Topical Steroid Cream and Infants

My 3 1/2 month old daughter has hemangiomas in a "beard distribution" on her face. After visiting Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago the Ped. Derm. there wants us to start using a very strong topical steroid cream (Temovate - 0.05% clobetasol propionate). When we asked about potential side effects, he mentioned possible thinning of the skin. Reading up on Temovate has revealed a LOT more potential side effects and numerous warnings about using this on children under 12.

I was wondering if anyone else has used this medicine and what their experiences were. The doctor says it will stop or retard any further growth of the Hs, but we are wondering at what cost in terms of our baby girl's health?

Any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

If you look in the section to the left under Research, click on new research, and there is an article about a cream that can be used to treat hemangiomas. I'm not sure if it is the same cream you are describing, but it might not hurt to read it, it sounded extremely positive and encouraging for the treatment of hemangiomas.

Other than that, I have no idea what to tell you. I think going with what you think is the best treatment for your child, is really the only advice I can give you. Good luck!
Liz

My 7 month old daughter has an eyelid hemangioma. We have been using Temovate Cream on the lesion for a few months now. Since her previous 2 steroid injections didn't work and we were told that surgery and laser were not an option (by hometown MD's--not Dr. Waner yet), we felt this was our last ditch effort to stop it from growing. There are a few articles that I have found that show great promise in reducing hemangiomas. I would recommend it. Before faithfully applying it, I believe the hemangioma was growing. But now I think it is at least stabilized. Who knows, though, if it would be stabilized if we weren't using Temovate. She has not had any adverse reactions. The articles mention to use twice daily for two weeks then take a week off and apply again for another course.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I don't mind sending you the journal articles I found.

Cheri

[Tessamarie]

I see that this is an older thread, but I was wondering what the results were of you using Temovate? We just started using this for my daughter and I too noticed all the warnings on the internet about it. Could you tell me if it ended up working? How long did it take to see results?

[abirk]

We used clobetasol for my daughter's h on her nose. We started using it when she was two months old and stopped when she was five months old. We applied a thin coat three times a day and we never had any issues using it. I was also worried about it thinning her skin and it never did. Her h, however, still grew but it did stop growing at five months and is relatively small. Looking back now I wish we had laser it before it raised instead of trying the cream but there is a higher risk of ulcerating when it is in the proliferating stage. We have done six laser treatments from the time she was six months (during the involution stage) and we really happy with the results. Every h is different and will respond differently with different treatments. Did your doctor mention trying propanonol? It is a very new treatment that is seeing great results. It wouldn't do much with our daughter since it has stopped growing but with your child it could be something to look into.

[Dawn and Baby Presley]

hi, we also used this cream, but our daughters Hemangioma was ulcerated so im sure thats why we did not have good results from it. we discontinued the use of it after the prescribed 4 weeks.