Birth Marks and Birth Defects - the need for early intervention
This information is of a general nature only and is for public information and education. Your individual problem needs to be assessed by your family doctor who will advise you on appropriate further steps.
A small percentage of children are born with defects such as red or brown birth marks or floppy and /or misshapen ears.
Traditionally, a wait and watch approach is used, with treatment delayed til much later. Quite often, this works out quite well, but from time to time, this allows the problem to get worse, and eventually, too hard to treat, with resultant deformities in the child and heartache to child and parents.
This traditional approach has been questioned by some, not happy with the we've always done it this way attitude, and wanting to see if there was a better way. Ear defects are a good example. While the size of the ear cannot be changed except with surgery, misshapen, floppy ears can be corrected perfectly well with the use of custom made splints and moulds, with intervention starting in the first week of life and lasting 3 to 4 months.
Another example is the red birth mark, which often appears 2 or 3 weeks after birth as a red dot and which can enlarge in size, sometimes up to a 1000 times! Early assessment, and if necessary, appropriate intervention, is vital, to avoid development of an untreatable situation. This applies also to brown birth marks and other soft tissue birthmarks.
For an expert opinion on the management of birth marks, please contact:
