Birth mark questions... « Back to Group Discussions

[JynxGirl]

Patrick was born with a lot of bruising and telangiectatic nevus on his forehead.

As the bruising has faded, we've noticed he has a really large birth mark on his face, spanning his entire right cheek, across his right eye and up into his forehead.

I am getting it checked out to make sure nothing is wrong, but I am more wondering if anyone has experience with this?

What options do we have if it gets darker or bigger? Would you remove or lighten a mole this large on a child's face?

[Cynthia Mosher]

I'd probably see what a dermatologist says about it and see how obvious it becomes before making a decision about removal. You might even want to wait until your son is old enough to decide for himself, if that is an option.

[MeredithA]

I don't know much about birth marks (2 of my kids have small ones and We never thought much about them) but a friend of ours has a child w a port wine stain birth mark on her face and they chose to just leave it and not consider removal...now that the child is older her mark is part of her adorableness :-)

[JynxGirl]

After talking it over with my husband, I think our plan is to wait and see. Personally, I would want to remove it if it were me, but he thinks we should leave his face alone.

The research I've done says there might not be a way to remove it because of how much of it there is, and because it's on his entire face.

[MeredithA]

Maybe I'm missing something but from the pics on here & fb Patrick's skin on his face looks flawless to me! I think waiting & seeing is a good decision. :-)

[BubbleMa]

Layla has a "Mongolian spot" on each butt cheek.  :)  

I'm glad you decided to leave it for now.  But, like Meredith, I didn't notice anything in his pics.  :)

[rnra]

A good friend of mine was born with a quite similar large birthmark on her face.  Her parents chose not to remove it.  In her case, that was probably a poor decision.

When I met her she was 23 and horrendously embarrassed about her birth mark.  Although her family had never seen it as a big deal and she was home schooled (so fewer interactions for childhood teasing) she was so mortified by her birth mark.  She wore thick makeup and would decline to participate in activities involving water or sweat for fear that the makeup would come off.  She had it lasered at age 25 which removed some (but not all) of it and she was like a new woman emotionally.  That's not the case for everyone--but for her leaving the birthmark caused some extreme emotional distress due to the fact that it was on her face and not somewhere like a leg or stomach.  Because I know her, I would choose to remove it.

[JynxGirl]

 

If you look from his earlobe down to his chin, you can see the edge of the birthmark. (These pictures have taken me about 9 million tries to get them. :P )

This one's a little easier to see because you can see the difference in skin tone between his eyes and up into his forehead. It also (sort of) shows the top edge of the birth mark to the far left of his eye

This one is a terrible picture, but it shows the edge of it from around his cheek and up into his hairline.

[BubbleMa]

i see it now.  i would still wait and see.  it may get lighter.  it may get darker.  maybe by the time he's old enough to care there will be more options.

[Astraia]

Keeping fingers crossed that it fades. I can barely see it now, and if it lightens up as he gets older then great. I don't know much about how birthmarks are removed, but if there's a chance that the "wait and see" approach works (ie, it fades by itself) then it's worth the wait.

[JynxGirl]

My husband has talked me in to a wait and see approach. For me it's about teasing and self-esteem like rnra said. I grew up with a fairly obvious skin condition and was tease horribly for it all of my life. Even as an adult, I get judged for it. (Like doctors who tell me I have scabies and treat me like I'm filthy when I know exactly what I have...) I don't want that for my kids.

But he wants to wait and see what happens, and give Patrick a choice in the matter.
 

[Ladeika29]

Hello, My daughter has the very same birthmark, one side of her cheek, her left eye and up into her forehead, I am hoping it goes as she gets old... I was worried also and wanted to go to the doctors to check it out, but decided to leave it alone and watch it and see how it grows or fades.
 

[Ladeika29]

[BubbleMa]

Aww, she's so gorgeous!

[Ladeika29]

Thank you so much