The First Pimple
The first pimple is out. Ya, so soon, too soon maybe. Did I fail to teach my kids about cleaning their face? How to play catch up now?
I’m not going into a discussion on the puberty cycle… but I thought I should share what crossed my mind when I saw that pimple.
I don’t know about the others, but from Day 1, we bathe our kids with Baby Soap and Baby Shampoo. And I was taught to focus on hair and body only. We just used a damp towel to clean the baby’s face. This procedure continued till erm… now… when that pimple appeared.
Did I do something wrong? Should I have taught her about washing her face? When do we start that bit? Or rather, when is the water+towel combi insufficient? I must have missed out something in those Now That You Are a Parent books!!
So the next day, we went to the nearby supermarket to get a facial wash. It was really quite nostalgic. I was looking at cleansers in tubes off the supermarket racks. I remember my mum doing this with me long time ago!
But of course, it also hit me, erm..
- Why don’t you buy her a cleanser from some cosmetics brand? No need to spend so much on a 9 year old!
- Why don’t you get that brand you used when you were a teen? But that’s such an old product! It still looks the same!!
- Do you want to use the house brand? Huh? House brand for my little princess? No, got to be branded! But cheap brand can?
- So what ingredients do you look for in a cleanser? erm.. some vitamin enhanced or sun screen something?
- What skin type does she have? Normal to oily? That’s the type that causes pimples ya?
- Are you getting a Toner? Moisturiser? Scrub? Mask? Ahhh! It’s just one pimple!!!
Sigh… I didn’t know one pimple meant a whole onslaught of questions in my head. So what did I get in the end? I bought one tube of cleanser. period.
She also started a 5 min How-To-Wash-Your-Face tutorial with me… hahahah just showing her the gentle actions of finger massaging your face. I must say she really likes it!
Meanwhile, I’m praying she gets the good genes of acne-free skin.
What should we use for a 9 year old? Off the shelf cleansers or Branded Cosmetics cleansers?
My daughter is 10 and hasn’t gotten a pimple yet. I started having her use my SheaMoisture Coconut & Hibiscus Facial Wash and Scrub and she loves it. It’s gentle and it smells amazing. It’s definitely more of a wash than a scrub (not enough of the scrubby things in it) but I like that it’s gentle on our face instead of rough.
No matter what I did, the pimples still appeared from time to time on me. In fact, they still do occasionally based on my hormones, I suppose. As long as they don’t scar is what I’m thinking…
I have actually had to go over not over washing with soaps with my teen. She has beautiful skin and we have found certain foods every now and then give her a pimple. I like to keep the things we use as organic as possible. Have you considered organic options?
9 seems so very young for this, and I am not certain of all of the popular cleansers. My Superkiddo’s skin is so sensitive, that we use specific allergy-safe, chemical-free products. I wonder how our current choices will fare when hormones start to affect his complexion…definitely something to think about…
We just did a review of Clearasil on our site, not sure if that’s available in Singapore or not. Although the one our teen is using does have some medicinal properties to it but it is gentle and non irritating.
My kids are teens and have lots of pimples. I think it is more about genes than anything else, and we have bad genes for acne.
I don’t recall having them that young, but I know I did a good job washing, however they still came! I used proactive once I was older.
This made me smile. I say get something that is gentle and not too harsh with natural ingredients.
You are a really good Mom! I think acne is genetic not caused by anything else specifically. At least, that’s what I think. I never had acne.
My almost 6 year old has starting getting white heads on her nose and I’m at a loss. It seems way too soon. I’ve heard it’s not hygiene at this age but more likely the hormones that are in our food supply. Argh!
My daughter has tons of pimples on her face, especially around her forehead. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything that works yet!
Oh 9 does seem so young. I have an 8 year old and we do the simple water and towel bit on his face still. Man, do I need to change that up already?
I think in many cases you just can’t help genetics.