Encouraging Your Child to Maintain Clear Skin

Clear skin is important. As parents we can honestly state that our children are beautiful to us, regardless of whether they might have an acne breakout—mild to severe. Yet for our children, such words can fall on deaf ears or can be met with a rolling of the eyes. Acne is truly that frustrating.

While we can’t offer our children a cure for acne, we can encourage them to maintain clear skin, and such skin maintenance may be easier than they think.

What Causes Acne?

In order to maintain clear skin, it helps to explain to your child how exactly acne forms. No doubt they’ve heard every false statement and myth about acne, not realizing that the cause of acne is common, natural and something that everyone deals with. Understanding how acne develops makes it a lot easier to keep the skin clear with routine, daily maintenance through a simple skin care regimen.

Acne is caused by three factors: Dead skin cells, sebum (skin oil from the sebaceous gland) and bacteria on the skin’s surface, most commonly referred to as P-acne bacteria. As the dead skin cells shed, they will find their way into open follicles along with the bacteria. When they combine in or near the sebaceous gland with the sebum, a whitehead or blackhead generally develops. Contrary to popular belief, blackheads are not the result of “dirty skin.”

Encouraging Clear Skin Through a Simple Skin Care Regimen

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to achieve clear skin for most acne sufferers. When routine and consistency are added to an acne treatment, it also doesn’t take harsh, over-the-counter acne products to get great results.

Beginning a skin care regimen with a morning and evening routine is the best way to start. Once acne has become manageable, it can be reduced to once a day, but to really combat the inflammations, encourage your child to make an effort toward clear skin.

Exfoliating with a face wash will help to rid the skin of the dead skin cells that need to be shed. Following an exfoliation with a toner or astringent will help to constrict the pores, disallowing the acne causing agents to easily infiltrate a pore/follicle.

One of the most effective acne treatments to use for clear skin is also one of the most popular and least expensive: benzoyl peroxide. Unfortunately, most teens don’t use benzoyl peroxide in an effective manner, opting to only use it as a spot treatment. Benzoyl peroxide is actually most effective when used liberally, all over the face or a problem area, after a cleansing and/or the use of a toner/astringent. Benzoyl peroxide creates an oxidized environment on the skin, making it impossible for bacteria to thrive. It also serves as a deep-cleaning agent, and when used liberally it is quite conducive to clearing up acne problems, and preventing future acne breakouts.

Follow the application of such a treatment regimen with a moisturizer and any acne sufferer will see and feel that clear skin is achievable. These are easy to use, affordable and accessible without a prescription.