OT - pulsed dye laser treatment

[MaleficentFan]

DD was born with a facial birthmark... port wine stain. It has lightened over the last several months. DH and I have adopted a "wait and see" policy with regard to how and when we consider laser treatment. I have done research on the pulsed dye laser treatment used for facial port wine stains. I was curious if any other Disers have had their children treated in this way for a similar birthmark. If so, how old was your child when treated? How painful was the treatment? What type of after effects/ side effects did the child have? How successful was the treatment? Thanks for any and all info.

 

[SomedayI'llBe]

When I was 4, my grandmother was pulling a hot pan out of the oven and setting it on the table. I accidentally got too close (despite my mother telling me not to) and burned my right cheek. It looked like someone had kissed me with brown lipstick on. A few months after it happened, my parents had the scar lasered off. Now, you can't tell anything happened at all- if you look really closely, you can se a little line on that cheek. But you have to be REALLY close.

 

[Ellester]

One of my good friends has a little boy who has Sturge-Weber Syndrom (a rare birth defect that is associated with port wine stains). His stain covered almost half of his face. They had several treatments at Duke over the course of a few years and they were very successful. They started around 2 years. He is 8 now and it is somewhat noticable, but much lighter. He is very fair, so that may have something to do with it. I know once he reached 4 or so they gave him the option of whether or not to continue the last few treatments and he chose to go ahead with them. Right after the treatments, his face looked pretty bad for a few days. That's when they got the most hurtful comments (what's wrong with that kid? is he contagious? etc.) Good luck with whatever your decision is!

 

[MaleficentFan]

Within the first few weeks of dd's life we had to take her to see a neurologist and an opthamologist for testing to see if there was any indication that she had Sturge-Weber. Thankfully all is well... she continues to show no sign of developmental issues so the doctors are fairly certain she's in the clear. Her birthmark doesn't cover a large portion of her face... it's a somewhat thinner strip along the inside of her left eye, down the bridge of her nose and on the top of her lip on the left side. We probably won't do anything until she's about three... if we do it I want it done before she goes to school... kids can be cruel about this stuff.

We already have experienced people's comments... but remarkably nothing rude or cruel... just curious. Most people ask what happened, as if she's had some type of injury... others have asked if she's having an allergic reaction. I guess that's probably because her mark is fairly light at this point. We've tended to just nonchalantly say "oh, it's a birthmark" and people seem to just move on. I was concerned however that after the treatment she would look like Frankenstein's monster for a while. I am glad to hear that your friends had lasting success with the treatment though!