Umbilical hernia? Never heard of it, what does this mean?

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DD had her last visit with the health visitor today as that's us 6 weeks on Sunday. I mentioned that her belly button looked a bit weird and the health visitor said she thinks it's an umbilical hernia and to get it checked out with our GP.

My sister's daughter has an umbilical hernia and was told that it can be fixed at around a year but that it's really a cosmetic operation - I'm really confused! Does everyone with an "outie" bellybutton have an umbilical hernia? When I think hernia I think of holes with intestines pouring through - what exactly are we facing here and what will happen if we choose not to operate?

Some very high proportion of babies (I forget exactly, but a dim memory is suggesting one in four?) have umbilical hernias at birth. In most cases an umbilical hernia fixes itself, normally before they are two. In a lot of cases it fixes itself within a few weeks -- DD had one at birth but it appeared to have resolved itself by the time she was eight weeks old.

It's unlikely she'll need an operation at all. If she does, I thought (based on my recollection of what was said to me about DD at first) that it was unusual to operate at a year and that more commonly if it hadn't fixed itself by the time they were about four they'd operate to close it before they started school, just to avoid any complications.

DS2 had an umbilical hernia and he had his repaired just before his third birthday. His was very noticeable though and protruded significantly.

We were also confused after being told that there was little point in correcting it as it may well correct itself as he grew, until he was admitted to hospital (with unrelated illness) and the pead saw his stripped to his nappy and saw it instantly and said that due to the size of it, it should be repaired.

I have to say that DS2 has had many operations but the hernia repair was so straightforward.

Congratulations on your DD.