Umbilical Hernia

mita&chris

Hi all,

Were any of your babies born with a significnt umbilical hernia?  If so, did it go away on its own?  And if so when?

Both of my babies have pretty significant ones and I wasnt sure if they would need surgery eventually or if it would resolve on its own.  

Thanks!

Mita

Kate621

Jack had an inguinal hernia that required surgery. As far as I know all hernias need surgery to be repaired and won't just go away on there own. I could be wrong of course...

FWIW, the surgery was fairly non-invasive and Jack recovered quickly.

TriciaJoy

Robbie's didn't develop until later, but got fairly large. It went away on it's own around 11 months.

The doctors weren't worried about it at all. My son had surgery in the NICU and after (he had a hiatal hernia and bilateral inguinal hernias) and even then they left it. The surgeon said if it didn't go away on its own by the time he was FIVE, they'd do something, but otherwise just make sure it doesn't get hot or inflamed. 

Robbie's was big enough it had a tiny stretchmark at the end. It was pretty gross. But one day it just started getting smaller and in a few weeks it was gone. 

 

Kate621

TriciaJoy:

Robbie's didn't develop until later, but got fairly large. It went away on it's own around 11 months.

The doctors weren't worried about it at all. My son had surgery in the NICU and after (he had a hiatal hernia and bilateral inguinal hernias) and even then they left it. The surgeon said if it didn't go away on its own by the time he was FIVE, they'd do something, but otherwise just make sure it doesn't get hot or inflamed. 

Robbie's was big enough it had a tiny stretchmark at the end. It was pretty gross. But one day it just started getting smaller and in a few weeks it was gone. 

 

So I was wrong! Good to know

shugs-n-sweets

I was wondering the same thing.  My LO has a rather big umbilical hernia.  I always ask his doctors and they all say it will get bigger before it gets smaller and that it'll usually go away by age 1.  If it's still there around age 4, then they can surgically fix it.

TriciaJoy

Kate- you were right about inguinal hernias. An umbilical hernia is just a completely different thing.

an inguinal hernia is part of the guts pushing through the inguinal canal. It's VERY common in boys. I don't remember the stats overall, but they told me 86% of 26weekers (which I have) have them. Those have to be surgically repaired and you can't always see them so you may not know they are there. (Robbie's weren't really palpable. When he had another abdominal surgery, they looked and found them.)

An umbilical hernia is when part of the bowel is poking up into the belly button. Robbie's belly button looked like a large grape. You could push on it and feel it squish back down in there. Totally gross. It's also not terribly uncommon. But unless it gets strangulated (which is why you watch it for redness/heat) it's really benign and almost all of them eventually go away on their own. 

thomas2013

My son devoloped a big unbillical hernia. It was about the size of a 50cent piece and stuck out about 1 1/2 - 2 in from his belly. He has it for about 5 -6 months then it deflated. Now it kinda looks like a little flap. We can't get it fixed intill he is 3. He still has a little hard part but otherwise a little flap. We have has 2 -3 occasions were it fills back up. I hope theirs goes away. Best of luck!

My son's squished too!!! GROSS. I joke that it looks like a defalted pee pee now LOL

hailie

DS had one & if I remember correctly it was gone by his 6 month appointment.

njkaren

Brandon had one too. It finally went away on its own. He has an outy bellly button now from it but no longer a hernia.

MarriedBestFriends

DD had one. It went away on its own after a few months. It was pretty purple one night and I was worried about strangulation so the pedi on-call told me to try to push it down back into her stomach-- which we were able to do but was so, so gross. 

kimberlyd546

my DS had one...I can also say it was very gross to push on but his has started to go away now at 3 months!! all the docs kept telling me was to do tummy time...alot and that will help..so thats what we did...hope this helps

ssg73

Ditto Trish

DD had one too and it was gross.  It went away before 6 months but I can't exactly remember when.

LarloBlue

DD had a huge umbilical hernia.

 

The surgeon said that if it hadn't corrected itself by the time she was 2 that she would need corrective surgery. But he assured me that it was a tiny incision.

This is DD at 7 months

 

She definitely doesn't have an innie!

mita&chris

Thanks everyone!  So Im just going to hope that both kids get rid of them sooner than later. 

LarloBlue, your DD is beautiful!!