Help- can my son hear? Haemangioma.

[Ginga66]

I have a 14 wk old who did seem to be responding to noises but recently he does not turn when noises are made next to him. He has a strawberry nevis and an underlying haemangioma (quite large) in front of his left ear. Conseqeuntly he lies with his head on the right side not the left. But he does not seem to turn his head when noises are made. I took him to a music group and he was so disinterested. The GP has referred for hearing test but I have been in bits all day worrying if he is deaf and what that would mean for him. I am not sure I can get through the weekend (husband away at work) without some support as I am worrying myself silly. Any help greatly appreciated.

14 weeks is young to go to a music class and show much interest.

How did he get on at his newborn hearing test?

Has the haemangioma grown since birth?

There are treatments for haemangiomas, so try not to worry too much (easier said than done I know) until you have all of the facts.

Can you talk to your DH and explain your worries to him to offload to someone "real" iykwim.

Hey, thanks for the reply. Yes his hearing test at birth was normal. And yes the haemangioma has grown since birth. My DH is very good to talk to as he is far calmer than me and says we should not jump to conclusions and give him time, see what tests show.

So it would sound like neurologically his hearing is intact. If the haemangioma is starting to obstruct his ear canal then I guess that could affect his hearing, but as haemangiomas can be treated and shrunk then this is likely to be a temporary thing.

Are you waiting to see someone regarding the haemangioma?

Your husband is right about trying not to jump to conclusions.

Hope it all turns out well and you get some answers soon

xx

Hey guys... I will try to calm down about it thanks and wait and see. He is so young and I am probably over reacting firsttimemom and all that.

My DD had a large haemangioma exactly where you describe. I was worried about her hearing but we had it tested and she's absolutely fine. I was told they tend not to treat haemangiomae unless they're obstructing the ear, the eye or the throat.

DD is now 18 months and it's now gone. When we first took her to the GP with the lump (no strawberry mark was visible) he was worried that it might be mumps, but as soon as we found out it was a haemangioma everyone relaxed. It really is nothing to worry about.

My dd had a large haemangioma just above her eye which has caused lots of problems with her eyesight. It did eventually need to be treated and she had two steroid injections under general anaesthetic which shrank it considerably. Most of the time they don't cause any problems, so try not to worry.

Ginga66, I'm glad his hearing test turned out to be normal. One thing that struck me about your post would be to watch his head shape as lying with his head on the right side only could cause some flattening. You can check out the plagiocephaly sites for ideas on head positioning therapy to prevent this or treat it if it has started. Very easy to do when they are less than 6 months old.

You can notice that her neck isn't symmetrical if you look at her head from the back, but it's by no means prominent.

It was about the size of a clementine, I suppose, which on a small baby looks huge. There were three tiny strawberry spots behind her ear that are still visible - they look like pink freckles. I meant in my previous post that she didn't have a large strawberry mark.

We were very lucky - we were living in Shanghai and the university hospital had a world expert on haemangioma, so she treated DD. The hospital also had a brand new MRI machine that they wanted to try out, so they gave her an MRI scan to have a look at it. We had an appointment for a second opinion when we went to Australia on holiday and the doctor couldn't believe it - she'd never seen an MRI done for a suspected haemangioma. As PFB mummy, though, I was delighted they'd been so thorough.

DH has just said he saw something on the BBC last week about experimental haemangioma treatment with heart drugs. He'll try and find the link so if he does I'll post it for you later.

Here's the article I was talking about.