What it is
These soft, raised, strawberry-red marks are actually tufts of extra blood vessels; they can be as small as a freckle or as large as a coaster. Seen mostly on the chest, upper back, and head, they are sometimes present at birth, but more often appear in the first few weeks of life.
An estimated one in ten babies is born with a strawberry hemangioma. Some may get bigger for a while, but most eventually stop growing and fade to a pearly gray before disappearing completely. Some go away by the time kids start preschool, most of the rest vanish by the elementary years, and virtually all are gone without a trace by adolescence.
What causes it
A strawberry hemangioma is caused by immature veins and capillaries that broke away from the circulatory system during fetal development.