and rashes in the first few weeks of life.
This is a common skin rash in babies and occurs often by day 2 or 3 of life. The rash consists of white spots which feel raised to touch which are surrounded by redness - a bit like a white head pimple surrounded by a red area.
The spots occur all over the body (but not the palms of the hands or soles of the feet) and can come and go.
No treatment is required. The rash will eventually disappear by itself after a few days but they can come back over the first few weeks.
These are blue spots that look a lot like bruises and are usually located at the base of the spine or over the buttocks. This infant skin rash syndrome is more common in babies of African-American, Afro-Caribbean or Asian ethnicity.
They don't cause any pain and will eventually fade by themselves. No treatment is required.
Stork Marks or Salmon Patches (Capillary Hemangioma)
These are pink / red marks often on the forehead between the eyes and on the nape of the neck. They are very common. They fade over the first year of life although they can become more prominent with crying. The patches on the neck may stay for longer than a year but they will be covered with hair eventually and are not a problem. The top picture shows a stork mark (salmon patch) on the central forehead. This is quite a common infant skin rash syndrome.
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Strawberry Hemangioma
Also known as strawberry nevus and cavernous hemangioma.
This common infant skin rash syndrome is not usually present at birth but appears a few days later usually as a small bright red spot. The spot gets progressively larger over the first few months of life and looks like a strawberry. By 12 months of age, the strawberry is starting to shrink in size and it will have usually disappeared completely by 5 years of age.
No treatment is required. If the strawberry is knocked, it can bleed - just apply firm pressure until the bleeding stops.Sometimes there will be a hemangioma that is completely below the surface of the skin - in these cases, there will be a swelling that is soft to touch and gives a blue tinge to the skin. Occasionally such a swelling will have a strawberry on top like the photo on the right. This type of hemangioma is also likely to shrink in size. Occasionally strawberry hemangiomas are in places that interfere with normal life - around the eye, around the mouth and neck. In those cases, treatment with laser or steroids may be required.
Remember, a strawberry hemangioma gets bigger before it starts to shrink.Back to list
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