Dr Phil Kieran: Should my young grandson undergo surgery?

Often called stork bites, salmon patches or angel kisses, they are usually present in the midline and may be symmetrical.

They should be flat and smooth to the touch and can become darker when the baby is crying or straining. We see these in up to 80% of newborns.

Strawberry marks are slightly different. These are raised red spots with sharply visible edges caused by increased blood vessel growth and are frequently seen on the face or around the eyelid region. These are present in about 4% to 5% of babies.

We almost always recommend against intervening for both conditions as most will settle down alone.

Surgery is seldom the better option for a condition that will improve on its own. Although surgical intervention will often result in a quicker result, it carries some risk.

Firstly, there will be a scar; secondly, depending on the size of the benign lesion, there may not be enough surrounding skin to close the wound fully.

For larger lesions or lesions that cause undesirable cosmetic damage, surgery is sometimes needed, but it’s rarely the first-line option.

A strawberry mark, or infantile haemangioma, to give its medical name, will often become more prominent over the first nine to 12 months of a child’s life before starting to shrink.

Most of this growth happens in the first few months, so in your grandson’s case, at six months, it will not likely get any bigger than it is now.

With these lesions, it is not unusual to see evidence left on the skin that the birthmark was there, so sometimes surgery may be advised when the child is older.

However, this surgery will likely be less invasive than if it were attempted too early.

Depending on the lesion’s size or location, doctors sometimes advise treating it at a young age with creams, tablets or injections. If they feel this is necessary, the child will likely be referred to a paediatric specialist.

For ‘stork bites’ on the back of the head or neck, the likelihood is that it will be covered with hair and not visible when the child is older.

Again, this is a reason against intervening too early.

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