I noticed a mark on my son's head one morning when I got him up from his nap. He is 14 month old. The pediatrician said, "it's weird" and gave me fungus and eczema cream and said to take him to a dermatologist if it didn't clear up in three days. Well, it didn't. It is about 2 inches long and looks like a caterpillar. The edge is red and the inside is flesh colored, albeit a little scaly. The dermatologist called it a nevus sebaceous and said to keep an eye on it but it is essentially a birthmark that appears after birth. Apparently, in very rare cases it can turn to melanoma around puberty/due to hormonal changes. Do any of you have any experience with this???
Our son was born a NS on the back of his head. Our story is quite similar to your first response. He had 2 surgeries to have it removed (due to the size) by Dr. Wagner with Children's Memorial.
Our five year old son has a NS mark on his cheek, which he's had since birth. We have his pediatrician check it during his annual well visit. We also keep an eye on it for any changes - to date there have been none. His pediatrician says that as long as there are no changes, there is no need to remove it. However, we plan to consult a pediatric plastic surgeon and have it removed as he gets closer to puberty.
I would definatly get a second opinion! My sister's son was born with this and none of the nurses knew what is was. Her doctor told her that after puberty 1 in 10 of these can become cancer! With puberty it will grow and become warty and scaly. She is currently seeing a pediatric dermatologist and making plans to have it removed when he is 2.
Good luck!
My daughter was born with one on the back of her head (she's now 8 months). Our pediatrician sent us to a peds dermatologist, Dr. Wagner and she told us that it is basically a high concentration of sebaceous glands. It's not life threatening, but it could potentially get very gross looking around puberty and/or turn into basel cell carcinoma. She recommended removing it, we could do it now or wait till she's 7 or 8 and bring her back then. We're going to have the surgery soon, the scar will be smaller and she won't have any memory of the surgery - as opposed to taking her in when she's 7 and then they remove it with a local.
My daughter had it, and we had it removed when she was about 16 months. What I learned is that along with a low possibility of becoming cancerous, the area will usually become raised, bumpy and oily (it's essentially a large cluster of oil glands) at puberty. Hers was close to her face on the scalp, and I didn't want her to suffer through that later in life, so we had a plastic surgeon remove it. It was covered by insurance, and a very easy procedure. If it is not in an obvious spot for your son, you may want to wait.
I did have a friend who didn't know her daughter had this condition, and when she was about 11 or 12, they were on a cruise, and all of a sudden, it became bumpy and oily and raised on her head. They thought she had brain cancer or something, but it was just the nevus sebaceous, and when they went home, she got it removed.
I have a small birthmark on my head that sounds very similar to that. Its never bothered me much except for it also being a bald spot essentially. I'm 28 now and I'm just fine. :-)
