hernia in groin of DS

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Our DS of 5 weeks has an inguinal hernia and we're seeing the surgeon next Tuesday (19 Oct). Does anyone have experience of this they can share. Are there any non surgical remedies? Anything we shoud ask when we meet the surgeon? If you've had anything like this, did it cause any problems with breast feeding? Any pros or cons with having surgery sooner or later? Than you.

yes, DS had it too.
Had it op'd on at 5wo at St. George's, Tootingm, no problem. Only bf;ing issue was that he had to be nil by mouth for some hours prior to surgery and then he had a bit of troubnle after because of a bit of scratching in his throat from the intubation.

There is no point seeking non-surgical intervention - at that age, it is the tube down which the testes descended that hasn't closed off - the bowel bulges down the tube and runs the risk of constriction and possible necrosis if it gets stuck. It is a very easy, quick operation and best done asap, IMO.

THe scary bit is the general anaesthetic but they are very good. The scar is now virtually invisible. (He's 2.10)

Also - I had to do a fair bit of expressing during the day and we had to stay in overnight post-op but they had a private room for us on the children's ward, so it wasn't a big problem.

The feeding probs post-op were dealt with easily enoughj with a dose of calpol to stop his throat hurting.

Sorry, correction to his age at operation - he was 8wo.

Thank you 3thumbedwitch
Ds goes crazy if he cannto eat when he realises he is hungry - can you remember anything you did to make the nil by mouth experience more bearable for your DS?

I can't, tbh, sorry - but you should be able to get some ideas from the consultant when you see her/him on Tuesday. See if you can get an early op - ours wasn't scheduled until 2pm, but we still had to be there a few hours ahead of that.

My DS has this too, he had the op aged 9 weeks (before his due date, as he was 10 weeks prem- inguinal hernias are quire common in prem boys). The op was very straightforward though due to DS's prematurity we had to stay in one night before the op and one night after. They even managed to do it with a type of spinal anaesthetic rather than under general, though we'd been warned it would probably be a general. Recovery was very swift, now 5.5 years later you can see a faint small neat scar. The hardest part was the nil by mouth prior to the op. He was so ravenous! But fed straight away after the op. I was b'feeding so stayed at the hospital with him the whole time- the op was quick and after 45 mins he was back on the ward. Had no probs with b'feeding after.

Nothing made the nil by mouth thing easier- DS went from being quite upset to being lethargic which was hard to see- though the heat on the ward no doubt added to it. I did lots of pacing the ward with him singing softly to distract him and help him sleep.

Good luck x

PS. I was curious to find out how they kept him still during the op as he was awake- apparently they gave him a mild sedative, help him tightly and gave him a dummy with sugar to suck the whole time! (he didn't have a dummy but obviously didn't mind!). The nurses, well, the whole medical team, were fantastic and as these ops are very common had many tricks up their sleeves to make it as easy as possible

not help- held!