Hi all.  I'm seeking the benefit of your collective experience again.  I
have never seen anything like this before, yet in the last month I have seen
two mothers, one African, one Japanese, on about day 3 postpartum, who both
appear to have some kind of skin condition which is confined to the areolas.
Instead of being soft and fine and luminous, the skin is like very fine
suede leather, (dull, not shiny) and it sheds in little black bits.  It
*feels* rough - but smoothly rough, if you know what I mean (??) - it
doesn't feel like *skin*.  In the African mom it seemed more pronounced -
the skin appeared to be wrinkled in tiny little hexagonal shapes, with
little indentations (?sebacious glands) in the centre of each hexagon.  In
the Japanese mom the dark areolar skin was shedding to reveal much paler
skin underneath.  In both cases the skin did not seem dry - just leathery.
It was *not* psoriasis, nor eczema, both of which I would recognize, and it
didn't hurt or itch.  The breasts themselves were fine, the skin normal. The
leathery skin covered the whole of each areola, but did not appear anywhere
else on the body.  Naturally, both moms were bothered by it.  Has anyone
seen anything like this?   What is it?  Does it need to be treated - and how?

Thanks for any ideas.

Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe
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