When is an outie an umbilical hernia?

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

I accept I am probably paranoid. I had an inguinal hernia as a toddler, my sister had one too, and both my nan and auntie have umbilical hernias. I have hypermobility syndrome, we're under genetic testing now to check for ehlers danlos, so there is a possible link to that. I also have anxiety and worry about bothering the GP as i already see her so often with my crappy health.

2.4 yo ds2 is my has an "outie" belly button that seems to protrude more than usual. When he pulls his stomach in, it seems to stay in the same place, while the skin around it moves in (if that makes sense?). But then, as silly as if sounds, I havent seen many "outies" and dont know if its just normal. Google is not helping, just tells me that an outie can be a hernia and that it usually resolves in babies by 1 year old. Or it can just be scar tissue.

Thanks :)

If you put pressure on it with a finger can you invert it?

Outie belly buttons are usually fairly firm whereas an umbilical hernia has a bit of bowel in it so it would be quite squishy and will tend to "give" under a little bit of pressure from a finger, often allowing you to push it in the way quite a bit- feels a bit like a water balloon. You can also sometimes hear little gurgles of bowel sounds if you press on them as above.

Either way, you generally don't need to do anything about it. Maybe the next time your DS has to see the GP get them to have a quick look. No urgency to it.

HTH!

Thats fab, thanks! I'll have a squidge of him tomorrow