"The mother of a six-week old baby who comes to my support group has been
told by her GP that "it is caused by her 'breastfeeding hormones' "

Sounds like this advice belongs to Dr Jack Newman's fable pages! Blame the
breastfeeding etc.
I have personal experience with this. My two sons had spotty faces when they
were around 4 weeks. I wouldn't have called it acne but they certainly had
small 'pussy' spots all over their faces for a week or two. I was told by
various people that it was due  "breastfeeding hormones" or pregnancy
hormones or too much fat in my milk! The spots dissappeared spontaneously
within a week or two, no scarring etc. I did not change my diet at all
between giving birth to them and the spots resolving themselves. I was also
not told to stop breastfeeding by my health care providers. Since then I've
seen quite a few (breast) babies with the same spots around this time, all
with no ill effects, the spots also dissappearing spontaneuously.
I can't tell you what causes it - maybe it is due to hormones in the
breastmilk (I doubt it though) or maybe it is due to hormones from the
pregnancy or birth still in the babies system?
You might suggest that this mother asks her GP what he bases his advice on?
Where's the evidence! It sounds like this GP is not at all informed about
breastfeeding and its benefits. Maybe this GP has seen neonatal acne before
and advised his patients to stop bfeeding - and low and behold the spots
dissappear -which they would have anyway - no that's almost rocket science!

My advice would be for her to do what she wants to do which is bfeed her
baby and wait a couple of weeks to see whether the spots disappear - as I'm
sure they will, so long as their is no other condition that can cause this
problem. And if there is a condition that can cause neonatal acne then I'm
sure it is not due to breastfeeding - which is afterall the norm!

Sara Bernard
The Netherlands

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