Doc, Was it Because I Ate Strawberries While Pregnant?

This 6-month old baby girl was born with red birth marks above her right eyebrow and the mother became alarmed when a large red mass began to appear in the right eye which grew rapidly. She was told by her doctor this was a strawberry naevus and referred for urgent treatment. The mother thought it was caused by her eating strawberries duing pregnancy until we explained to her that this was a type of congenital eyelid anomalies caused by overgrowth of blood vessels (haemangioma) and not associated with any food intake at birth. Strawberry naevus is common in babies and most disappear spontaneously without leaving any serious problems. However, in some patients, the lesion can grow to a huge size and interfer with important structure such as the eye as in this patient. The right eye was completely covered by the red mass which grew from below the right upper eyelid. Because the eye was occluded there was a risk that the right eye may become lazy eye as it was not receiving proper visual stimulation during growth. Consequently, it was importat to treat the condition urgently (to be continued ............)

The right eye was competely covered by a red mass.

The mass arose from under the right uppe eyelid.