This wasn't the type of conversation piece Omar and I had imagined. When it was at its largest, bulging out so far Freedom's head was diagonal, it attracted not only people's attention on the playground, but also bugs.
What is a Hemangioma Birthmark?
From Google:
An infantile hemangioma (hee-man-jee-OH-muh) is a type of birthmark that happens when a tangled group of blood vessels grows in or under a baby's skin. They're also called strawberry hemangiomas because of their bumpy red appearance.
Freedom was born with a birthmark on the left side of his neck. Our first nurse told us it looked to her like what they call a Strawberry Kiss birthmark. My Dad had one of those in the center of the back of his neck. But as the days moved on another nurse commented that it looked like a strawberry Hemangioma birthmark.
She said it would rise up a little, get kind of puffy and then it would go back down and eventually go away. Sounded easy.
I read a little about it, but didn’t google it because you usually find all the negative stories, so I spared myself. (This picture to the left shows you the typical Hemangioma)
Freedom was about 3 to 4 months old when his birthmark got puffy, but at 5 to 6 months old it grew to what you could say was enormous. It was more than half the size of his head! It was two large, thick humps at the crease of his neck. He was small for his age so learning to hold his head up was potentially more challenging, but that birthmark made it close to impossible. I still didn’t google or look to the internet. I had been reading a few books that really drove home the aspect of positive thinking vs fear based thinking. Much like Christianity, the books talked about creating positive affirmations (prayers) to help keep you thinking only positively in all aspects of your life.
We remained positive and relied on our support group to help us. Our family helped us so much. My Mother-in-Law had used Homeopathics with her children and has never used anything else since. Omar had introduced me to them long before this birthmark situation with Freedom, so we knew right from the start with this that we wanted to handle it with those alternative medicines. We were already giving him Chamomilla but we started to give him Sulphur, which is a remedy used to treat all conceivable skin issues. To help us stay positive we affectionately called it his "Heman." We said it gave him super power to overcome this obstacle. We prayed and asked God for an answer.
It was April 3, 2009 while I was at a short childcare job with Freedom, that his neck began to drip blood. At first I cried and then got it together and called Omar. We reached out to a Homeoapthic Doctor in the area and within the next 24 to 48 hours we had a plan.
Because it was so large and it had 2 huge lumps, they rubbed together. This rubbing caused chaffing and those parts were always an open wound and raw. All the way in the core of it, the ditch if you will, was cracked and blistered. The whole thing was bloody-ish and oozed a clear discharge. It smelled bad after a day had passed, flies were attracted to it, it was a conversation piece at the playground; it was quite a situation.
A typical daily cleansing of his neck
I would steep Sage on the stove.
Sage is a natural antiseptic and has antibiotic properties.
This tea would sit, covered, until room temperature (or reheated until room temperature).
We laid Freedom down on layers of towels and flushed his neck completely as many times as we could. He typically screamed or cried through this part of the process. There were a handful of times he was better with it.
After the sage bath, we doused the area using water with drops of
Calendula tincture.
~a concentrated liquid herbal extract
Calendula officinalis, also known as garden marigold,
has been used for centuries to heal wounds
and skin irratations.
It has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, astringent, antifungal, and antiviral properties making it useful for disinfecting and treating minor wounds, cuts, scrapes, chapped or chafed skin, bruises, burns, athlete’s foot, bee stings, diaper rashes, etc. Plus, it stimulates the production of collagen at wound sites to help minimize scarring and assist with stretch marks. It is gentle enough to use for babies, children, or animals.
We then carefully applied Calendula ointment rather generously. We wanted it to be thick so we used a lot. We used soft, cotton gauze over top of that and then used a soft, cotton wrap to hold it on. We wrapped it so that it went underneath his arms, like chest range so it wouldn’t feel like it was choking him. We had read the miraculous wonders of Calendula and had high hopes that it would heal this birthmark within days or weeks. It turned into about 6 months before the oozing and bleeding and daily above described routine was on it’s way out. I applied a little of Calendula on it regularly until he was about 7.
At 9 to 10 months of age, Freedom's Heman didn’t bleed any more and it didn’t ooze. He could hold his head up fine, and he was sleeping a little bit better. The sleep deprivation we endured during Freedom's first 18 months of life was astounding. (I will write a blog on it at some point!)
Side Note: Freedom had pain associated with digestion. His abdomen would often be the cause of his night time screaming. It wasn't until I was researching Hemangioma's when Freedom was 3 years old that I read babies can have stomach pains due to having a Hemangioma. At the time I continued to remove items from my diet, concentrating solely on the idea that it was his digestion giving him the pain.
We use Calendula in ointment form predominately, but not always. It is without a doubt my go to for all things skin! I had Pregnancy Mask during my pregnancy with my 3rd son and had it on my entire face. It felt like my face was sun blasted, wind blasted and chapped from skiing all day. I used Calendula in tablet form, ointment and tincture. I also used Calendula during the beginning's of nursing. I experienced a paramount of pain and found exceptional relief from it.
When using it as a tincture, there is a recommended number of drops noted on the bottle that you add to a small bowl of water. Soak a cloth in it and then apply that cloth to the wound. I also used Coconut Oil. That oil in particular I found to be very soothing as well.
Calendula Ointment Coconut Oil
Freedom is now 11. He has no pain or issues with his Hemangioma, locally or referred. He is your typical smart-talking boy.
I continue to encourage him to use coconut oil or calendula, whatever we happen to have on hand. And I teach him, along with his brothers, about Homeopathics in our Home school curriculum. We don't know if his Heman will totally disappear, but we know he's gotten the best, organic treatment from Mother nature, and we couldn't have asked for a better solution.
God answered our prayer.
Freedom Ages: 2 - 4 - 11
Our son, Freedom, aspires to be an Ornithologist. He studies birds from all over the globe and teaches us interesting facts about his favorite ones. That has become quite a conversation piece in our house and we are overjoyed by the fruits of our effort.
imagine Excellence #9 Homeopathy Cures Rare Ailments / How we treated RED EYE and GRAY GUMS
much love ~Peace & Blessings
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