Madness #2--snap, crackle, POP

Kids are reaching puberty earlier and earlier these days. To my horror and embarrassment, my son broke out when he was just a couple months old.

I never knew that babies could get what's lovingly referred to as "baby acne". As if adding the word "baby" in front makes the little pimples just adorable. I have to be honest. I was pretty grossed out.

It's not like he had tiny "baby" zits all over his face. He just had a couple "baby" blemishes that kept appearing no matter how often I scrubbed those chubby cheeks. And as a new mom, I was lost as to how I should treat the little buggers. Do I apply some Clearasil? Hold an ice pack on them? Rub in some toothpaste? Pop them?

My baby books told me this form of acne was perfectly normal--that his little sweat glands were just working overtime trying to figure out how to function outside of Mommy's womb. All I could do was leave the pimples alone and they'd disappear over time. But I couldn't help feeling like everyone who saw them was staring at me, judging me. I almost wanted to hand-craft a onesie that said, "Yes, my mom DOES wash me from time to time. These zits aren't her fault."

Madness, I tell you. Not only that my tiny little baby appeared to be hitting puberty WAY sooner than I expected, but that I was so worried people would think I never cleaned the little guy. I started to realize that I had to just get over what other people perceived of me and parent my child the best way I knew how.

So sue me if I popped a "baby" zit just once. His relatives were coming over and I didn't want a tiny whitehead in every single picture...