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advice: who's had umbilical hernia repaired?

lemen99lemen99 member
in Preemies

tell me about it.

 

Andrew's pedi brought it up today. He was 2 actual on 12/30/10 and is 23+ months adjusted.  She didn't necessarily say it had to be done now but that we should find out / look into it/ see a surgeon.

He just had surgery in Dec (ear tubes + adenoidectomy), a month later he was down 1 lb, and is just now up 0.4 lb from his pre-surgery weight.  He is delayed and has been in lots of therapy for 4 months and things finally seem normal (eating well, started to talk the last 2 weeks FINALLY). 

I'm 25.5 weeks pregnant, high risk, lots of drs appts, and Andrew has therapy twice a week. 

 This isn't what I want right now.  But I need to do what's best for him. 

 So tell me, when did your LO have surgery?  Is it best to get it over with? Wait it out?  How is the surgery itself?

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Re: advice: who's had umbilical hernia repaired?

  • JennyjenzJennyjenz

    Hey K,

    Hope all is well.  I haven't been active on here but wanted to chime in on this.  As you may remember, Georgia had an umbilical hernia as well.  I think you and talked about this before...  Anyway, I say 'had' b/c it pretty much resolved itself.  Now, if it hadn't our pedi wasn't pushing surgery of any kind until 4 years old the earliest.  Her feeling was Georgia needed to work on strengthening her abdominal muscles and mastering walking, etc before we made any major decisions.  If I was you, I would not sweat this... at least not yet.  IMO and my pedi's, Andrew needs to grow and strengthen more.  I don't think that was is best for him is another surgery... right now.

    I would probably go in for a surgical consult and then a second opinion.  I know our pedi always had me 'check' the hernia by pressing on it at every diaper change.  it should feel bubble like and always return back to it's 'normal' look.  Oh and I also had an umbilical hernia as well and my parents did not go with a surgical procedure for me.  The again, back in the 70's, they would put a belt around the baby's waist.  Ugh!

    Good Luck!  :)        

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  • lemen99lemen99 member

    imagerah1218:
    This might not help too much, but I agree with PP: you may want to get a second opinion on the surgery route.  Judith also has an umbilical hernia, and our pedi said that more often than not they will resolve on their own.  As long as you don't see it getting larger/bulging more, it should be ok for the time being.  If it was an inguinal hernia, that would be a different story.  I'm going to assume that your LO had an umbilical line after birth?  Judith had one, and our pedi said that umbilical hernias are common in preemies that had an umbilical line.  I HTH at least a little bit!

     

    Yep!

     

    I guess she said that almost all of them resolve by 18 months.  Andrew's has gotten smaller but it's still there.  The opening is about as big around as my pinky finger or so. 

    I'll def get a couple of opinions.  I just feel like he doesn't need this right now, esp if it's not hurting anything. We do push it in and it easily retracts!

     

    Thanks!!!

     

     

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  • Wally3Wally3 member
    DS had an umbilical hernia - it resloved itselft before he was a year.  However, when we talked about it with pedi she said that if it didn't resolve by the time he was 5 then we would talk about surgery.  I would discuss with surgent but with all you have going on I would think it would be okay to wait.

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  • Mrs.JBWMrs.JBW

    imageWally3:
    DS had an umbilical hernia - it resloved itselft before he was a year.  However, when we talked about it with pedi she said that if it didn't resolve by the time he was 5 then we would talk about surgery.  I would discuss with surgent but with all you have going on I would think it would be okay to wait.

    Laura's doctor said the same thing - wait until 5 for surgery - we figured we would have it done before K started.  Thankfully it resolved itself.

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