What causes baby coffee spots?

Café au lait spots in babies are a relatively rare condition, as it is rare to see obvious traces of café au lait spots on a child's tender skin. However, if they do appear, it means that the condition is quite serious and may affect the child's future growth and development. Therefore, parents should understand the situation and choose the best treatment method. Let’s talk about the causes and treatments of baby coffee spots.

Some babies have brown spots on their faces, necks or other parts of their bodies when they are born. Doctors often call them coffee spots and advise parents to observe them closely and seek timely treatment. So, what exactly are coffee spots?

Café au lait spots, also known as cafe au lait spots, are patches on the surface of human skin that are a mixture of coffee and milk in color. Café au lait spots are a type of hyperpigmented skin disease caused by abnormal secretion of melanin by melanocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis. They are commonly referred to as birthmarks by the general public.

Since café au lait spots urgently need treatment, how can they be completely eliminated? Birthmark experts from Guangzhou 421 Hospital said that in recent decades, treatment methods such as freezing, grinding, and surgery have appeared in the birthmark field, but the results have not been ideal.

Cryotherapy uses liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius and applies it to the surface of coffee spots, causing the skin to freeze and necrotize, allowing new skin to grow; grinding also uses destructive means to remove the epidermis; surgical skin grafting is a "patch" type of treatment method. All three techniques will leave scars without exception, and sometimes the scars are uglier than coffee spots, and the treatment effect is completely unattainable!

Traditional treatments for pigmented skin diseases such as café au lait spots can easily damage the dermis. Once the dermis is damaged, it will automatically produce repairing fibers to form scars. Therefore, after the 1990s, laser therapy became the mainstream technology.

Because laser therapy is highly safe and can selectively remove melanin in the epidermis without damaging normal skin tissue, the scarring rate is extremely low. However, laser also has its limitations. The technology has weak penetration and can only remove melanin in the stratum corneum of the skin, but cannot act on the melanocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis. This results in a low success rate for laser treatment of coffee spots, which either cannot be cured or are prone to recurrence.

In addition, it is recommended to use laser to remove coffee spots:

With the continuous development of cosmetic technology, lasers are now used to treat coffee spots.

The principle of laser treatment of coffee spots:

1. Use Q-switched multi-wavelength laser or Q-switched dual-wavelength ND:YAG laser for treatment, which is more effective but requires several treatments with an interval of 2.5-3 months per treatment.

2. C3 laser and 532 can be used, with a success rate of 50%. It is easy to relapse. If there is no effect after 3 times, treatment is basically not recommended. The principle is that dark color is better, light color is not good. Later auxiliary treatments can also promote recovery through sun protection, moisturizing, whitening injections, repair peptides, etc.

Laser treatment of coffee spots can be completed in a few minutes to tens of minutes through local anesthesia. Laser treatment of coffee spots is very convenient. During the process, only the patient and doctor need to protect their eyes.

The above is what the editor shared with everyone about the causes and specific treatments of coffee spots in babies. Although coffee spots are not harmful, they have a significant impact on the child's appearance and psychology. Therefore, as parents, you should go to the hospital for relevant treatment as soon as you find the situation and truly be responsible for your child's growth. I hope the above sharing can help everyone.