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