When our son was two weeks old, a pink mark appeared between his nose and mouth. Since then the mark has grown to almost the size of a dime and has become bright red and slightly raised. Our doctor has told us it is a strawberry hemangioma birthmark and will most likely get bigger. We are upset because the mark is in a prominent spot and is the first thing people notice about our son.
Strawberry hemangiomas are the most common tumors of infancy.
I say tumor, not as it is typically used to mean cancer, but rather, meaning a collection of cells. In the case of hemangiomas, the collection of cells are those that make up tiny blood vessels. Strawberry hemangiomas, while they are technically birth marks, are often not noticed at birth. In fact, they usually do not become obvious until the first few weeks of life. These occur more often in females than males and are more commonly seen in Caucasian infants than in other racial groups.