Gareth Smith: Help! I'm so spotty now I'm pregnant.

Byline: Gareth Smith

QI AM 10 weeks pregnant and normally have a very good skin but now it's peeling, dry and has erupted into little red spots over my cheeks and chin. Help!

APREGNANCY causes hormonal changes, which in turn cause skin changes, hair changes and mood changes. Medication, even creams, should not be used in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. So the best thing you can do is go to a beautician for regular deep cleansing. Make sure that you have a strict daily routine of cleansing, followed by non-oily moisturisers. Your skin will get better as your pregnancy progresses and your body gets used to the changes in hormones.

QIF someone gets frequent styes does this mean they have some sort of deficiency?

AA STYE is a painful infection of the follicle of an eyelash. It is usually caused by staphylo-coccusa a bacterium which normally lives on the skin. Treatment consists of local heat to encourage pointing and discharge of the abscess. Antibiotic ointment is used at the same time. They are not related to any deficiencies.

QMY daughter is 25 months old. We took her bottle away last month but she still cries for one all the time. What can we do?

AYOU could try cutting back on using the bottle without taking it away suddenly. Only offer it to her when she needs to sleep and then gradually decrease it until you are only offering it to her at night. This will allow you to deflect requests for the bottle by pointing out when she can have it. Soon you will be able to bargain with her to stop using it completely.

QMY eight-year-old daughter has a lot of dark hair on her back and legs. This has now started on her face, and is really upsetting her. What could be causing this?

AIT could be a familial tendency, common in people from the Mediterranean. In young girls it is most frequently caused by adrenal virilism where abnormally high amounts of male hormones are produced. Rarely excess hair can be as a result of tumours of the pituitary gland or ovaries or by polycystic ovaries. It is important that you take her to your doctor who can work out the cause.

QMY dad recently had an ECG because he had some chest pain. He said that the doctor told him he had a condition called bundle branch block. Can you tell me what this is?

ABUNDLE branch block is a defect in the tissue of the heart, which conducts the electrical impulses that make the heart contract or beat. It is seen as a particular pattern on an electrocardiogram or ECG, which tells the doctor whether the affected part of the conducting tissue is causing left or right bundle branch block. Bundle branch block may be something that is present at birth or can be due to heart disease, including ischaemic heart disease, inflammation of the membrane around the heart (myocarditis), cardiomyopathy or disease of the heart valves. Treatment will depend on the cause.