Tummy button hernia- anyone else?

[Brynmummy]

My 7 week old used to have a normal belly button, but (after a whole morning of straining and wriggling) I noticed it had popped out and he had a buldge in his groin. We called 111 and saw an emergency gp - diagnosed hernias. Does anyone else have experience of a belly button hernia? His really sticks out and if you push on it it squelches. It doesn't seem to hurt him, but I am worried - how on earth does it go back in and heal naturally as the gp suggests it will? Any personal experiences? He often strains for a few hours morning and night to push out wind or a poo.

I don't have any personal experience, but from what friends have said about their dc's umbilical hernias, I don't think Dr will do anything until they're at least 2years to give it chance to fix itself as child grows.

My ds has this. I took him as a baby as they said if it hadn't corrected itself by age 3 then they would operate.
I took him about a month ago because it still sticks out (he's 4) and the doc said just to leave it, nothing to worry about unless it gets sore etc.

So ds has an 'outy'

Dd had one , she's 4 now and it's gone.

My dd2 has had one since birth. I discussed it with midwives, HVs and our GP at the time: all said nothing would be done until she was 2yo.

She's 2.6yo now and although it has gone inwards somewhat, I can still feel the bulge directly behind her belly button.

I'm keeping my eyes on it, but won't do anything unless it becomes a concern.

(FWIW, I had an undetected belly button hernia. It popped out a bit a few years ago and I had minor surgery to repair it. In/out in a day, no overnight stay, all better 3w later).

My DD has one - she's 5 now and the GP has said to leave it unless she's bothered by it.

My DS had one too, it popped out around 5 weeks old and was really big! He's 9 months now and it's completely gone, could never tell he'd had it. I don't remember exactly when it started to go away maybe around 5 months? Our GP told us he'd see him again after his 1st birthday if it was still there and reassess. Obviously we won't need to do that now thankfully. I think a large percentage of children with them do fix spontaneously :)

Yes, DS had one. He's fine now too but still has an outy. I don't think it hurts them or bothers them so try not to worry.

DS2 had one and also had a large hernia in his groin at a month old. As he was horrendously jaundiced the surgeon was reluctant to operate until the jaundice was resolved so we had a nervous few weeks until they would operate to repair it. The surgeon said that they usually leave umbilical hernias as they generally right themselves but he then decided to repair them both at the same time as it was large and he reckoned it wouldn't repair itself.

The belly button one did seem to grow and grow and was larger than the baby's foot. When he fed you could see fluid passing through the gut in the hernia. The medical staff all seemed to have a mantra of "no need to operate, it isn't causing any discomfort" but DS2 was tense and uncomfortable until after the operation.

The surgeon sort of folded the skin to create a belly button but it does look as if it is stuck on to a flat surface. He is quite proud of it though!