Gabby's Strawberry Birthmark
April 24, 2007
At about 3 weeks old, Gabby had a red mark show up on her lip that looked like a scratch. After a couple of weeks of not going away, we took her to the pediatrician's office and found out it is the beginnings of a strawberry birthmark. The official name is "Infantile Hemangioma" and from what we read, they grow for the first year or so of a child's life, then begin to recede at some point after that. They eventually go away leaving anything from no marks at all to significant scarring.
Obviously, we don't want Gabby to have to deal with the social issues of having a growth on her lip, but more importantly it could get bigger which could effect her eating. So, thanks to much prayer and the persistence of our pediatrician's office, we got an appointment at the Vascular Anomalies Center at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock for May 21. At first, they offered us an appointment next February, but eventually ended up moving us to the May appointment for which we are extremely grateful. From what we understand, they sometimes let the strawberry run its course and other times they decide to treat it. Treatments typically involve a series of steroid injections and laser treatment, but we'll have to wait and find out what the doctor tells us in May.
If you would like to get more information, see the infantile hemangioma section of the website for the Vascular Anomalies Center at Children's. However, I warn you there are some pretty extreme images on their site. We're hoping Gabby will never get to anything close to that since we've caught it early and are hopefully getting treatment.
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Gabby's strawberry birthmark
Archived Comments
Sheena Cosby on 2008-04-21 wrote:
Hi! I found your blog by googling “strawberry birthmarks”. My 3 month old daughter has a hemangioma on her right lower eye lid. They are going to laser it off in a few weeks. I was wondering if I could e-mail you some questions I have about the process. Thank you so much!!
sheenacosby@yahoo.com
jmsrohrer@hotmail.com on 2008-07-18 wrote:
How ironic! I have a daughter named Gabby and she also has a hemangioma! It is located on her lower left lip area. We started her on steroids when she was two months and are slowly weaning her off. It has started to involute but will probably need some corrective surgery or laser. She is 11 months and such a sweet baby. I wish you all the best!
Leslie Scott on 2008-10-30 wrote:
Hi, its nice to find other people dealing with the same thing I am. My daughter has a hemangioma between her eyes. The doctors are waiting until she is a year old to do anything about it, which is kind of dissapointing. She’s 4 months old right now and is such a sweet baby. Hope everything goes well.
jo on 2009-02-18 wrote:
Your daughter is beautiful and my daughter has the exact same thing, only bigger on her top lip. Love to know the latest after your appointments. God bless.
Noris on 2009-03-02 wrote:
Hi, my son is son to be 4 months old, and he also had developed a hemangioma between his eyes, (closer to his right eye), doctors are worried that it could effect his vision and airway. Doctors are going to start steroid treatment next week, but i’m defitnetly worried about the affect that it may have on that specific location of the lesion..It’s always good to find new information and to know others that are going thru the same situation…God Bless to all, and I hope that all works out well for each and everyone of you…:)
Irishgirl on 2009-04-16 wrote:
Hi I too googled ‘strawberry birthmark’ and came across your story! Gabby is gorgeous btw – and to me….you would hardly notice her lip only that it was highlighted on the thread! My one year old daughter also has a SB BM on her upper lip – probably now about the size of half my small fingernail. We did have her with specialist dermatologists in the past year – but they are very happy with her progress (and the BM progress), and are confident it should disappear by the time she is 3-4…..maybe it’s a European thing, but they don’t want to do any laser / steroid treatment until she reaches 4-5 if the BM is still there. I do worry that it will leave a mark, wont disappear,and am concerned about the LT impact this will have on her (if any I know!) – so I would be really interested to hear from anyone out there who had no option but to wait before treatment – was laser / steroid treatment required? Did the BM fade of its own accord? Many thanks all – in a lot of ways, I know this is a ‘minor’ issue in the grand scheme of things – but its all still a concern!
mandy on 2009-04-16 wrote:
Hi! I was looking up birthmarks as my 1 month old has a angel kiss on her eyelid. It looked different that the strawberry birthmark I had as a baby, so wanted to see what it was. I had a SB right in the middle of my chin. It never got really big, and it faded before I was old enough to care about it - about 7 years old. I don’t think my parents ever considered treating it, but it didn’t interfere with my vision or anything. Just wanted to say that they usually do go away and not too worry too much about kids being teased until the get to school age. People would ask me about mine, but it never bothered me at that age. I guess my parents never made me feel like there was anything wrong with me, so I didn’t think there was. :) Good luck to you all!
mercy u. ansino on 2009-04-19 wrote:
Hi!
My son who is 7 months old now has also a strawberry birthmark. I’m so worried because now that he’s 7 months its getting bigger and it is also located on her lip portion and to his back.
mercy u. ansino on 2009-04-19 wrote:
but some people say the strawberry birthmark of my kid will just gone ate the age of 1year old.
** Jessica** on 2009-05-16 wrote:
Hi! My one month old daughter has a strawberry on the side of her face. She is so cute, but this birthmark is so big and ugly. Doctors say it will probally fade by age 7 and not to do anything about it. I really want it lasered off, but I heard that doing that might leave more damage. I don’t know what to do. Kids can be cruel and I don’t want her to get teased.
**tammy ** on 2010-05-08 wrote:
hi my daughter is 1 now and has 3 strawberry birth marks.. a rather large one on her leg a small one on her chest …then one on her upper left lip, its upsetting to see and a lot of people mistake it for a cleft lip so i tend to keep her dummy in, i have been offfered no treatment for it as of yet but would be happy for anyone to offer help with this as she is my 8th child and its worrying
Tara Small on 2010-08-14 wrote:
Thank you for your advice with my daughter. The birthmark on her lip is getting bigger and it is under her left nostril. I took her to the pediatrician and they agreed with me to get an appointment with Chop, so they should be calling me back. It is getting redder and also bigger, and it is bothering her breathing through her nose. I have an appointment next week, and they will look at her. She is 6weeks old, and I rather do it now since she is still little. I will keep you posted.
Tara small on 2010-08-25 wrote:
We took her to Children’s Hospital and they are going to put her on steroids to stop the growth of it, and then Tuesday morning she goes in the hospital for the treatment of propanol and they have to monitor her. I hope we are doing the right thing with our daughter because it gets bigger and bigger every day.
jojo on 2010-09-22 wrote:
HI MY NAME IS JOANN :} AND MY LIL JEN JUST TURNED 5 MONTHS SHE ALSO HAS A HEMANGIOMA IN THE MIDDLE OF HER EYES BASICALLY IT COVERS MOST HER NOSE . I SPOKE WITH DR.GREGORY LEVITIN HE CAME FROM NEW YORK VASCULAR ANOMALIESAND HEMANGIOMA SPECIALIST. THIS DOCTORS DAUGHTER HAD ONE ON HER LIP AS WELL.SO HE KNOWS HOW WE FEEL. HE TOLD ME WE SHOULD GIVE JEN PROPANOLO IT BASICAQLLY STOPS THE TUMOR FROM GROWING SOMETIMES IT SHRINKS THE TUMOR AND THE COLOR FADES AS WELL TO LIGHT PINK . THEN WHEN SHE TURNS 8 OR 9 MONTHS HE WANTS TO DO SURGERY ON JEN. GOOD NEWS FOR U PEOPLE IN CALIFORNIA HE WILL BE RELOCATING TO LOS ANGELES BEVERLY HILLS AND ALSO ACCEPTS MEDICAL WE HAVE HEALTH NET HE TAKES THAT AS WELL AND MANY OTHER INSURANCES IF U NEED HIS NUMBER IT IS (917) 669-3339. I DONT THINK HE WILL MIND AT ALL IF U CALL HIM THIS IS A NEW YORK NUMBER STILL TELL HIM JENS MOM JOANN GAVE U THIS NUMBER JUST IN CASE HE WANTS TO KNOW I REALLY HAVE ALOT OF FAITH IN THIS DOCTOR I HAVENT MEET HIM YET BUT HIS CREDENTIALS ARE GREAT AND REVIEWS MY E-MAIL ADRESS IS RICKYNJOANN@YAHOO.COM IF U NEED TO GET A HOLD OF ME OR PICTURES FROM LIL JEN I WOULD BE GLAD TO HELP. AND LET ME KNOW IF U CALLED DR. GREGORY LEVITIN AND IF WAS OF HELP TO YOU GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF US WE LOVE OUR BABIES SO MUCH AND ONLY WANT THE BEST FOR THEM.LOVE JOANN TRUJILLO
Tara small on 2011-02-06 wrote:
We took my daughter to Chop and the dermatologist put her on the medication of propranolol and they had to monitor her in the hospital for a week. She did really good, and they also put her on the steroids. It dramatically changed. It got smaller and softer too. We took her off the steroids for the two months because I did not want her on them too long. She is still taking the propranolol three times a day, she is taking 1.6 ml. She is having trouble sleeping, and I do not know because this might be on the medication because she is not sleeping through the night and she is now 7 months old. I am pleased with her progress , and the medication seems like it is working. I just hope she does not have side effects in the future.
Tara small on 2011-07-25 wrote:
My daughter, Emily is now one years old and she is still on the propranapol. It has made a difference with her lip because it is fading away. They have to keep her on it for three more months and then they will wean her off of it. This medication made a difference with my daughter.
Ellie on 2011-10-31 wrote:
Hiya my name is Ellie and I saw that you had a number of blogs about your little girl’s birthmark and wanted to share my story as my little girl goes through treatment (propanolol) for hers which is on her left eye lid. Please feel free to read my blog at: http://strawberrybirthmarks.blogspot.com/