Strawberry Hemangioma

Emily - posted on 11/11/2010

My daughter has one one her belly. It also appeared about 2-3 wks after she was born. The Dr. said it will grow, but it should start to disappear by school age.

Sarh - posted on 09/22/2010

Also, these birthmarks normally don't appear until 2-4 wks of age.

Sarh - posted on 09/22/2010

I have one on the inner part of my left upper arm, which I have had since birth, mine actually seems to be getting bigger VERY SLOWLY, but it is getting bigger and becoming more raised, I may have to have it removed, but I have been avoiding seeing my doctor about it.
These marks occur in about 10% of all births, and usually appear between one and four weeks after birth. It may grow rapidly, before stopping and slowly fading. Some are gone by the age of 2 , about 60% by 5 years, and 90–95% by 9 years. While this birthmark may be alarming in appearance, physicians generally counsel that it be left to disappear on its own, unless it is in the way of vision or blocking the nostrils.
I'm not so sure as to why I still have mine and I just turned 21!! But then again I'm always the one who has all the rare crap! I'm the one who gets an auto immune disease that only 0.2% of the population in the WORLD has and are primarily men. Same thing w/rare and NEW allergic reactions to medications. lol.

You know your child is beautiful leave it be and don't make them go through unneeded "surgery".

Donna - posted on 09/22/2010

my daughter had 1 on her back and one in the middle of her hand. they both disappeared sometime after she turned 4

Vicki - posted on 09/22/2010

I was born with one at the outside corner of my left eye. I can't remember when it went away, pretty sure before school started. There's only a slight indentation in the skin, only noticeable if you stretch out my crows feet lol.

When I was about 18 months old I scratched it and it bled a lot. My parents ended up taking me to ED, where they were accused of trying to cut it off and the social workers got involved. Crazy!

Michelle - posted on 09/22/2010

My 2 month y/o son has one a little one on the back of his shoulder. It started off like a brown little "regular looking" birth mark. Around 2 or so weeks after he was born it started turning red and growing slowly. I spoke to my mother about it, and she has told me that one of my cousins had one when he was little on his arm, and went away when he was around 10ish or so. I am wondering if his is going to keep growing though...

Nicole - posted on 09/21/2010

my daughter has a strawberry birthmark bright red the size of the top knuckle of one of her fingers, i love it i think its too cute and it makes her , her so long as it isnt hurting her i wouldnt have it any other way

Kimberley - posted on 09/21/2010

my daughter was born with it on her back and hairline on the back of her neck, the doctor told me it would go away but i didnt heed him because i have one on the side of my face and the doctors told my mum exactly what they told me and 26 years later its still there, tried to get it removed via surgey but a little bit still there

Jessica - posted on 09/21/2010

My Youngest Daughter is 6 months and has a patch on the back of her right arm. It developed at around 2 months, she is now 6 months and it's growing bigger and it's raised up. Been told same thing leave it alone and i'll dissapear otherwise lasers will do the trick. I like the fact my daughters distinctive and we are lucky it's not anywhere dangerous like some others have it. I'm going to leave it upto her if she wants it removed and it's not endangering her life as it's her body and her mark.

Tania - posted on 01/22/2010

My son has one that covers half of his ring finger on his left hand and another small one on the back of his shoulder. He was born with both of them. They were at first very red and quite raw looking (purple on cold days!) however since time has gone on they have faded alot and are now a pinkish colour and I dont even notice them. He is 12 months old now. Everyone I have spoken too has told me they will mostly likely disappear by the time he is 3 or so. I have never been fussed about them but can understand your concerns being on your daughters face. There is alot of info on the internet about birth marks or talk to your health centre nurse/doctor if you need some peace of mind, they are more common than you may think.

Roseanne - posted on 01/21/2010

my daughter is 7 months and has one on the back of her head she was born with it but she is still beautiful and anyone who thinks different seriously needs a reality check no matter where it is on a child they are still beautiful x

Dina - posted on 01/20/2010

my neice had a huge on on her arm. She had it until she was 2 but then it faded. She is 4 now and there was no signs it was ever there

Amanda - posted on 01/20/2010

my son scratched his head wen he was 2 wks old and it turned into a hematoma blood bubble thing he's 14 months now and he still has it but its like flat now.. ithink its ok.... birth mark maybe lol

Emma - posted on 01/20/2010

Hi, my son has one on the left hand side of his forehead (as you can see on my pic!) it appeared about two weeks after he was born. It started off as a scratch and got bigger and bumpier. I was also born with one on the top of my haed. My mum said that it dissappeared after a year or so. This was also what i have been advised by the doctor. They are nothing to worry about unless they cover eyes or mouths etc. There is no sign of the one i had anymore.
I think it adds to my sons personality and am proud that he has one!

Michelle - posted on 01/30/2009

my 3 year old daughter has one on her left side, i noticed it straight after delivery and it was the size of my thumbnail, just looked like a little bruise. as she grew, so did it and it was bright red for quite a while. doctors just said it wasn't really anything to worry about and it didn't bother her. when she was about 18 months, it started to grow a scab over about half of it (by this stage it was about the size of an egg) so we took her to a paed, he just said that the scab was its way of healing from the inside out. the only thing he was concerned about was that it would attach itself to her internal organs and keep growing but it hasn't. it has however faded an awful lot and is now a kind of greyish (like the other mums said!) shade. one other thing that the paed said was to take care it did not get banged too hard or punctured, just because of the fact that these things have their own blood supply and it would be difficult to get it to stop bleeding on its own if she had a big stack or something! we were also told it would probably be mostly gone by the time she is 5 or 6, but that if it wasn't and it bothered her she could have it lasered off when she is older.

Samantha - posted on 01/27/2009

i have 2 children and both of them had 3 strawberry hemangiomas each which got bigger afew weeks after birth. my son has a huge one on his bum which caused us alot if problems when he was about 8 months because it was int he wrong place. i have been told by many doctors, different ages of which they should dissapear but some do and some dont, and some just fade. as long as it doesnt bother her or give her pain then do not worry because my boys was alot worse. hope this has helped.

Chantel - posted on 01/26/2009

My daughter has one on her shoulder. I had one covering the palm of my hand when I was a baby and it was gone by the time I was 18 months according to my mom. No sign of it now! From what I've seen and heard, it will go away:)

Ally - posted on 01/26/2009

My younger sister had one when she was born and my 10 month old daughter also has one. My sisters was on her arm and faded considerably and is now the same color as her skin. My daughters is starting to fade but is still very red...im hopeful it will be the same as my sisters and just fade away on its own!

Tracy - posted on 01/20/2009

My daughter had a hemangioma that covered the bridge of her nose (left side) over to her eye and under her eye. She was not born with it but we did notice it after a few days. Hers was quite large and had obstructed her tear duct and was dangerously close ot her eye. Her first treatment was when she was three months old and it consisted of steroid injections and a laser treatment. At six months old she had another laser treatment. She had a rare reaction to the steriods--they ate away the fat in her face. It was a straight line that ran from her forehead, through the hemangioma, and down her cheek. At 11 months old they removed the hemangioma, filled in the areas where the fat had been eaten away, and gave her an eye lift. She is now 23 months old and only has the incision scar from the surgery. We hope that it will fade on its own but if not we will do another laser treatment.

Ashley - posted on 01/16/2009

my daughter has one on her thigh, the doctor told us it should go away on it's own, she is now 6 months and in the last couple of weeks it has started to fade from the middle out, the doc also said that if it doesn't go away or if it gets worse which somtimes they do then they can treat it with lasers

Sonia - posted on 01/16/2009

My daughter has one on her cheek. It started out as a white patch of skin and then slowly grew in intensity until it was a bright strawberry colour (about 6wks). Everyone comments: what did she do there? Did she pinch herself? Is that a birth mark? I'm sure you get it all the time too! luckily Hope's is not in a dangerous position. It started to get raised but I think it is flattening out and beginning to fade from a bright red to a purple. Hope is 5mths. We were told that it can take up to 7 years for it to fade but most people will see it fade within a much shorter period of time. I've gotten used to it and can't picture my daughter without it.

Megan - posted on 01/16/2009

Quoting Krystle:

My daughter has 3 hemangiomas. One on the side of her head and then one on each shoulder. She is only 7 months old and the one on her head turned grey so we're hoping it is starting to go away. She has been to a plastic surgeon/dermatologist to discuss options but no one here will do laser treatments on a baby. I would really like to get treatment though because I hate how people stare and point at her. She's such a beautiful girl and I wish that that was the first thing people thought when they looked at her, not "Yuck, whats that"?

I posted another reply before this but read this girls reply after I posted mine and just wanted to say that Krystie, your daughter is BEAUTIFUL and I do not think YUCK whats that.  If people think that about your baby girl they are ignorant and their opinions do not matter at all.  I didn't say before but my cousin had a big one by her nose and they removed it before she could even realize what was on her face and be self conscience about it.  My husbands cousin had one in the same spot also and they removed hers.  There is however a LITTLE scar left but you can hardly see it.  I do understand your pain though because we as parents want to protect our children from the unfair judgements of others. 

Megan - posted on 01/16/2009

My son had one on his leg and he is two and you can hardly see it anymore. My daughter however is three months old and she has one on her tummy right above her belly button. She was not born with it but it developed like your daughters. I asked my doctor about it and she said it will continue to get worse until she is about a year old and then they begin to fade. 50% of them will be gone by age 5 and 90% by age 9. She also told me that on her belly they will not be concerned about it but on the face by the eyes and nose and mouth they will watch them and maybe remove it with surgery, also they worry about them on the genitals. She said they are very common in children. Read about them online if you haven't yet and talk to your doctor about it also. Good luck and the picture of your little girl is beautiful!!

Krystle - posted on 01/16/2009

My daughter has 3 hemangiomas. One on the side of her head and then one on each shoulder. She is only 7 months old and the one on her head turned grey so we're hoping it is starting to go away. She has been to a plastic surgeon/dermatologist to discuss options but no one here will do laser treatments on a baby. I would really like to get treatment though because I hate how people stare and point at her. She's such a beautiful girl and I wish that that was the first thing people thought when they looked at her, not "Yuck, whats that"?