General anaesthetic risks?

[shakespeare]

I'm having a diffcult time working out whether or not to go ahead wth an operation for my 5 month old daughter. She has a strawberry birthmark on her cheek, about 5mm diameter - not in a spot where it is impeding vision, breathing, etc, but it does bleed a lot. Unfortunately because of its location, and the fact that she likes to rub her face on cot mattress when falling asleep/sleeping, it keeps rupturing.

She is now on waiting list for an operation where paediatric surgeon will inject small amount of steriod into the birthmark. It won't go away, but he said this would flatten it out so that it is harder for her to rupture.

What is worrying me is that this has to be done under general anaesthetic - he says he wouldn't go near a baby's eyes with a needle while awake. He says of course there is always a slight risk when putting a person (not just a baby) under general anaestetic, but I need to decide whether I want to take this risk for her.

I'm trying to decide whether the risk of putting a baby under general anaesthetic outweights the risks of not doing anything - she loses a lot of blood when it ruptures - possibility of anaemia as well as infection.

I've tried keeping it covered up with bandaid, but she reacts badly to the sticky stuff - maybe this is something she will grow out of?

[sopolicha]

My daughter has one on the back of her head. The paed. said that it is a capillary haemangioma. Some of the midwives said when she was in hospital that it was a strawberry birthmark and others said differently (surprise, surprise).

It would be about 5cm in diameter and when she smaller it would often bleed when she was her cot, or if she rubbed her head on the back of her high chair or wherever she was sitting. It really did stick out a fair bit.

My nice GP at the time told me to put some sheepskin under it when she lies down and this did help.

As she grew it stopped bleeding and the skin seemed to thicken up making it a bit tougher.

The thing with blood is that when you see it lying around where it is not supposed to be, it always looks like a lot more than it really is (if that makes sense), so you always get a fright with it.

Maybe you could try putting her on some sheepskin to sleep to stop the rubbing or see what other coverings you can get from the chemist until it heals properly.

For me personally, I reckon I would try and avoid the general anaesthetic if I could. But I can understand the surgeon's point of view - less risk to your bubby.

[Rell]

My son was 3 weeks old when he had to be put under anasthetic for an operation on his stomach. For us it wasn't an option with out the op nothing would be able to pass through his stomach. He came out of the op with no problems, for me the worst thing was handing him to the anethasist, I felt sick and started to cry.
I guess with any anasthetic there is risks, do what you feel is right. Just thought I would share my positive experiance.

Good luck

[wattle]

Hi. My little one has had two operations (he is 7 months), one was last week. Both times it was hard, and I cried too, but he came out fine and the hospital staff were great.

It was a hard decision for us, but we researched it well and arranged to have the best surgeon in his field which helped us to feel as confident as possible. I hope you find the right answer for you - sometimes being a parent can mean making really hard decisions.

[talon]

My 5 1/2 month old just had an operation last week which required a general anasethitic - i asked my doctor what the risks were associated with a general prior to approving the procedure and he basically said that the main risk with this age group is their breathing. They will not go ahead with it if they have any respiratory difficulties at the time of the procedure e.g. a cold, chest infection etc. They should check your child on the day of the operation and will decide at that stage whether to go ahead with it. My son was given gas to knock him out. No needle was put in until after he was asleep for fluids etc.

Hope this helps. Make sure you ask your doctor for further info though as there are probably other risks also.

[xkwzit]

Hi
I'm sorry that your DD has this problem and its unfortunate that she reacts to the bandaids. She probably won't grow out of that problem (I always react to bandaids if they're on long enough and so do my DDs), but maybe you can try diff kinds - there might be one she doesn't react to. It would make sense to me that she might grow out of the bleeding problem as her skin toughens up - maybe you can hold off for a while (and I thought the sheepskin idea is BRILLIANT :) ).

Cheers

[shakespeare]

Thanks for replies. My husband and I have decided against the operation, we would never forgive ourselves if something happened, and its not essential, we can manage the other problems. We've got her a woolly underblanket to see if that helps, and are trying different sticking tapes from the chemist.

Cheers