Ava has a birthmark not just any birthmark but one referred to as a Strawberry Birthmark. As a concerned and interested parent, I am interested in knowing more about this Strawberry on my baby girl.
What is it? How did it happen? and why did it happen?
- Eric
What are strawberry marks?
They are soft raised swellings on the skin, often with a bright red surface, and some may look a bit like a strawberry. They are also known as ‘strawberry naevi’ or as ‘infantile haemangiomas’. They appear after birth, usually in the first month, and can occur anywhere on the skin. They are more of a problem when they affect the face or nappy area.
What causes strawberry marks?
This is not fully understood. They are a benign overgrowth of blood vessels in the skin, and are made up of cells that usually form the inner lining of blood vessels. They are thought to occur as a result of a localised imbalance in factors controlling the development of blood vessels.
Strawberry marks affect as many as one in ten newborn Caucasian babies but only about 1% of Asian and black children have them. They are particularly common in premature babies. Strawberry marks are not a sign of ill health, or associated with cancer. There are many myths that can be discounted and parents should not feel responsible if their child develops one.
Are they hereditary?
No.
What are the symptoms of strawberry marks?
Usually there are none, however they may look unsightly. A few grow quite large and may bleed or become infected.
What do strawberry marks look like?
Usually there is only one strawberry mark, but sometimes several come up at the same time. They can appear on any area of skin but a majority (60%) do so on the face and neck. If the haemangioma is within the skin, it will be bright red, like a strawberry, whereas if it is located a little deeper, it may appear blue. When located beneath the skin, the haemangioma may be skin coloured.
Strawberry marks tend to start small and then to grow quite quickly, most reaching their final size in 3 to 9 months. This ranges from 1 to 25 cm, but most end up no bigger than a 50 pence coin. They then start to shrink quite slowly. The following figures give a rough time scale:
30% of them will have faded by the third birthday;
50% by the 5th birthday;
70% by the 7th birthday.
Sometimes the skin stretched by the mark will be thin or baggy after the haemangioma has shrunk, and, if that is a problem, plastic surgery can help when the child is older. It is not possible to predict how fast or how large strawberry marks will grow; how long they will take to shrink; or whether they will leave a mark behind - but the result is almost always better than expected.
How will a strawberry mark be diagnosed?
The diagnosis will be based on the appearance of the haemangioma and on the way it grows after it has come up.
How can strawberry marks be treated?
The vast majority of them need no treatment, as they will shrink on their own, and children under the age of 3 years are seldom aware of their blemishes.
Bleeding may occur but, even with accidental trauma, this is likely to be minor. It will stop easily and quickly with pressure from a finger or an ice pack, followed by a sterile dressing to cover it. Plastic surgery can be used if the skin stays baggy or stretched when the haemangioma has gone away.
A few haemangiomas grow so quickly that they threaten to interfere with vision, breathing, feeding, and passing urine or stools. These are best treated early to avoid complications. The treatment is aimed at inducing rapid shrinkage.
o Laser treatment is available in specialist dermatology centres is used to stop bleeding in ulcerated haemangiomas, and can speed up healing and shrinkage of the haemangioma. If carried out very early in the rapid growth period, laser treatment may slow down the growth and induce shrinkage but this is not always the case.
o Steroids have been used by injection and are still used by mouth for the rare haemangiomas that are serious or dangerous because of their size or location.
Information from British Association of Dermatologists
Technorati Tags: birthmark DIYFather Fathers and daughters Health and Emergency Stories Strawberry Birthmark 
DIYFather.com is a registered Trademark, ©2007 -- user protected contents, all rights reserved.
Thanks for the article,
Thanks for the article, quite interesting. Boh of my daughters had small birthmarks on their necks that resemble a strawberry colored rash...they are covered by their hair but remain. So I find it interesting to get better informed to their origin at least as much as I can be. Thanks again for the post!