What is a strawberry birthmark? Our MummyPages Voices blogger...

Picture via Instagram

We love every bit of our kids - every scar, every birthmark, every freckle. Sometimes, though, those blemishes can worry us, especially as new mums.

Amy Jane Sheahan is one of our wonderful Voices bloggers, who has written on everything from raising preteens to the struggle to 'have it all'. She recently shared a photo of her beautiful son Bobby with his strawberry birthmark on Instagram.

"This pic was taken a year ago and you can clearly see Bobby’s beautiful Strawberry Birthmark. This is something that before he was born I had no idea they even existed!" the mum explained.

"Basically, it was not there when he was born but appeared after a few weeks and it wasn’t something we just woke up to, it seemed to just gradually get bigger and after seeing a specialist we were told that in fact these are very common,"

This pic was taken a year ago and you can clearly see Bobby’s beautiful Strawberry Birth Mark . This is something that before he was born I had no idea they even existed! Basically, it was not there when he was born but appeared after a few weeks and it wasn’t something we just woke up to, it seemed to just gradually get bigger and after seeing a specialist we were told that in fact these are very common and although we could try some sort of heart medication ( I think ) it would purely be for aesthetic reasons so we decided no way to that option. We said we’ll just see how it goes as we were told that it will gradually get smaller and smaller and disappear. So we did and now he is 16 months and thankfully you can barely see it anymore His hair covers it almost completely but it has also totally shrunk. I actually love it as it is part of him but the only thing I used to find hard in the early days was other children ( as they all do and I’m sure I did as a child ) used to come up and say “Oh what’s that thing on his head ?” And that used to break my heart for him, although he of course was oblivious I just wanted to share this in case other Mums are at that early stage of wondering about their child’s special strawberry or if in fact like me you never even heard of them #strawberrybirthmark #specialstrawberry #mylittlemummyblog #beautifulbirthmark #instamoms #momblogger #parenting #ourstory #mybabyboy xoxo

A post shared by Amy Jane (@mylittlemummyblog) on Jan 12, 2018 at 1:52am PST

While a specialist said they could use heart medication to get rid of the birthmark, Amy thought 'it would purely be for aesthetic reasons so we decided no way to that option'.

"We said we’ll just see how it goes as we were told that it will gradually get smaller and smaller and disappear. So we did and now he is 16 months and thankfully you can barely see it anymore.

"His hair covers it almost completely but it has also totally shrunk. I actually love it as it is part of him but the only thing I used to find hard in the early days was other children (as they all do and I’m sure I did as a child) used to come up and say 'Oh what’s that thing on his head?'

"And that used to break my heart for him, although he, of course, was oblivious. I just wanted to share this in case other Mums are at that early stage of wondering about their child’s special strawberry or if in fact like me you never even heard of them."

A post shared by Amy Jane (@mylittlemummyblog) on Dec 25, 2017 at 4:25am PST

Strawberry birthmarks, known scientifically as infantile haemangiomas, are surprisingly common, affecting five percent of babies, according to the NHS.

They usually grow quickly in size within the first six months, and then shrink before disappearing by the time the child turns seven. The birthmarks may need to be treated if they interfere with vision or feeding, but are otherwise benign.

Does your little one have their own special strawberry, mums? What happened to their birthmark?