How is Natural Acne Treatment Harmful?

If you’re the parent of a teen with acne, you’re probably willing to try anything to help your child avoid further suffering. For some parents, this means trying out a natural acne treatment. When you give your child a natural acne treatment, you probably have the best of intentions. After all, natural is always good right? Actually, this is not necessarily the case. Before offering treatment for your child’s acne, it’s a good idea for you to learn a little bit more about what a natural acne treatment actually is.

Natural Acne Treatment Explained

There’s no specific criteria that describes all natural acne treatments, but essentially, a natural acne treatment is derived from something that occurs in nature, rather than a standard acne fighting ingredient like benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. Some popular natural acne treatments include a certain kind of tree oil and zinc. Proponents of these treatments say they are just as effective as the chemical ingredients. However there are no accepted studies to support these claims.

So if the claims for these treatments are unsubstantiated, why would anyone give the treatments to their kids? Some parents are convinced that anything natural they can give their kids will be good for them, and anything with manufactured chemicals is bad. However that is a rather short-sighted view, and there are in fact many man-made chemicals that have been a great boon to society. Furthermore there are plenty of “natural” products that are downright toxic.

Is There Any Harm in Giving My Child Natural Acne Treatments?

Actually, there can be. A natural acne treatment can be completely untested, which means there is almost no way to anticipate the effect it might have on your child. Furthermore, some of the most lauded natural acne remedies can have very unpleasant side effects, including nausea and vomiting from zinc and a serious allergic reaction from tea tree oil. On the other hand, many users of benzoyl peroxide products have reported minimal side effects or no side effects at all.

What Is Your Best Weapon as a Parent Against Teen Acne?

Put aside the natural remedies and go talk to a dermatologist. What he or she will probably tell you is that your child’s best bet is a proven acne control system with benzoyl peroxide like the one provided by Proactiv solution. Proactiv has dermatologist and thousands of satisfied customers as evidence of its effectiveness, and you can see testimonials to back them up. You won’t find that kind of favorable evidence for most natural acne remedies. Proactiv has been carefully designed as a complete care system for your child’s skin, to reduce current acne problems and reduce the likelihood of new problems moving forward. Make sure your child understands that he or she needs to use the product as directed, day or night, possibly over a number of weeks, in order to see results. When used correctly, many users report being completely acne free within weeks of starting the treatment.