In all commercials and in photos in magazines, newborns and babies look like pink peaches - their skin is soft, velvety, even, uniform color. In life, things are often completely different. The color of the baby's skin is striking in its diversity and variability. The greatest number of anxieties and worries in young mothers and fathers is caused by marble skin in a child, when the vessels show through and form a pattern resembling the appearance of marble. We will tell you about what it is and whether it is dangerous in this article.
What it is
Marble skin in babies is a very extensible and voluminous concept. Unusual shade and peculiar pattern on the skin can be both a sign of illness and a variant of the physiological norm. Usually, marbling is noted on the entire area of the skin, although in certain cases the marble "mesh" can form only on the cheeks or only on the arms of the child.
The general color of the skin can be either pale or reddish, and the vascular network itself, which forms the marble pattern, is both reddish and all shades of blue.
By itself, marbled skin is not considered a pathology; such a symptom is always evaluated in combination with other possible diseases and conditions.
Most often, marbling is observed in children who have inherited light, pale skin from their parents. Swarthy babies show such color of the skin much less often.
Physiological origin
In 90% of cases, such skin in a child speaks of quite understandable and harmless reasons. The skin of newborns is much thinner and more vulnerable than the skin of adults. It is more susceptible to any external influences, and primarily to temperature extremes. If an adult does not feel a difference of 1-2 degrees, as a rule, at all, then for a newborn such a drop is very noticeable.
Thermoregulation in babies who are just born is imperfect. And the circulatory system is just being rebuilt for independent work, deprived of placental recharge. The vessels and capillaries themselves are too close to the skin. Under the influence of a variety of external factors, including temperature changes, some vessels can expand, others - narrow. Widened through the skin appear more red, narrowed - more blue. This is how marbling is formed.
Sometimes the skin can have such an unusual color, if the child is bathed in cool water, changed in a cool room, and can be almost constantly marbled, only slightly changing the intensity and outline of the marble pattern. There are no other alarming symptoms with physiological marbling, the child is healthy, eats well, sleeps, develops and gains weight within average norms. Parents are satisfied with absolutely everything except the baby's skin tone.
This condition does not require any treatment or other measures. Usually, by 3-4 months, the child has thermoregulation, blood circulation in small vessels improves, and the mesh disappears by itself. This process can be delayed, but after six months, physiologically conditioned marble mesh is already a rarity.
Most often, such a harmless natural marbling is characteristic of babies who were born after a difficult and long childbirth, babies who experienced hypoxia while in the womb, premature toddlers, as well as children who have suffered an intrauterine infection.
Pathological origin
Marble patterns on the skin can indicate possible health problems. In this case, skin manifestations are combined with other symptoms and signs characteristic of a particular disease.
Such an unusual skin quite often accompanies a cyst or dropsy of the brain, congenital heart defects, encephalopathy obtained during the perinatal period.
Marbling in this case has a painful shade (similar in appearance to gray marble), the skin is pale, the vessels are narrowed, the vascular network is cyanotic. The skin is almost constantly cool and tends to sweat; the nasolabial triangle is often bluish in color.
Parents will definitely not have to guess about the reasons for such a marble shade at home, since almost all diseases that accompany such skin color are easily diagnosed in the early neonatal period, and parents will find out about such ailments, if not in the maternity hospital, then during the first routine medical examination which takes place in 1 month.
Quite often, parents of babies notice the appearance of marbled skin during a child's illness, against a background of high temperature. In this case, we can talk about the so-called white fever - a condition in which a spasm of peripheral vessels occurs in a child against a background of heat. At high temperatures, the child's hands remain cold, and a marble mesh may appear on the skin.
Rare causes
There is a syndrome of marbling of the skin in medical encyclopedias. This is a very rare congenital disease that is associated with vascular pathology. Since 1970, just over 200 cases of true marbling have been reported worldwide. In addition to the unusual appearance of the skin, anomalies in the development of blood vessels cause other changes in the child's body. All of them are perfectly diagnosed immediately after birth. True marbled skin is accompanied by microcephaly of the brain, giant, including flaming nevi.
With a rare congenital disease in a child, in addition to marbling, there is an asymmetry of the face and body, limbs, gross pathologies in the structures of the brain and central nervous system. The skin with this ailment has a permanent purple hue. The vascular mesh is very clearly visible. To confirm such a diagnosis, a geneticist will have to make an intercom with foreign colleagues, since in Russia, the disease is extremely poorly understood, and all the bright, described and relatively studied cases were registered mainly in the West, although it is difficult to make forecasts for congenital marbling there - too little practice.
Diagnostics
If at some point the parents found signs of marbling of the skin in a newborn, there is no need to panic, but such a sign cannot be ignored either. If the marble pattern appears over and over again, you need to try to understand what factors are favorable for it and be sure to tell the pediatrician about it at the next appointment.
If the child's condition inspires more real concerns and there are other symptoms of a possible pathology, then it is impossible to hesitate to see a doctor.
Depending on the condition of the baby, the doctor prescribes consultations with a cardiologist, pediatric neurologist, rheumatologist. Diagnostic methods include ultrasound examination of the heart and large vessels, ultrasound of the brain (until the fontanelle is tightened, later - MRI). An electrocardiogram and an encephalogram can tell a lot about the baby's health. It is possible that the child will need a consultation with a dermatologist.
How to treat?
Physiologically caused marbled skin does not need treatment. The condition goes away on its own and in a fairly short time, on average in 2-3 months. To help the child acquire a strong vascular tone, parents can practice daily firming massage, pouring cool water on the baby after the main bath (according to the method of pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky, for example). The child will benefit from long walks in the fresh air, strengthening exercises and daily nude air baths.
It is good to practice early swimming. For the smallest (from 1 month old) for swimming, you can use special orthopedic circles on the neck.
A kid prone to marbling of the skin, it is categorically impossible to overfeed or overheat. This only aggravates the strange skin manifestations. Treatment of pathological causes depends on what specific disease is detected. Many problems with blood vessels and congenital heart defects, which are manifested at a very early age by marbling of the skin, require prompt or somewhat delayed surgical treatment.
In conservative therapy, vascular preparations, vitamins, physiotherapy procedures are used. The main goal of treatment is to increase blood microcirculation, to strengthen the walls of blood vessels. Usually, the symptoms of marbled skin, if they are caused by pathology, disappear after the underlying cause of the vascular problems has been eliminated. There are no medications that would help specifically for the strange color of the skin.
Most reliable medical sources cannot report anything about the treatment of congenital true marbling, since effective and proven methods of therapy for this extremely rare disease have not yet been developed. There are only hypotheses and theories.
Interesting Facts
A few facts about marbled leather:
- Marbling of the skin can appear after a long and strong cry. It is not dangerous and goes away on its own.
- In 2% of "marble" babies, such a pattern on the skin persists as an episodic manifestation up to 3 years.
- In 1-2% of newborns and infants who have no health problems, it is not possible to establish the true cause of marbled skin. In this case, doctors indicate that the reasons are idiopathic.
- Children's physiological marbling of the skin can be inherited. If mom or dad had this skin after birth, then in a child it will also temporarily become marbled with a high degree of probability.
- Children who are overfed often develop physiological marbling.
- A permanent marble mesh on a baby's skin may indicate that he or she has increased intracranial pressure. You should definitely visit a neurologist.
- 95% of children born with the genetic Edwards and Down syndromes have marbling.
- Children who, after birth, showed their parents a "beautiful" marble mesh on their skin, at a later age, the skin is more susceptible to injury - they often develop bruises and bruises, even with a slight impact or careless touch of hard objects.
All about the features of the skin of newborns, see the next video.
