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Children's health

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Original poster

Strawberry birthmark reducing?

13 replies

autumnchild · 22/12/2011 10:24

My 4 1/2 month old DD has had a large strawberry birthmark in the centre of her forehead since she was a few days old. It is about the sixe of an adults thumb print and raised approx 1/2 cm off the surface. The "normal" coloured skin behind it is also swollen.

it stopped growing when she was about 10-12 weeks old and has stayed the same since.

however, over the last couple of days it seems less swollen behind it (i.e. it is now sitting on flat skin IYSWIM although the strawberry itself is still raised).

Is this a sign that it is reducing or am i wishful thinking?

OP posts:

Original poster

autumnchild · 22/12/2011 10:25

Sorry "size" not "sixe"!!

OP posts:

TheReturnoftheSmartArse · 22/12/2011 10:29

It will shrink and fade, I promise. Both my DDs had them - one on her neck, the other right in the middle of her forehead, like yours. DD2's on the forehead had completely disappeared by the time she was 3. DD1 is 17 and you can just about see the faint print of hers on her neck.

They can look quite alarming can't they? I had random strangers stop me to ask what it was and one old bat in Sainsbos said loudly to her friend: "Oh look at that poor little mite, she's got a brain tumour, innit". Charming!

PrettyCandlesAndTinselToo · 22/12/2011 10:31

Only speaking from my own experience, but whenever I've seen strawberry marks on very young babies they appeared the way you describe, with the 'normal' skin also raised, yet I vividly remember my own mark not having that raised skin. It appeared to rise straight up out of the surrounding skin.

So I imagine what you're seeing is the result of the mark stopping growing, rather than actively shrinking. TBH I don't think mine started shrinking until I was 4 or 5 years old. But that was 40 years ago, and I don't know how treatments have changed.

ledkr · 22/12/2011 10:32

My dd has 4 of these,one big swollen one on her tummy and another flatter one on her side then a smallish slightly raised on on her head and a tiny one on her arm.They do go eventually,have you googled?Her biggest one has changed colour and is slightly flatter but not much.She is 10 months.Im not bothered cos i know they will go eventually.

Original poster

autumnchild · 22/12/2011 10:32

Luckily i've not had any strangers say anything about it (although i've heard a few children comment on it to their parents). Now it has stopped growing it doesn't bother me and i know that it will fade eventually.

I just didn't know if i was clutching at straws by thinking this is the start of it reducing. I assume from what I've read that the first sign of them disappearing was that the colour starts to fade. Was this the case with your children?

OP posts:

Imnotaslimjim · 22/12/2011 10:32

My DD had a similar size one on her head and it was gone by the time she was 3. 99% of them do reduce on their own

ledkr · 22/12/2011 10:34

the return haha. When dd was a newborn i was pushin her in her pram and a lady gasped and said "is she bleeding?" I replied "yep,my newborn is bleeding from her head but i thought id take a stroll round town"

BigusBumus · 22/12/2011 10:35

I had one right on my ear and side of face as a child. It had disappeared by the time I was 8.

PrettyCandlesAndTinselToo · 22/12/2011 10:37

TheReturn how utterly appalling!

In my teens, if my mum spotted a mum with a baby with a strawberry mark, she would drag me over to them and tell them how I had had a strawberry mark and look at me now, so please not to worry because it would fade away. They often seemed very relieved and wanted to talk about it. I know my mum meant to be kind to the other mums, but it was excruciatingly for me!

TheReturnoftheSmartArse · 22/12/2011 10:38

To be honest, my DDs being ever so old now and me being rather elderly, I can't remember how/when they started to shrink/fade. I think they just faded and flattened out over time.

Ledkr - some people are ODD!

Rikalaily · 22/12/2011 10:44

They fade over time, my dd2 has two on the side of her face next to her eye. When she was born they were quite maroon/purply so I thought it was bruises at first. She is 5 today and you can barely see them now, in fact when she was in nursery they had never noticed them until a child hit her one day and they thought the marks were slight bruises left by the other child until I told them it was a birthmark, I was suprised that they had not noticed them as she had been there for over a year, lol.

PrettyCandlesAndTinselToo · 22/12/2011 10:48

People used to ask me if my brother had hit me, or if I'd fallen off my bike.

IIRC mine became brighter red and flattened a bit, before it started fading and shrinking. Eventually all I was left with was a softer, slightly freckly patch of skin. It was only noticeable if I wrinkled my face, because it wrinkled differently to the rest. It's started changing again in the past few years, perhaps that's to do with my hitting peri-menopause.

Sirzy · 22/12/2011 11:15

I used to have a massive one on the back of my head - used to puss and get infected and be generally horrible!

My parents were told it would be gone before I was 5, but it wasn't HOWEVER when I was around 4 it did start shrinking. Now i still have a slight birthmark on my head and no hair grows in it but otherwise you wouldn't know it was there at all.

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