Milia, also known as milk spots, can be incredibly annoying to deal with, whether you or your child has them. They appear as little white bumps under or around the eyes and they typically develop when skin flakes become trapped under the surface of the skin or a protein called ‘keratin’ builds up and becomes trapped.
40 to 50% of newborn babies develop milia within a month of being born, but it can occur at any time for anyone of any age. It usually resolves itself without treatment, but if you’re looking to speed up the process, there are a few things you can do that may help the healing process and prevent more milia in the future.
1. Cleanse the area
Wash your face/the area containing milia with a gentle, paraben-free soap every day. After washing, be sure to pat your skin dry instead of letting it air dry. This will help your skin from chafing or drying out. Definitely, do NOT pick them like they’re a pimple or try to pop them them yourself.
2. Try facial steaming
You can steam open your pores without buying some sort of steaming product. Simply sit in your bathroom for about 5 to 8 minutes and run your shower on a hot setting. This will naturally open your pores. After the allotted time, turn the shower off and wait a few minutes. Pat your face dry and rinse with lukewarm water before stepping out of the steamed room.
3. Gently exfoliate
You can exfoliate with really anything these days, but the best ones are the products that contain alicylic acid, citric acid, or glycolic acid. They typically keep the keratin protein from overproducing. Try it out once a week and see if it helps your milia at all!
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