Inguinal hernia in baby girl

[SJ789]

Hello

I'm really hoping someone who has experienced this will be able to give me some words of advice as I am desperate. I have just spent another night in a&e with my 4 month old baby girl as a lump keeps popping up in her groin, which is believed to be an inguinal hernia. She has been referred for an ultrasound by the gp to confirm this but I am still waiting for this appointment.

When the lump appears she screams and screams in agony and is totally inconsolable, it is awful to see how distressed she is. The previous advice I have been given by drs is to try and push the hernia back in when it comes out, but she is screaming so much it makes it a solid lump and she just screams more when I touch it I am terrified of putting any pressure on it. Each time it has eventually gone back in by itself but this can be after a good hour or more of her screaming.

I take her to a&e as I am frightened the hernia will become strangulated, last night the dr advised me if it had become strangulated it would change colour in the area and she would start vomiting, so next time I should only take her to a&e if that happens or if after she has calmed down the lump is still hard and will not push back in. But I feel awful leaving her to scream for such a long period of time clearly in agony, I feel I don't want to wait until it becomes an emergency such as strangulated before I take her to a&e.

From my own research I understand this is more common in premature babies (which she was) but is also more common in boys. So I'm really hoping someone who has experienced this with a girl can please tell me what happened to them/what process you had to go through to get this resolved (understand it may vary in different hospital trusts) but really how long did you have to wait? Everything I've read says an operation is required to fix an inguinal hernia but the dr last night seemed to suggest an operation may not be necessary if it can heal on its own? My understanding was that inguinal hernias cannot repair on their own.

Thank you for reading sorry for the long post and if it doesn't all make sense I have not had much sleep! (Also just to state I would welcome any experiences from parents who have had baby boys with inguinal hernias also, just really hoping someone else with a girl can advise too as pretty much everything I see online is about this happening in boys so I feel a bit alone in this situation). I just can't relax I'm so on edge all the time of when it is going to happen again, I can't bear seeing her in so much pain.

Thank you

I'm not sure if my experience is going to be helpful or not tbh but we noticed an inguinal hernia on my DD at age 7, were told it definitely needed repairing and waited about 6 months for an operation. Nothing ever popped out of it but we were told to go to A&E if it did because it could cut off the blood supply to a section of bowel or an ovary.
My DS has an umbilical hernia which is expected to repair itself but we were told the same about seeking urgent medical help if something pops out that you can't push back in. So I think you're doing the right thing in going to A&E every time.

@UnbeatenMum thank you for your response. 6 months seems like such a long time to wait it's probably not in the grand scheme of things but when I see her going through this agony every couple of weeks I really hope I don't have to wait that long

She has an umbilical hernia as well which as you say they are expected to repair themselves, it just seemed strange to me the dr said the inguinal hernia could also do this when all I've read states an operation is required to fix which was obviously the case with your daughter.

Thank you again I appreciate you sharing your experience

Hi, sorry I know the post is a year old. Just wondered how you got on? I’m in a similar situation with my 3month old little boy and waiting on an appointment 😩

Hey also wondering how you got on? My 11 week old little girl has one and waiting for an appointment with the paediatric surgeons, the ultrasound said her ovary was poking through, I’m worried she’ll be left infertile 😪 x

Same! My baby boy is 11 weeks (5 corrected) he seemed constipated at the min which is very unusual for him and the hernia seems to have moved lower in the groin. It isn’t always present or ‘out’, we have an initial apt with hosp on 21st march with a consultant but seems so long. He seems to be crying out at night In his sleep I wonder if it’s the hernia / constipation 😞

@Sydney1986x my little girl is the same at night crying out and seems unsettled a lot of the time more so than my other children were, I haven’t got our appointment through yet x

I know this is an old thread but I’ve seen the recent queries - I wasn’t OP but my daughter had an inguinal hernia -diagnosed at 4 weeks and ended up getting her ovary stuck in it at 11 weeks old and only diagnosed after going to and from GP and being told it was colic etc - she was so upset , inconsolable and I knew it wasn’t colic or refluxcrying. she was in pain and gradually feeding less and clearly becoming more uncomfortable .Fortunately (I think) we go to the hospital a lot anyway as she has heart issues and on that particular day I said I was concerned and the doctor said it was probably nothing but he had learned to listen to mums - anyway called a general surgeon down, they placed hands on the lump , couldn’t get it back in and said it was an ovary . straight in for surgery later that day and back home the next day . Trust your instincts.