Strawberry birth marks anyone?

Hiya

My son has three strawberry birthmarks. One round small one on his buttock, one very small one on his nose that looks a bit like a scratch or spot and a large one on his knee.

I am not too worried about them but kind of get sick of everyone asking what happened to his nose!! Someone even thought I hadn't washed his face after a bbq and thought I dropped a bit of tomato sauce on his nose!!

I was just wondering what your experiences are?
I have been told that the small ones can go when bub is approx 3 months but the larger ones take up to 3 years or so.

thanks

Hiya, my DD has two of these. One is on her right cheek and the other is under her chin across her throat. Once you get over 100 posts look in the april 2010 thread in the photo section and there is a photo there of her on page 7.

Her ones are quite large and are also under the skin making her check swell outwards from her ear down to the one under her neck. The appeared 2 weeks after her birth but the swelling didnt come up until 7 weeks. It has caused big problems with her feeding with her only being able to feed with that side down and so we have to feed lying down *sigh

We have finally got in through the public system to see Prof Swee Tan at Hutt Hospital. He is a plastic surgeon who has found a new way of treating them. They used to use high dose steroids but only 70% of them responded. They have found that a drug called Propanalol which is a high blood pressure medication can shrink the birthmarks and also tumours. They are running a drug trial for another drug called Captopril and we will be taking part in this. My DD will be the second child treated in the trial!

They usually grow for the first year of life then can take up to 10 years to go away, although some do not fade completely.

Below is a link to the listener website. The article is about Prof Swee Tan and his discovery of treating strawberry birthmarks.

http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3661/features/15753/introducing_cells_to_suicide.html

Lol a rather large post, im learning lots about these, if anyone has any questions then ask away or PM me

Lily has a small one on her eye which is honestly barely noticeable but no sigh of clearing. She also has one on the back of her head at the bottom of her hair line which gets darker and lighter depending on the day (??) no sign of that fading either! Most people think the one on the back of her head is a rash.

She has a brown spot on her leg and people are forever telling me I've missed some poo!

My oldest had one on his forehead. It went when he was between 2-3 years old.

One of my twin DD's has 2 on her head. The one on top was there from birth but has gotten bigger & more raised, the other started as a tiny mark - like a bit of red pen when she was a couple of weeks old and it grew rapidly over the next few weeks.

The paediatrician said they will fade by the time she is about 3 years old. A little girl I used to babysit also had one on her back which faded away completely by the time she started school.

I am also constantly being asked what is wrong with her head. Luckily her hair seems to be growing out of them so they should get covered.

My son has one on his neck hes 5yrs 3mths now and its still there but is smaller and faded abit.
Pead said it should dispear by age 5 but it hasnt.

Thanks for all your replies and photos.

I also wondered if you noticed how much the marks grew in the first year?
The one on my sons nose came up when he was about 1 month old and he's now almost three months old and it has changed alot in size and how bumpy it is.
Also, do you have to be more careful of them in the sun?

I think there must be kind of different ones too because my older son has one on his neck that looks kind of more like a big skintag but it's red. That one has definitely shrunk but is still there and he's over 2 now. He also had one of the ones that look more like a blueish raised bruise and that was on his back but that left probably around the age he turned one.