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What's in a "Stork Bite"?
The Facts About Vascular Birthmarks
By Jennifer Lacey
"Come here and take a look at this," said my son's pediatrician, as he motioned to two nurses standing outside of the room. I couldn't believe what was happening: Roughly one week earlier, I had discovered a small, flat red line on the corner of my son's lower lip. He was a voracious nurser, so I believed that the line was some sort of nursing blister. I thought it would go away in a few days. After a week went by and my husband and I noticed no change, I immediately made an appointment with his pediatrician.
The nurses came in, and the doctor put his gloved finger on my baby's lip. The three of them looked at the line intensively, and my stomach turned in tight knots. My precious 4-week-old waited peacefully on the examining table, staring at me, my mother, the doctor, the Winnie the Pooh wallpaper, blissfully oblivious to what was happening around him and to his mother's fears. "What is it?" I could barely get the words out. "It's a hemangioma, a birthmark," was the reply.
The exact causes of birthmarks are unknown. However, we do know that most are not inherited or genetic, nor are they caused by anything that happens during the course of a mother's pregnancy. They can have a wide variety of color hues, and most often require little or no treatment. Depending upon a birthmark's exact location on the body, some may interfere with a vital function such as breathing, eating, hearing or seeing. These types of birthmarks are the ones that will require early medical intervention.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), more than 10 in 100 babies in the United States have a vascular birthmark. Vascular birthmarks are made up of blood vessels that are bunched together within the skin. They can appear flat or raised and contain a red or blue color. There are several different kinds of vascular birthmarks, with the most common being macular stains, port-wine stains and hemangiomas.
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