He keeps trying to lick it off her arm.
Right after he scolds me that either, “Erin messy, Mommy,” or “Erin’s gotsa boo-boo, Mommy,” as if I’m shirking my duties of tending to her every need.
But alas, it’s not a PBJ gone wayward.
Our little Erin Elizabeth has a strawberry hemangioma, just like her big brother.
The differences? Erin’s is visible, whereas Seth’s is not. Also, Seth’s has already begun to heal at an astounding rate – faster than his pediatricians expected and faster than any statistic we’ve come across so far. Given Erin’s youth, it is too soon to tell if she will follow suit.
I hope so.
Oh, I know that these “birthmarks” are considered to be “harmless.” If you click on the hyperlink above, it’ll take you to a really easy-to-understand overview of what a hemangioma is and how it progresses.
But after reading the information on the site, I felt worse than before. All because of this statistic:
Hemangiomas affect about 10% of infants, and the risk is about 5 times higher in females than males. White infants and premature infants are at an increased risk for hemangiomas, as are infants born to mothers with an abnormal placenta.
So, she didn’t really stand a chance, did she?
Female, premature, and a mommy with a broken placenta.
{Insert frowny face here}
I know it could be worse – it could be bigger, near a vital location (such as her genitalia or eyes), or indicative of internal issues. And it’s none of those things.
But still…. I wonder about the role this mark will play in her future. I pray that she isn’t as hung up on it as I am. Maybe she’ll be less vain than her mommy.
In the meantime, we’ll watch it grow; photograph its progress; and keep Seth from trying to eat it off her bicep. ;)
5 comments:
My infant daughter has 2, I've known several babies with them and it's never been a problem for any of the babies I've known. As for the cosmetic aspect, eh...doesn't bother me a bit. They do go away but there are honestly much much worse things and being that my daughter's are on her back and the other on her chest it doesn't bother me at all. If it where her face I'd be more concerned about how she feels about it. I wouldn't give much thought to Erin's either.
My youngest sister Ana had one and she was equally at risk as Erin. When Ana was about 4 months, it took up about 1/6th of her back. It got bigger before it got smaller. Since she's been about 12, you can barely even notice it was there. Just a little discoloration. I'm sure Erin won't even notice hers :)
She's perfect in every way. :) I saw that Ang already commented about Ana so that saves me an e-mail to her to convince her to comment.
Will had one of those on his back, never had any problems with it, and it was gone by his first birthday. He didn't have all the risk factors and was only two weeks early (preeclampsia).
Caleb had one on his left eye lid. He had to have pulse laser surgeries and finally a cosmetic surgery to fix it. We can still see a little bit of it now (he is 6) and his eye lid is not perfect but hey - its perfect to me! My niece has one on her arm like Erin does small too and most likely will not grow.
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