Basic (very basic) Skin Care for Kid

August 16, 2024 3:22 PM

My kid has his first facial pimple. My kid is neurospicy. My knowledge of skin care is rudimentary. Help me find a simple face wash for him and basic acne care products that he can use.

My kid is AuDHD. Please make this as simple as possible as it is not easy to get my kid to do anything involving washing or putting things on his face.

Don't worry, I'm not going to force him to do anything; I just want to be sure I have some things available if he does want to do something.

Please suggest no more than 2-3 things that are easy to find at my local drugstore (in the USA) or order from Amazon.

posted by sciencegeek to Health & Fitness (18 answers total)

Gentle cleanser (Cetaphil or CeraVe are both great)
Stridex sensitive pads (the green box .5% salicylic acid)
Gentle moisturizer (again, Cetaphil and CeraVe are both great)
Sunscreen (I can personally vouch for Nivea super water gel being extremely nice to wear and not gross feeling at all)

This is ALL a pubescent kid needs in an over the counter skincare routine. Need anything else? You need to consult a dermatologist.

Cleanser at night
Stridex every other night (just wipe it all over the face)
Moisturizer at night

Sunscreen in the morning
posted by phunniemee at 3:30 PM on August 16 [5 favorites]

I would also add that “mighty patches” may be very useful in that they cover the pimple which can help people keep from picking, and also draw the moisture out, making them go away faster
posted by raccoon409 at 3:42 PM on August 16 [6 favorites]

If a whole routine seems too big a leap, Neutrogena's On-the-Spot cream is used exactly like one would expect from the name. Eventually it may prove insufficient on its own but it could be a useful bridging step.
posted by teremala at 3:46 PM on August 16 [1 favorite]

My AuDHD teen did very well with rubbing Stridex pads on his face after his regular shower "wash with soap" routine. He's used to using baby wipes on his face and hands for various things, so transfering over to using the pads was not a big leap.
posted by anastasiav at 4:02 PM on August 16 [2 favorites]

I've never tried Mighty Patches but I've had pretty good luck with Litbear patches. They're cheap, they've never caused me skin irritation (and I tend to get rashy from band-aids, etc.) and it's easy to forget I even have one on. They can really zap a zit. The overnight ones are particularly good and I sometimes wake to find a zit is simply gone, as if it was never there. Peach Slices also work OK. These products tend to work better if the zit has a bit of a head of it, but sometimes they can even do a number on really deep, recalcitrant zits.

Wishing your kiddo clear and healthy skin!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:43 PM on August 16 [1 favorite]

My sensory-averse kid took it in stages. First was rinsing the face with water every night, and that was the biggest step. Then soap or facial cleanser first (“wipe the soap over every bit of your face” were instructions that needed to be explicit.) Stridex wipes and pimple patches are available and he uses them sometimes—he particularly likes pimple patches and apparently cool teens wear them in public. Washing his pillowcase regularly also helps. Each one of those things made things noticeably better which helps him stick with it.
posted by tchemgrrl at 4:51 PM on August 16 [2 favorites]

Seconding very regular pillowcase washing or switching. You can buy a pack and have a fresh one every night!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:42 PM on August 16 [2 favorites]

I know pimples can be pretty standard as part of going through puberty, with all those hormonal changes.

From personal experience after my pimples continued for many years into my very late teens, being told it will just clear up by itself, and after many skincare products and routines tried, I finally realised I was intollerent / allergic to milk chocolate (and subsequently realised many years later, dairy in general.. hence that weirdly asthmatic breathing thing I'd generally get after a large fresh milkshake, despite testing to not having asthma).

I was called 'Rudolf' for a while because of about three overlapping chronic pimples at the end of my nose, that lasted for about 3 years straight.

AuDHD for me meant self testing variables. More than four squares dairy chocolate for me = >1 pimple 1-2 days later.

I finally stopped eating milk chocolate, and most of my face pimples mostly cleared up.
Subsequently I cleaned up my diet in general with less heavily processed foods: and my skin (both face and back) cleared up completely.

Cutting out milk chocolate may not be an easy solution. I wish you luck finding out what works best in your kid's case.
posted by many-things at 6:00 PM on August 16

I second Neutrogena's On-the-Spot cream. Start with just that, on a pimple or a spot that feels like a pimple is about to emerge. This may be enough on its own.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:50 PM on August 16

My sensory averse ADHD kid also recently started getting mild acne. We found swapping out pillowcases every night made a big difference. We also had to audit his hair-washing technique; turns out he was getting too casual about scrubbing his hair (he was just soaping up the very top part of his head) and so we had to review proper cleaning with him because the hair grease was making his forehead break out.

We were able to persuade him to use the Cetaphil gentle cleanser mentioned upthread, but had he refused to use it, my next step was going to be these disposable skin cleansing cloths, they're the same consistency/dampness as a baby wipe, and my kid can tolerate those.

Also, if the pimples tend to appear around his lips, see if his toothpaste contains SLS and switch to an SLS-free variety.
posted by castlebravo at 8:11 PM on August 16

Using head and shoulders shampoo and rubbing a little on your face in the shower.

Pimple patches are pretty magical
posted by MadMadam at 8:32 PM on August 16

There are definitely people who - regardless of skin care regimen - have (complicated) acne, sometimes (very!) late into life.

Having acne has is not necessarily a personal failing or being "dirty," but being clean definitely helps.
posted by porpoise at 10:11 PM on August 16

If he is at all shiny in the morning when he wakes up, he may need to wash his face morning and night. I know many routines suggest nights is enough but for those on the oily end of things it simply may not be.
posted by koahiatamadl at 3:21 AM on August 17

If the sensory issue of water dripping down his arms when he washes his face at the sink bothers him (as it does me), you can get fluffy terry wristbands to help prevent that. They’ll often come in a pack with a fluffy terry headband which is useful for keeping your hair out of the way.
posted by misskaz at 4:58 AM on August 17 [1 favorite]

I would probably recommend keeping it really simple. CeraVe hydrating face wash (the non-foaming one) and CeraVe PM moisturizer at night.

The harsh face washes and creams can sometimes do more harm than good.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 5:43 AM on August 17

fyi, you can use the non-foaming Cerave and Cetaphil cleansers (the ones marked for dry skin, I think) without water; would that help? He can massage a good amount, probably two pumps, into his whole face, then wipe with a wet washcloth a few times.

Otherwise, face wipes - I'm prone to acne at the ripe age of 39, and my skin is less oily than it used to be, so his mileage may vary, but I have found that face cleansing wipes do a good enough job. You may find they're not sufficient but it could be a low barrier on-ramp to skin care.

I find it hard to wash my face without moisturizing after, so if he's the same, a simple moisturizer (again, Cerave and Cetaphil are the go too) might be good. The Neutrogena hydro boost line has a moisturizer that absorbs quickly - I think faster than the Cerave/Cetaphil ones.

It's great that you're giving him some of the tools to care for his skin; I hope something here works for him!
posted by punchtothehead at 7:03 AM on August 17

I also like Stridex pads - cheap, easy to use, very effective for me. I like the ones in the red box, which have 2% salicylic acid. Here’s an Amazon link but most drugstores carry them.
posted by maleficent at 4:58 PM on August 17

Hi, neurodivergent here with an extremely deep skincare special interest.

My simple skincare routine when I was 14 that kept me blemish free was Aveeno Clear Complexion Gentle Facial Foaming Cleanser, Olay moisturizer, and using some variation of mentholatum/aquaphor/vaseline to put on pimples so it could heal without blemishes. Then any brand of sunscreen lotion. The most important part of the routine was using a gentle washcloth to scrub my skin gently, which my mom taught me along with the beauty of a simple and pared down skincare routine. I actually wish I could go back to this, but alas, the difficulties of adulthood...

Stridex was too harsh for my skin and I still do not use it, and my fear was justified because my rosacea got activated after the stress of graduate school.
posted by yueliang at 10:28 AM on August 18