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Parentpedia
Birthmarks
What Experts Say*
"Strawberry hemangioma?"
"Café au lait spot?"
Believe it or not, these names (which kind of sound like the menu at Starbucks) are actually the various birthmarks your baby's skin might have. Baby birthmarks are very common, and only very rarely do they lead to a serious problem. In fact, a great majority of infant birthmarks will be gone by the time your infant is ready for school -- if you can think that far ahead!
According to the National Library of Medicine, baby birthmarks fall into two main categories: Vascular birthmarks, which are red in color and are made up of blood vessels lying just under the skin's surface, and pigmented birthmarks, which are simply a different color (pigment) than the surrounding skin.
Types of vascular birthmarks include strawberry hemangiomas, port wine stains, and stork bites. Strawberry hemangiomas are firm, red, raised areas that typically appear on your baby's face, head, neck, chest, or back, and are present at birth or shortly after. Common in girls, light-skinned babies, and premature infants, strawberry hemangiomas also tend to run in families. They are usually completely painless and harmless, grow quickly, then remain fixed in size. Ninety-five percent of them will disappear by your child's ninth birthday.
Port wine stains are larger, flat areas of closely packed blood vessels, and these usually appear, at birth, on the face. They can be treated, often with lasers, to reduce size and redness (though most will grow back, many parents opt to try to remove them, feeling the marks will lead to problems with self-esteem later).
Stork bites are so-called because they look like tiny "nips" taken in the skin; they?re usually small, pink spots that fade over time.
Types of pigmented birthmarks (all of which are harmless) are Mongolian spots and café au lait spots. Mongolian spots are dark, bluish-black spots more common in darker-skinned babies. Café au lait spots are round, light-brown spots that can appear anywhere on the body, and generally don't ever go away.
If you're not sure what type of birthmark your child has -- or how to treat it -- consult your pediatrician.
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