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Original poster

Dd has given herself an umbilical hernia - I'm in shock

23 replies

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:05

Somehow dd managed to turn her belly-button inside-out today. NHS Direct said that she should be seen immediately, though she's not in any distress, so I took her to our GP's out-of-hours service. The Dr said that dd's umbilicus had never closed up completely (internally) - which I had always suspected in any case, but hadn't thought that it was a problem. Somehow she managed to stretch it enough that the inside got pushed through. At the moment there is nothing caught in the hole, and nothing should be done, but it may need to be fixed at some time in the future. He said that it will never heal by itself, and that the blob of skin cannot be put back inside.

Dd used to have such a beautiful innie, shaped like a spiral, and now it's not just an outie, but there is literally a little pink marble of flesh sticking out of her belly-button.

I'm gutted. My beautiful daughter - if we don't fix it, how will she feel as a teenager? But a trivial cosmetic reason doesn't warrant the risks of an op under GA. And if there's a risk that something could get trapped, and require emergency surgery, then surely it's better to carry out the surgery planned and not as an emergency.

I just don't know what to think. I keep reminding myself that she's not in any danger, and that there are plenty of worse things mums and dads have to cope with...but I can't help how I feel about it. Dreadfully worried for her.

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Kelly1978 · 17/09/2005 20:08

How old is she? My ds has had oen since he was born - it looks pretty bad, but it should close up on his own by the time he is 12-18 mnths. I'm pretty sure they don't leave it neither - so if it got to a late stage and it is still there they would do an op. They are very common, and I think they nearly always close up. Ds's is getting smaller all the time.

waterfalls · 17/09/2005 20:09

Oh dear, how horrible for you, I have not heard of this before, maybe you could let her decide when she is old enough if she would like it corrected

Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:15

Dd is 2y9m. Her stump dropped off within 2 days, and the scar had obviously not closed. There was a pink patch of membrane or skin visible within her belly-button for ages, at least 18m, but I don't recall seeing it for about a year.

How large is your ds's, and is it a ball of flesh outside his body, IYSWIM? Dd's is about 1cm wide.

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Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:16

Noone mentioned that the early healing or the incomplete belly-button would be a problem, AFAIR. I shall go and see my wonderful HV. No, I mean it literally, she is wonderful. I'm sure she'll tell me to see the GP, but I also know that she will have the patience to listen and talk as well.

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Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:17

That's a good idea Waterfalls.

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starlover · 17/09/2005 20:21

i agree with letting her decide when she is older if she wants it removed.
did the gp see it when she was born?

it's horrible when something like this happens isn't it. i felt the same when i found ds's third nipple! it was like my perfect little boy wasn't perfect any more....

Kelly1978 · 17/09/2005 20:24

my ds's was about 3cms wide at first, now it is about 2cms wide. He also had that membrane thing you mentioned to start with, but his belly buttn popped out very early on. It looks very red and portrudes about 1.5cms as well, but it doesn't bother him. He is now nearly 6 mnths. ASFIK they are completely harmless as long as they remain soft.I pointed it out to my GP at his 6 week check and she didn't seem concerned at all.

Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:27

There was no hernia when she was born. She literally did it this afternoon in the shower at the swimming-pool. She's been fiddling with her belly-button quite a lot recently, just from curiosity, and, apart from making sure she didn't stick anything in it, I let her get on with it. She couldn't do herself any harm - I thought!

I kissed the lump when I changed her nappy this evening - it's part of her and I love all of her and she's still my beautiful girl.

Must have been a shock discovering a third nipple - how old was he when you discovered it? I once met a man with three nipples, so as it happens that was one of the things I looked for when I examined my newborns. But newborn nipples are so pale that it would be easy to miss, I should think!

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Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:30

Phew, thanks Kelly, I do feel relieved. This Dr said that by now the hole will be so small that it won't be possible for the hernia to be pushed back in, but he didn't say anything about shrinking. I wonder whether they can only shrink in such young babies?

What a shock you must have had when it popped out!

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starlover · 17/09/2005 20:36

yeah. i kept trying to convince myself it wasn't there! it doesn't look that nipple-like though.

is there no way they could make the hole bigger and push it back in? under local perhaps?
actually i guess not in a small child... would be kind of scary!

Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:44

I Googled 'umbilical hernia', expecting to get scarey results, but am in fact reassured. No, they don't make the hole bigger, to repair it the make a little slit under the belly-button and reach in to pull the balloon of flesh back inside the body, then they put in a couple of stitches to hold the hole closed. That is if the hole is tiny of course, which is what dd's appears to be.

It would also seem that hernias which appear so late never heal themselves , unlike Kelly's ds's, which may well heal itself completely by the time he is dd's age.

I have also just realised that ds has one too. He always had a beautiful innie, and at some point in the past couple of years it turned into a little in-and-outie (I think I may have commented on it on Mumsnet). But it still looks like a belly-button, IYSWIM.

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starlover · 17/09/2005 20:46

i used to have an outie

til i got fat

Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:47

BTW, about the man I knew with three nipples, the third wasn't wildly obvious. It was paler than the standard pair, and at first I thought it was just a patch of pigmentation or a little mole. He was quite lean, and it wasn't until he leant forward while sitting down and the skin rippled up IYSWIM, that I realised that it was a nipple. He was wearing swimming trunks at the time!

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Original poster

PrettyCandles · 17/09/2005 20:49

Ha ha ha! Now that I'm fat no-one believes that I have always had a very deep innie. I never saw the bottom of my own belly-button until I was about 6m pregnant!

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Kelly1978 · 18/09/2005 14:32

Hi PC, glad to see you not so worried now. It is really just a cosmetic thing, and you do get used to it.

It was a bit of a shock when we first saw ds's, espec for dp. but something had stuck in my head about hernias, and I googled and worked out what it was. ds's can be pushed in and out, and I can feel the edges of the little space it pokes through. Doesn't feel too nice, but I don't really think about it now!

Original poster

PrettyCandles · 18/09/2005 15:07

Dh is worried about what will happen when dd is pregnant if we don't repair it now - whether the strain would be too much both as her belly grew and then during the birth.

My belly button never turned out, it just became flat. I wonder, when it literally pokes out of a pregnant woman's tummy, is that effectively an umbilical hernia? Does that only happen to women who had an invisible hernia?

I shall take dd to the GP next week, at least get a referal to a consultant so that I can ask all my questions.

Oh it's quite a journey, being a parent!

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Aragon · 18/09/2005 15:49

DS had a huge umbilical hernia when he was a few weeks old and it went when he was about 8 months. Now it's a bit of a baggy belly button (well loose - don't really know how to describe it).

foxinsocks · 18/09/2005 16:02

pretty candles, my dd had an epigastric hernia (so further up the chest). They operated on it when she was just over 4 - it was a very tiny one!

I remember the surgeon saying that they leave hernias till they are a certain age (I think it differs for each type of hernia) - I know the GP thought he would leave dd's till she was around 5 but the surgeon didn't think it would close on it's own - and once they've got to that age, if it hasn't gone away, they tend to fix them. So it may be a case of waiting to see what happens! But I know, it's awful when things like happen. What a fright you must have got!

PollyLogos · 18/09/2005 16:47

I don't know if this is relevant, but my dd always had an 'outie' It never bothered her apart from the fact that she always pulled the waistbands of trousers down under it and would never wear skirts.

Around her 4th birthday she had a small op. to correct it. We decided to do it because of the clothing problem and we didn't want her to be too self concious to wear bikinis etc. She's now 15 and you really can hardly tell that she has had it done.

Original poster

PrettyCandles · 19/09/2005 13:27

I've just been to see our GP, and he says that he doesn't believe that there is a hernia there at all. He had a good poke around, but couldn't feel anything. He says that it is literally her belly-button turned inside-out - and that he's never seen that happen before, although innies do turn into outies from time to time. He wouldn't even talk about the possibility of correcting it surgically at some point in the future, which I translated as "It's not possible but you don't want to hear me say that."

What op did your dd have, PollyLogos?

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PollyLogos · 20/09/2005 08:29

Pretty candles, I am not sure what was done exactly. I would imagine it was 'cosmetic' rather than anything else. The word hernia was never mentioned to us- we were always told that the problem was due to the way that the umbilical cord was cut.

Her whole belly button was sticking right out though much as a pregnant womans does in the last few weeks.

The surgery was very quick - about 20 minutes in all (IIRC) and we went home a couple of hours later. I don't remember her being in any pain or anything afterwards. It was done privately as we are in Greece but I have to admit I personally think it was worth doing and am glad we had it done whilst she was young.

Kelly1978 · 20/09/2005 09:33

the way a belly button sticks out in pg is supposed to be pretty much the same as what happens in a hernia. There becomes a gap between the muscles, so that whatever is behind it portrudes a bit. my ds's jsut feels soft like fluid, rather tahn anything solid portruding. I would guess that if you had one before you got pg maybe it might get a bit bigger than average, but I can't see what other problems it would cause. mine went huge when I was pg with the dts, but it didn't cause any probs.

Original poster

PrettyCandles · 20/09/2005 13:21

This doesn't look anything like a pregnant woman's, nor like the few umbilical hernias I've seen on babies. That's why, now that I've calmed down from the shock of it happening, I'm confused.

It's shrunk a little - or maybe I've just got used to it! I had a little look at ds's, and we discovered, to our great amusement, that he can change the shape of his belly-button by working his tummy muscles: innie to outie, then slide the outie bit up and down inside his innie.

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