Hello!
Our 11 year old son has this condition on his face, arms (shoulder to wrist) as well as on his buttocks. I can not wait to read all of the information at this site! Thom has always had these bumps....they get worse as he gets hot/sweaty ...and they seem to be getting worse as he begins to go thru puberty! He is becoming very conscious of these marks.....and the doctor doesn't seem to want to help..........
I am so thankful that I've found all of you!
TBone'sMom ~ Robyn

I am happy to be the first one to welcome you!

Yeah - welcome and hope you find something that will help your son

Yeah, I know what you mean! When I asked my family doctors what was wrong with the backs of my arms, they had no clue what it was and told me to see a Dermatologist. When I did, she smiled at me & said it was common & it was called Keratosis Pilaris, gave me some creams (which she said probably would not work), and sent me on my way. It is like since it is a 'cosmetic' problem, they don't see it as a real problem.

Dr's, sheesh! They seem to think we all want supermodel perfect skin! We'd just like to go out in tanks and shorts without getting stares and ?'s, right? There seems to be some sort of hormone trigger to KP, so that could be causing the flare up in puberty. Just check out the posts about it in the Women's Issues forum. I didn't even have KP until I became pregnant at 27! Just a word of advice, Don't let him pick at them! I have scars on top of scars on top of scars from picking, and it's really addictive!!! Now that I've gotten my KP under control, I'm looking for skin lightening stuff to make the scars less noticable. If only I hadn't picked... Tell him that somewhere between 40 and 50% of the earth's population has some manner of KP, so he's not alone. Also, tell him to check out the backs of other peoples' arms. He'll begin to notice he's not alone, just most people don't know they have it!

My husband always had this crazy looking rash. Then as my sons got older it became more noticable that they had inherited this from him, as well. I never really made a fuss about it until this year when my older son was going to start high school. I took him to the doctor and he told me it was keratosis pilaris. I had never heard of anything like this in my entire life. So, we began doing research.

There is this soap at www.southerncrafter.com. It is called "Splash of the Sea" bar. It has Chamomile Essential Oil, Lavender Essential Oil and Rosemary Essential oil along with seaweed kelp & Isreali Dead Sea Salt. It comes with a loofah sponge which helps to exfoliate the top of the bumps and the oils do the rest. It does seem to dry out the skin, but we follow the treatment with their "Skin Butter Bar" which puts the oils back into the skin. This treatment has made such a BIG difference. It is a continual battle. - Mostly getting him to do the treatments every day. He is a teenager and very laxed. But, when he sees it coming back - he starts to use it again.

Good luck in your search.

Thanks for your info! And welcome to the site! Good to know you've found something that helps!