If your baby has an orange nose – often seen clearly in photographs – you can rest assured it is a good thing that is reversible and harmless. It also appears on the palms of hands and soles of feet and is the result of large quantities of beta carotine in their diet, which can change the pigmentation in their skin. In other words you are doing a good job of giving them healthy and nutritious foods.

If you cut down on certain foods the colouring will disappear. You will notice orange noses with a diet of sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, apricots, yellow split peas, mangoes and peaches. The condition is called carotenodermia. In infants, the discoloration visible on the skin of their nose is called xanthosis cutis. It can also occur in breast milk (particularly in vegetarians) so even if your baby isn’t directly consuming a diet of pumpkin, spinach, corn and egg yolk, they are contributing as well.