This past weekend was homecoming at my daughter's high school and because I see a lot of teenagers in my practice, it was a busy week. Some came to the office to try to rid themselves of an illness in time for the dance while others arrived with the hope that I would be able to cure their acne quickly. If only the acne-laden kids had come in a few weeks earlier there would have been some hope for smoother skin by the weekend.
Almost everyone
Posted by: drmolly in skin, infant, eczema, cradle cap on
Jan 17, 2010
Cradle cap is the scaly, crusty flakes and plaques that many infants have on their scalps. Cradle cap is common in the first year of life and is initiated by the withdrawal from the hormones of pregnancy.
What happens is that the hair follicles on the scalp make a greasy substance (think unwashed teenager) that can collect and then dry to a crusty scale on the scalps of infants. For some, the amount secreted is large enough to cause recurring
Posted by: drmolly in skin, rash, poison ivy, outdoors, nature on
Aug 28, 2009
With summer hiking, exploring grasslands near the beach or digging in a neighborhood park comes the possibility of running across poison ivy, oak or sumac. These summertime scourges look like unassuming ground cover but can cause up to three weeks of itchy, blistery discomfort.
Michigan is chock full of these unassuming plants that are chock full of urushiol, the oil that when it comes in contact with skin, causes a significant allergic
Posted by: drmolly in sunscreen, skin, outdoors, infant on
Apr 07, 2009
I have a confession to make. Even though I am a very fair skinned Irish American woman in my mid 40s, I love the sun and actively seek it out whenever possible, to soak in the warmth and develop a radiance to my skin that the cool and damp climes of my genetic roots didn't prepare my skin for. When I was a child, sunscreen as we know it today barely existed and most people just used tanning oils and even tin foil covered surfaces to increase
Posted by: drmolly in staph, skin, mrsa, illness, antibiotics on
Mar 15, 2009
This week new data came out about resistant staph aureus, also known as MRSA (methacillin resistant staph aureus) and "flesh-eating bacteria." More children are getting skin infections with this bug than ever.
About 18 months ago, several high schools in the area closed for a few days to rid the locker rooms of this bacteria when large outbreaks among football players and wrestlers occurred. This was appropriate to help decrease the spread, but
Posted by: drmolly in skin, prevention, eczema on
Mar 10, 2009
Most of us have some dry skin in the winter. I resemble a snake by late February every year and my hands are often cracked from the repeated hand washing in the office. Believe it or not, I am lucky. Although my skin is dry and in areas even chapped, I don’t have eczema.
Eczema is more than just dry skin. It is dry skin that itches pretty fiercely and occurs in patches. It is often scaly and red and irritated looking. Having dry skin does
