Why do babies have café au lait spots?

While every family is relieved about the smooth delivery of their baby, they will also worry about other new problems. For example, some family members will find that compared with other babies who are born fair and clean, their babies have some brown spots on their skin. These are coffee spots, also called milk spots.

What are coffee stains?

The color of café-au-lait spots is similar to the color of coffee mixed with milk. It is a common pigmentation skin disease. 10% to 20% of the normal population can be seen with a single café-au-lait spot at birth. The color of coffee spots ranges from light brown, tan to dark brown, but each spot is the same and very uniform in color. The depth is not affected by sunlight. The size ranges from a few millimeters to tens of centimeters. The boundaries are clear and the surface skin texture is completely normal.

Causes

This disease is a hereditary skin disease whose pathogenesis is still unclear. It can be a manifestation of various systemic diseases, such as neurofibromatosis, Albright syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, Watson syndrome, Russell-Silver dwarfism, multiple lentigo syndrome and ataxia-telangiectasia.

Differential diagnosis of café au lait spots:

1. Pigmented spots: Mixed nevus is a nevus in which nevus cells and nevus cells are nested in the deep layer of the epidermis and also in the dermis. Common moles have a central bulge that protrudes from the skin and is covered with hair, and are diffusely distributed around the mole with different colors and unclear boundaries. They are components of junctional nevi. Junctional nevi transform into intradermal nevi in ​​childhood, so mixed nevi are rare in the elderly. Both compound nevi and junctional nevi have the potential to become malignant.

2. Skin mottled pattern : Skin mottled pattern is one of the clinical symptoms of sporadic cretinism. During the neonatal period, the patient may have persistent jaundice, difficulty sucking, constipation, difficulty breathing, snoring (nasal congestion, thick tongue), hoarseness, weak crying, little movement, abdominal distension and skin mottling.

3. Skin spots: Dark spots can be divided into two types: congenital and acquired.

treat

Usually no treatment is required. Laser treatment may be used for those who suffer from cosmetic problems, but there is a risk of recurrence.