My Little Guy Was Just Diagnosed with a Hemangioma

My oldest son had one on his forehead and it was gone by the time he was 2. I often put a hat on him when we were out because people are idiots and so many strangers would come up to me and ask questions about. Often inappropriate and always annoying. Because it is on his eye, they may want to treat it so his vision isn't compromised. Otherwise, take heart in knowing it will go away.

My son is now 9 and has a hemangioma on his left chest. Since it was in the area of his heart we had it looked at but the specialist told us no treatment was needed. I agree with the other posters that unless it impedes normal development they will not do anything. You can't even tell that my son has it anymore unless you know where to look. I would say it started to fade around age 6 and has virtually disappeared in the past year.

My daughter has one on her lip. Because of the location (facial) we went to see a pediatric dermatologist at Children's Memorial. They specialize in hemangiomas and have seen kids nationwide. I'm very well versed in this topic! :) Below is a summary based on the literature I have from the hospital.

**Most are harmless.** The only time it can become an issue is if it causes challenges with normal bodily function (social challenges nonwithstanding). -For your son, I would pay close attention to whether his vision is obstructed as is grows.
Our neighbor had one on her chin and neck that had grown internally as well and swollen her trachea 75% shut. That was an extreme case.

All hemangiomas appear in the first month of life. All STOP GROWING by 8-9months of life and slowly begin to disappear. 50% are gone completely by 5 yrs of age. 90% are gone completely by 9yrs of age. (The rest eventually disappear completely, it just takes longer).

Depending on the severity, treatment may or may not be an option. My daughter's cannot be treated because it is too flat. The normal approach, a steroid shot, would cause a divot in the natural lip tissue. So we just have to wait for hers to go away on it's own.

Severe cases (the neighbor, listed above) are treated with a cardiac drug called Propanolol. The child is admitted and tested to make sure they can withstand treatment healthily, and the drug is administered. The hemangioma begins to disappear VERY quickly. (Neighbors is almost completely gone, 3mos later).

yes my youngest son had several my Dr described it as a collection of small blood vessels. It is actually very common and will normally resolve itself with no treatment.

We had the same thing happen! My son did not have a hemangioma when he was born but it started to develop when he was about a month old. By three months it had grown considerably and was causing his eyelid to not open all the way. Our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric ophthamologist. He said in our case he recommended surgery because lasers can't be used on the eye and the steroid treatments might have negative side effects. If we were to just wait for it to get smaller it might get bigger first and cause the eyelid to cover his eye even more. Then his vision would not develop properly and he would not have sight in that eye.

It was scary, but I sent my 3 month old into surgery and luckily everything turned out fine. He had a nasty oozing scab for awhile which finally healed after a month or so. He is now 19 months and his vision is fine. He does have visible scarring and his two eyelids do not look the same if you look at him up close. We are told that the scarring should continue to diminish over time and it probably will not be noticeable by the time he is 9 or 10.

Long story short, since the hemangioma was on his eyelid we did not want to take any chances of having his vision become impaired, so we opted for surgery. I'd rather have him have a scar on his eyelid than have no vision in that eye. Best of luck to you and your little one. Let me know if you have any questions - I wish I had known another parent who had experienced this so that I could have talked to them when we were going through this situation :)

My son has one on his right upper side of his nipple at birth it was the size of a silver dollar now 7 yrs later it has become smaller & the blood vessels have diminished it's not all gone he has had no medical issues with this completly healthy there was no recommendation to have it surgically removed or have lazer treatments.Since it is growing on his eyelid they are going to take all the necessary precautions.Your best advice is what the DRs tells you

My 4 month old has 4 of them. She has a very large one on her shoulder that is an inch high and 2-3 inches long. She bumps it with her head all the time and it is where her seat belt sits. Our hemangioma specialist said to have it removed at 6-7 months of age. It depends on the severity and type of hemangioma. Ours is cavernous which will not go away with laser.

My daughter had one on her forehead, it went away by the time she was two. They may treat your son's, because it is on his eyelid. It should be fine!

M.

My now seven year old daughter was born with hemangiomas on her wrist, palms of both hands and her chest. Our pediatrician told us they would "fade" as she got older. The biggest one that wraps completely around her wrist and is quite large as now faded so much I actually have to search for it and forget which wrist it's on because it is so hard to see now. As for the the ones on her plams and her chest...they are smaller, but still there. Sending healing thoughts your way.

I work with a lady whose granddaughter just got diagnosed with a hemangioma. I'm not sure if your son's and her's are the same, but she is being treated with blood pressure medicine. It has descreased so much that you can't even really tell it's there.

My daughter was born with a large one one the back of her thigh. It was bubbly and bright red. She is 6 now and you can't see it anymore. It slowly went away and was barely visible by the time she was 4 I think. Hope your son's is no big deal too!

S.
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My niece had one on her head about the size of a dime. It went away over time. Sorry I don't have more info.

My son had a hemangiona on his forehead and at first they told us to just wait and that it would go away on it's own. It got very big to the point I asked for referal to the Vascular Anomalies clinic at Seattle Children's hospital. The specialist said that even if it went away on its own, the skin would have been stretched out and he most likely would need cosmetic surgery to remove the excess skin. He said if we would have come earlier he could have tried meds to stop the growth. We were too late. We waited until he turned a year old and then opted for surgery since our insurance would cover it. Although I was a wreck about him going into surgery, it was the best option at that point. I do wish i would have been more persistent about seeing a specialist right away instead of listening to our pediatrician and waiting. Perhaps we could have just used meds to remove or stop the growth.

My daughter also has one on her head covered by hair so we decided not to do anything for it. Seeing that she is now 20 months old and it has not grown smaller in the least, reaffirms that we made a good decision about my son's more visible hemangioma.

A friend's daughter had one. Unless it is in an area that is at risk for injury (and therefore a bleeder risk) doctors used to leave them alone until 5 yrs of age. Then there are treatments, laser I believe, that can repair the vessels. There most likely is better technology now. I am sure it will be fine.

It is a blood vessel tumor that is normally harmless. They can grow in the first year and then begin to resolve but it can take until age 9 to fully resolve in some cases.

But if his is growing on or near his eyelid they will most likely recommend zapping it with a laser to stop it as it could grow large enough to interfere with vision. That's the only time they want to intervene is if it affects vision, breathing, eating, structural integrity of a body part (like the nose), the ability to lay down such as on the back of the head for example or if it ulcerates like son's did.

The laser treatments are quick and really not painful. My son had 2 for his hemangioma and he was no worse for wear when we left the office.

Definitely get it looked at and monitor it closely. We had a very bad experience as my son was a preemie and his grew very large very quickly (not typical for most hemangiomas) while he was in the NICU. I feel like we didn't get the best advice/care while he was in the NICU as it related to his hemangioma and once we got him home and to another doc things got better but damage to his skin had already been done.

Hemangioma is listed on many good websites like Mayo clinic.