AIBU to ask you please about your experiences with "Mongolian Blue Spot".

[DotRotten]

Regular namechanger.
I ask in kind of a professional capacity.

In my job I come across MBS or Congenital Dermal Melanocytosis very regularly.

As I'm not a doctor I cannot diagnose it, so have to refer parents to hospital to have it confirmed. If we don't any mark will be flagged as potential abuse.

I am very, very uncomfortable with the whole pathway. I don't even like saying MBS in front of parents as even the name is awful.

Can I ask of your experiences if your child has MBS?

DotRotten can I suggest you flag your concerns to the organisation you work for or local safeguarding board...wherever this policy has been instigated. A recorded mark/blue spot should not cause any issues.

Talk of institutionalised racism is just ridiculous! If you feel the policy is wrong or needs some changes then raise it.

My DS (mixed race) had a big one on his bottom at birth. The midwife noted it the day after he was born and told me what it was (had never heard of it). She did say to me 'its important to note it so HVs don't think its a bruise' which scared me a bit!

It faded within a couple of months.

DS had tiger stripes MBS across his bum and back. All gone now but I wish they had been noted at birth because it made me feel awkward

The midwife at the hospital asked about DH's ethnicity as he wasn't there at the time. She pointed it out to me and told me it was normal.

It's still quite obvious at 2 yo. Not at all like the colour of his bruises.

DS has a very small circular one, about the size of a decimal half penny, on his bum. Nobody has ever remarked on it and we are white. It hasn't faded at all yet and he is 7. I can't remember where I read about MBS first but he was less than a month old and I remember thinking oh so that's what that mark is.

Oh weird, I had no idea this was more common in non-white/mixed ethnicity babies! My 17 mo DD has this all across her back and chest and in her armpits. DH and I are both white. Although was it mentioned up thread something about it being more prevalent among Eastern Europeans? I'm part Polish, so maybe that's it.

My HV mentioned it when she was tiny and requested I have it logged with our gp, but no insinuation was made of abuse, nor were our ethnicities questioned.

I had one! It was at the bottom of my spine and faded by the time I went to school. Most of my maternal family had them.

I didn't actually know what you meant by "Mongolian Blue Spot" in your thread title because I have never known it by that name. Instead, we knew it as the "Tatar stain". However, my grandfather, being all mysterious and dramatic, used to refer to it as "the mark of Ghengis".

I must say, "Mongolian Blue Spot" does sound like some sort of tree disease.

My daughter had this and I was concerned when we spotting it at birth, we had to have it checked out and documented. It was on her hip and a red/purple very bruise like shape about 2 inches across. I had to mention it every time we saw a different health visitor. It has faded now and looks like a paler pinkish area of skin with nerves slightly visible. My oh mum has a few spots but they are very blue. Irish heritage on oh side but I think also polish on paternal great grandfather's.

I'm 38 and I've still got mine, my DD has one (MW was very quick to tell me) and my DS doesn't. Interestingly my DM was told what it was when my DSis had one at birth in 1967 (we are mixed race and it was apparently quite rare back then)! I'm surprised that more people aren't aware of them tbh.
Given this I am pretty shocked it's seen as a reason to refer...

DD has a birthmark on her back (towards one side of her ribs, not at base of spine) that looks just like a hand sized bruise (pale bluey purple colour). I'm not sure if it's a true MBS as on photos those seem darker and denser in pigment than hers, but maybe that's because they're on darker skin.

I keep meaning to photograph it in case we're ever asked questions, but keep forgetting. No questions yet apart from one swimming teacher. She's 2.3 and it hasn't faded yet.

She is very pale, red haired, and no non white family heritage afaik. A bit of Eastern European though.

DS1 had quite a big one (I'm white, DH East Asian) from the base of his spine down one side of his bum, which has vanished now that he's older. He has his father's colouring so we expected it. DS2 has my colouring and no blue spot. HVs here have found it interesting, perhaps as it was such a bright blue (on pale skin) that it didn't look at all like a bruise. It was marked in his red book but they didn't see any need to refer it.

Love "the mark of Ghengis", DS1 would find that so cool

Both my children had large blue spots just above their bottoms; the older one's is now faded. We live in a fairly white area, so it's not really that common. I insisted they were recorded in the medical records before we left hospital, thanks to a Mumsnet thread I read before my first was born. I also made sure their nursery knew about them.

I was told one day by the nursery manager that when a new senior member of staff did a nappy change and spotted it, it was very helpful to have it mentioned in their files, although the other staff members had said it had always been there. The new member of staff had then contacted my surgery's health visitor to confirm the existence and description. The manager told me just in case the health visitor mentioned it (she didn't.)

I was both glad that staff member was on the ball re child protection and relieved I had had the foresight to make sure it was recorded officially. I wasn't offended because I know that abusers can come from all walks of life and can appear very nice to outsiders.

PS my kids ones looked very much like bruises to the untrained eye.

My DH still has his (he's 43). It looks very much like a bruise. When he was a baby MIL said the child health nurse made her feel like a criminal. Bearing in mind MIL is east Asian, living in a very white community. The nurse had probably never seen one before.

I think DS1 might have had a small one, at the corner of his eye so it looked like he had a shiner!

It was only very faint, so most people never noticed it, but he went through a phase of banging his head on the floor as a toddler so often had a real bruise on his forehead. When I was trying to point out the real bruise, a surprising number of people would point to his eye and say "There's another one here" and I'd have to explain that no, that one was a birthmark and actually a very different colour to the bruise I was actually showing them.

My middle DC had one large one on the base of her back and two small ones on the backs of her legs. We first noticed the leg ones when she was a couple of weeks old and mentioned them to the HV. DH was worried he'd been holding her legs too hard when he was changing her nappies, bless him.

Doctor confirmed they were MBS and asked if either of us have any other ethnicity in our blood, we don't. He said it's pretty rare in Caucasian children. They've disappeared now, she's three and a half.

That's all there is too it really. DH is from South Africa but has Afrikaans blood so white though his skin is olive and I'm a quarter French so skin also pretty olive. Other two DC didn't have them but Middle DC does have the darkest skin.

Both my daughters have this. My first daughter had quite a lot of blue (totally blue limbs, back, shoulders, bottom, forehead and chest). Our health visitor made a note in her red book and that was that. I had quite a few looks form some strangers though and used to get people telling me she was 'freezing cold, she's gone blue' and tutting (despite it being one of the hottest days of the year ). They have now faded almost completely.

My DD2 only had it on her lower back and I also asked for it to be logged in her red book by the health visitor. Its now gone completely. Their dad is mixed heritage (black African and Caucasian English) and I am mixed heritage (Caribbean but a mix of Caucasian, black African and South American).

On both occasions the health care professionals were very clued up and knew about them, which was very reassuring.