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Original poster

What could be the cause of a permanent red spot on a child?

14 replies

Earlybird · 18/10/2006 12:57

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but over the past few months dd must have bumped her face on the upper cheek under her eye. She has a noticeable red spot there that doesn't hurt, but is clearly not going away. It feels like a tiny bump when touched, and appears slightly larger/more red when she's tired. It is the sort of thing that will cause people to say "ooh, what happened, did you bump yourself?"

Could it be a broken blood vessel? Any other ideas? Any thoughts/suggestions about what we could do to make it go away? It doesn't bother me or her, but not sure I want it to be there forever....

OP posts:
lulumama · 18/10/2006 12:59

how old is she? might it be a birth mark...strawberry mark...?

Original poster
Earlybird · 18/10/2006 13:03

She's 5.8. As I said, it's appeared sometime over the past few months, so wouldn't imagine it's a birthmark...

I can't pinpoint when it first appeared, but that may be because dd can be pretty dramatic when bumped/hurt, and there was no "scene" when this happened. I wonder if it's just delicate skin that was bumped, and so have come up with the "broken blood vessel" theory - but, it's just a wild guess based on what it looks like.

OP posts:
lulumama · 18/10/2006 13:07

could be blood vessel.....next time she goes to docs you could ask...

southeastastralplain · 18/10/2006 14:06

could be a broken vessel (i have tons of them) the dr can laser it away if it persists

Original poster
Earlybird · 18/10/2006 14:11

Does it hurt to have laser?

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southeastastralplain · 18/10/2006 14:13

don't think so my cousin had one on her cheek that they lasered when she was little. i want mine done but have to pay now

3littlefrogs · 18/10/2006 16:25

If she is 5 and this is "new" I would take to see GP. If it is getting bigger, ask for referral to dermatologist. Does the texture of the skin feel different? Does it ever itch? How big is it? Is it raised, or flat? You say it feels like a tiny bump - would that be like a swelling under the skin, or more like a "spot"? (Sorry for the barrage of questions). I would always check something like this if I could not recall a definite injury.

Original poster
Earlybird · 18/10/2006 21:48

3littlefrogs - thanks for your response. It doesn't itch, and the texture doesn't feel different. It is very slightly raised and I can sometimes feel it gently "pulse" which is why I think it might be a tiny blood vessel that "leaked" just under the surface of the skin after a bump (but as I said before, that's complete observation/speculation on my part). It's probably about the size of a medium freckle.

Any other thoughts? I don't feel alarmed about it, and hope I'm not being naive when I say it doesn't seem worrying. But I wonder if anyone knows what it might be, and what could be done about it? I would prefer it not be there.

OP posts:
NumNumMum · 19/10/2006 11:15

Earlybird, I think my daughter has the same thing, exactly as you described it. She's ten, and has had the spot for three or four years. It's just on the edge of her lip and so not as noticable. It's never bothered her so it's never bothered me. Think the blood vessel thing is right. If it bothers her when she's older then we'd probably look into doing something about it then. I think it's just one of those things.

3littlefrogs · 19/10/2006 14:46

It might be something called a haemangioma - harmless. Try googling and see if you can see any pictures.

PretendFriend · 19/10/2006 14:59

DS2 had one of these as a baby - thanks for the proper name, 3lf, I had haemotoma in my head and I knew that wasn't right! - it appeared on the side of his face, near his eye, when he was about 6 months and lasted for about 6 months.

It burst one day - I went to get him up from a nap and he was covered in blood but he was fine and there was no trace on his skin that the thing had ever been there. Very strange.

ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads · 19/10/2006 15:01

I think DD has these. She has 3 little pin prick ones.. they don't seem raised though and they have been there months now. One on her face near her nose and the others either side of the inside of her elbow crease on one arm. I had considered asking a GP about them but they seem very small and insignificant...

scatterbrain · 19/10/2006 15:11

Think we have something different then - my dd (6) has a red spot at the bottom of her back - it looks like it's squeezable but it's not - GP said it was prob quite literally a spot due to a blocked sweat gland or something - he said exfoliate it with flannel and have a squeeze every now and then !! Has been there maybe 8 months now ! DD doesn't like me suqeezing it !

Original poster
Earlybird · 24/10/2006 09:25

3littlefrogs - as you suggested, I've googled haemangioma and that does not appear to be what dd has.

A trip to the dermatologist might be in order. I also plan to ask my cousin's husband about it (he's a cosmetic/plastic surgeon) when we're with them at Christmas.

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