Ellis came home and life was never to be the same again!

The pale red patch across the right side of his face began to darken, almost overnight at 2.5 weeks old, and looked like a rather angry heat rash. A visit to the GP's dismissed the mark as just that or an angry reaction to an unknown substance. We were a little reassured.

However, when the mark continued to rapidly swell, thicken and darken dramatically at 3 weeks, we returned to the GP who advised us that it was now looking like a hemangioma or strawberry birthmark, albeit it larger than those more commonly seen. The GP immediately referred us to a specialist birthmark clinic at Bedford Hospital.

We met Dr Monk, a skin specialist and head of the Laser Treatment Unit at Bedford. Worryingly, Dr Monk was concerned with the potential loss of sight in Ellis' right eye due to the swelling of the eye area. Though the eye itself was not damaged, if it remained closed for a period in excess of 3 weeks the brain would cease to process images received by that eye. He advised us that we must frequently and regularly pull the eyelid open to allow light and stimulation to the eye. He also advised that we should immediately begin Ellis on a high dose of oral steroids, Prednisolone, which could not halt the mark, but would slow the growth of it.

We learnt a significant amount about hemangiomas in those 2 hours. We learnt that the NHS would not recommend surgical intervention before the age of approximately 6. We did have the option of laser treatment to the skin, which basically burns the skin surface and lightens the mark, but this is a long road to travel and in Ellis' case would require quarterly treatments for a number of years, though it would do nothing for the swelling of the mark, nor help Ellis to open what was an impossibly heavy eyelid. In addition, we were advised that Bedford clinic performed laser treatment with local anaesthetic only and that the treatment was likely to be discomforting and distressing for Ellis.

Dr Monk told us of another baby with a mark like Ellis', a little girl who was now 4 years old. We looked at pictures and the similarity in the size of the birthmarks was astounding; we also saw that this little girl at age 4 was remarkably improved through regular and consistent laser treatment. Fortunately this little girl did not have the birthmark so significantly around her eyes, and though she had some scarring, the residue of overly stretched skin, she looked fantastic.

We liked Dr Monk very much. He reassured us massively, and like us, was dismayed at the lack of general knowledge about birthmarks which may have resulted in our sons loss of sight. Time was clearly of the essence and so we took our prescription for steroids, had another appointment at the laser clinic for 6 weeks time, an appointment with an eye specialist and kept our fingers very tightly crossed.

We went home to update our families and trawl the internet for every tiny piece of information we could find on strawberry birthmarks.