Haemangiomas

[Julesy]

My son was born with a large Haemangioma (strawberry birthmark) on his neck and three smaller ones elsewhere on his body. At first I was horrified and frightened as I watched it grow and grow each day. I had a wonderful specialist called Dr Harper from Gt Ormond St who after checking all his internal organs to make sure there were none we couldn't see, assured me that after 6 months they would start to shrink. There is quite a social stigma to facial markings and everyone would always comment on them. However, Dr Harper was right, he is nearly two and they are fading so fast as he grows into such a handsome little boy and I don't even notice them anymore... they are just part of him!
So to all mothers who find their newborns to have similar birthmarks, be patient, see a specialist and they will eventually fade and go.

Islasmummy - sounds a bit odd to me - it could be a strawberry neavus but I would take your lo to see your GP to be sure. Without being able to see it it is difficult to say!

Islasmummy - have you read all of Bozza's posts further down this thread? It sounds like you are describing the same thing (haemorraghic lesion).

Thank you for your replies. We have been to the GPs today and he has confirmed that it is a Strawberry Mark and has generally told us exactly what we knew anyway from the research that we had done on the internet. Basically we have to keep an eye on it and see if it grows and in the meantime try and protect it as much as possible!!

My daughter was born with small pink markings on her head,just above her hairline and a larger mark on her back. They remained flat whilst they grew,became darker in colour and then became raised. The process was so quick, but now she is 9 weeks old they appear to be slowing down a great deal. Already i have realised from speaking to my health visitor and other parents that they will eventually fade and should be left alone. She is very content which is of course the most important thing.Every body falls in love with her straight away, strawberries and all!

Hello Islasmummy, I read your post with interest as my 8 month son has exactly the same symptoms as your little girl, about 3 weeks ago he got what I thought was a tiny blood blister on his chin, however, in the last week or so it has really grown and although I've been to the doctor they aren't sure if it is a strawberry mark or not, we had to take him to casualty yesterday as it wouldn't stop bleeding for two hours and the doctor there has referred him to a dermatologist but I wondered if anyone else could shed some light on this as it is really worrying us.

i have a daughter who will be 3years old in 3 months time, she has had a strawberry birthmark on her back right on her waistline since she was born. fortunately it has never bled, but it has not started shrinking either, it's about the size of a 50p piece and quite raised. with it not starting to shrink as promised by all the health visitors etc i have decided to have it removed before she will start nursery as i am paranoid, not about what other children or people think, just about it getting knocked and bleeding etc and the fact that she plays with it/ pulls at it. just really wondering if anyone knows anything about the removal of birthmarks and how it would be done.

My daughter was born prematurely and is now 17 weeks old. She has 2 strawberry birthmarks on her face. I watched with dismay as they seemed to grow rapidly from tiny specks to their current size. (one is approx 2cm and the other is 1.5cm. One is a lot more raised than the other though. Although they certainly seem to have slowed down in speed of growth now.
Different doctors who have seen her all give differing opinions on how large they will grow and when they will start to fade. Some say not until she is 16! Others say expect them to be nearly gone by the time she is 18 months. This is obviously confusing for us as parents regarding whether to seek treatment (laser etc..?). However, reading these posts it seems they do tend to disappear at different stages for individuals.
People do stare and make comments. At the moment it is only us as parents who are aware of this, but I'd hate for my daughter to be affected by this as she becomes more aware. I'd be interested to learn from any one who decided to have the strwberry marks treated and what their experiences were. Thanks.

Hello jjmom, yes I agree it is very confusing as I had lots of conflicting diagnosis, since posting my thread we saw the determatologist at the hospital, he said it was an angioma (I'm still unclear as to if this is a kind of strawberry mark or not) anyhow, he said that it would eventually go on its own accord but because it keeps on bleeding we could have it removed. He referred us to a plastic surgeon and said that they tended to freeze or burn them off, however, two days ago, it started bleeding again but on closer inspection I realised that it had dropped off. It now seems to have completely gone and is healing over nicely. Not sure if this helps or not but I thought I would let anyone who may be going through a similar thing what the outcome was in the end.

Thanks for your reply Fiona10. I'm pleased that your son's birthmark seems to be resolving itself. It is reassuring to hear stories from others where there is a positive outcome. We have just recently seen a dermatologist who has said that we should adopt a wait and see what happens approach for the next few years. Luckily for us, I guess, they have not bled or ulcerated. So at the moment I think we'll hold tight for a while and see what develops.

Just joined mumsnet and wish I had have done it sooner. My daughter has a cavernous and capilliary haemangioma.
She has been under the hospital since this appeared at 3 weeks old. It is located near her ear and unfortunately grew increasingly large at about 6 weeks old. It was the size and hardness of a cricket ball which is quite big on a 6 week old and also has the red strawberry birthmark on top of it.
She went through the MRI scanner as the concern was that is was close to the blood vessel running to her brain which it time could have caused a stroke.
She was put on high dose steroids to reduce this which in time had other complications and concerns but after about a years battle it has now reduced in size. It is still there and when she gets hot and stressed this grows in size.
She is almost 2 and Im a little concerned that once she hits school age she may get picked on and we have been offered laser to remove the redness but unfortunately no light at the end of the tunnel for the tumour growth as it is a wait and see situation.
We are a member of the birthmark support group and attended a fun day last year which was a great day. If anyone else has experienced anything like this then please get in touch.

Well, I am a mum, aged 43, with two perfect children and it has been so interesting to read all your stories. I was born in 1964 with a strawberry birthmark on my nose, which has grown to cover extactly half of it. At 19 I had laser surgery which I must admit reduced the colour of it, but it is still there. I use makeup to cover it everyday and it has not stopped me living my life to the full, in fact I think if it wasn't there I would no way be the person that I am today. It is still there though every minute of every day.

Of course, I would love to get rid and just be able to get up in the morning and face the world without all the hassle, but what the hey, you only live once. x

can anybody give me some advice please. my son zane is 9 months old and has a strawberry birthmark on his knee. Recently its started to grow, its sore around the edges and very hard , as my son is at the age where he is crawling i often worry about in splitting open . Iv had him referd to a specialist. please can somebody please let me know if you have experianced the worry im going through

My dd has one on her forehead, it appeared when she was 3 weeks old, trning out like a little scratch, but it grew and became a very intense red colour reaching its iggest at around 5 months. When she was 8 months we notcied it shrinking- very slowly, and now she is 15 months and it is still there be nowhere near as inetense in colour, and has dcreased in size. She sees a plastic surgeon once a year and so far we both ahave agreed that we will wait for Nature to takes its course.

I have entered her in the Sun newspaper 'Sunbeams' therefore Im asking if you could take a minuteof your time and vote for her as Im getting pretty tried of seeing babies on front of mags etc that is classed as 'the perfect looking' altho my dd is perfect in my eyes!
Lets raise some awareness!!! THE LINK IS-My dd has one on her forehead, it appeared when she was 3 weeks old, trning out like a little scratch, but it grew and became a very intense red colour reaching its iggest at around 5 months. When she was 8 months we notcied it shrinking- very slowly, and now she is 15 months and it is still there be nowhere near as inetense in colour, and has dcreased in size. She sees a plastic surgeon once a year and so far we both ahave agreed that we will wait for ature to takes its course.
I have entered her in the Sun newspaper 'Sunbeams' LINK IS-My dd has one on her forehead, it appeared when she was 3 weeks old, trning out like a little scratch, but it grew and became a very intense red colour reaching its iggest at around 5 months. When she was 8 months we notcied it shrinking- very slowly, and now she is 15 months and it is still there be nowhere near as inetense in colour, and has dcreased in size.
I have entered her in the Sun newspaper 'Sunbeams' therefore Im asking if you could take a minute ou of your time and vote for her as Im getting pretty tried of seeing babies on front of mags etc that is classed as 'the perfect looking' altho my dd is perfect in my eyes!
Lets raise some awareness!!! HER NAME IS SUMMER HUDSON AND THE LINK IS-sunbeams.thesun.co.uk/gallery_search.php?search_name=SUMMER&start=5#imagesTop