. I don't know if it is all in my head or it works ha ha but it seems to go by faster. Hope this helps at all. Good luck to you.

Oops, I forgot one last thing. How long has she been on her last regimen of the lachydrin, lazer cream, or urea cream? It could possibly be that her skin has become tolerant and has stopped working as effectively. Maybe time to try something new. Just a thought.

Sounds just like my 4 year old son's skin. I have only just started a routine with him as I only just found out recently that what he has is Keratosis Pilaris and not eczema. I took him to see a derm and what she said is what most people on here know anyway. But I will share with you what she has told me. Basically she said that Keratosis Pilaris is a very DRY and SENSITIVE skin condition and is on the other end of the spectrum from acne. She said lots of people think Keratosis Pilaris is acne but acne is a very oily skin condition. She said that the ENVIRONMENT around us plays an important part in controlling Keratosis Pilaris. I live in a small seaside town in South Australia and our harsh water and dry climate isn't much of a help at all - it actually really aggravates it. She recommends using a good water softener or preferably rain water and showering instead of bathing. The water temperature has to been warm and NOT hot. In addition, no longer than 5 minutes under the water. Never use soap. Moisturize after showering and for adults, exfoliating is great but not recommended on young children as their skin is so delicate. I'm not particularly worried about my son's Keratosis Pilaris on his arms. It's his face that needs treatment as it's always red and pimply, especially over the eyebrows and cheeks. She gave me a script for an aqueous cream with 6% salicylic acid. It's very harmless and wont thin the skin like antibiotical cream can. It just works at the problem under the skin layers. We use it on his face every night and wont see any improvement for 6 weeks. It will look worse to start with - and it does - but then gets better. Another thing my derm said was that if we moved to another state in Australia - in particular the hottest and most humid state - we wouldn't have Keratosis Pilaris. But that's not an option. She also said that my son's Keratosis Pilaris will improve with the onset of puberty. So now it's just a waiting game but at least it has given us something to try - hope it can help you in some way too. Cheers, Lalla.