These marks occur in nearly half of all newborns, due to a stretched out (dilated) blood vessels under thin skin. This is why it becomes darker or lighter, when the child cries, when temperature changes or when you put pressure on it.
Stork bites in the face tend to disappear spontaneously during the first years of life. However, stork bites in the neck could remain for a longer period of time or become permanent.
Try our FREE dermatology search engine and get peace of mind within a second
Symptoms
Stork bites manifest themselves as salmon-colored patches on the forehead, eyelids and neck. They can also appear on the back, legs and arms.
The marks are usually flat and in irregular shapes. However, some of them may appear as a bump. The size varies as well.
A newborn’s appearance changes as the skin develops and thickens. More than 95 percent of stork bite birthmarks lighten and fade away completely.
What can I do?
Do not blame yourself or think there is anything you could have done differently while pregnant. Birthmarks are extremely common and over 95 percent of stork bites lighten and fade away completely. There are no known cause to the birthmarks, thus no way to prevent them.
Try our FREE dermatology search engine and get peace of mind within a second
Should I seek medical care?
It is important to get your newborn’s skin checked out if an unknown mark appears spontaneously. You may want to make sure it is a stork bite or birthmark and not a skin disorder. However, if you are sure the patch is a birthmark, no medical attention is necessary.
Treatment
If a large birthmark does not disappear after several years, you may consider laser treatment. It can reduce the size and appearance of a stork bite.
Laser treatments target the blood vessels underneath the skin. They are painless and effective, but can take more than one treatment to receive the desired results.
If you decide against laser treatments, your child may be able to camouflage the birthmark with makeup later in life.
Try our FREE dermatology search engine and get peace of mind within a second
Source:
U.S National Library of Medicine. Stork bite. Available at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001388.htm
Stanford Medicine. Newborn Nursery at LPCH. Salmon Patch. Available at: https://newborns.stanford.edu/PhotoGallery/AngelKiss3.html
Image Courtesy of Teresahatfield via Wikicommons. Edited and watermarked by First Derm. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stork_Bite.JPG
The Specialist doctor from the University Hospital in Gothenburg, alumnus UC Berkeley. My doctoral dissertation is about Digital Health and I have published 5 scientific articles in teledermatology and artificial intelligence and others.