So, what is an infantile hemangioma?

Plain, and simple: a hemangioma is a benign tumor. Most people know this type of tumor by a different name, strawberry birthmark. But an infantile hemangioma is a mass of tissue and living blood cells. It has veins that deliver blood to it, and it has veins that return that blood to the heart. They appear, often several days after birth, and they grow, sometimes for the first 18 to 24 month's of a child's life.

Hemangiomas are also quite common. According to Medscape, "Infantile hemangiomas occur in 10-12% of white non-Hispanic infants, 1.4% of black infants, and 0.8% of Asian infants." This is a point that leads to some misunderstanding about them. In most babies that have hemangiomas they are small, and occur in an innocuous spot like an arm or a leg. Here they are seen by most pediatricians as harmless, and they are left to go away on their own, often between the child's 5th and 9th year.

But some babies are not so lucky. Their hemangiomas appear on their faces, throats, or heads. As they grow they can cause a wide range of problems, they can constrict airways, place pressure on developing eyes, cause disfigurement, or even place pressure on the brain through a baby's soft spot.

Not all hemangiomas grow at the same rate. Some are extremely aggressive, expanding by inches within months, while others remain small. Some, hemangiomas have another bad habit -- they ulcerate, or open up, creating an open wound and scars on the child.

Most pediatricians have a wait-and-see approach to hemangiomas, chosing to delay any therapy until the path of tumor becomes clear. There are typically three cases when doctors take them more seriously:

When they appear on a part of the body that can impair the child in some way
When they grow especially rapidly
When they ulcerate, creating an open wound

My daughter hit the trifecta. Her hemangioma grew amazing quickly, as can be seen below. It sits above her soft spot, and it opened up, creating a large scab on her head. But it wasn't until that wound showed signs of infection that our pediatrician chose to refer us to a specialist to treat the tumor more aggressively. That may have been because of another truth about hemangiomas, there is no treatment for the tumor that doesn't require some serious education and soul-searching. Next, time I'll talk about hemangioma treatment.

Until then, thank you for stopping by and learning more.