my son has an umbilical hernia the doctor said it wont hurt him and there is nothing to worry about. No one I know has a child who ever had one. Does anyone know anything about them or have a child who has one? If so what went wrong and can it hurt him????
How old is your son? My daughter was born with one, most get better on their own. Hers did not and at 13 months we had surgery to repair. That was 2 weeks ago and she did fine with the surgery and her belly looks much better. We had a great surgeon, Joseph Janik.
I had a premie son in June and he had an umbilical hernia. Our pediatrician also said there was nothing to worry about. My son never acting like it hurt at all. He is now 8 months old and it is completely gone and you can't even tell he had it. Don't worry.
J.,
I have two boys and both had them. They went away by 3 months of age. It is rare that they would need surgery. Try not to worry about it.Nothing went wrong, you didn't do anything to cause it I assure you. The muscles in the abdoman are not very strong when they are so young and they get a little hurnia. They are not painful and they will heal themselves in time.
my son had an umbilical hernia and the doctor told me the same thing, it would not hurt him, bla bla bla, well he was CONSTANTLY having stomach problems, to the point he was in SEVERE pain, crying, doubled over... but with our lovely ER by the time they would see him, he would no longer be in pain and they would tell me i was over reacting... so i went to his PCP and INSISTED he see a specialist, and he was scheduled for surgery less than a month later to repair it, and has not had a problem since.... i had to get him to a doctor in Phoenix to get someone to listen... but DON'T give in when it comes to your baby!
My daughter has a nice one - that when she is mad or trying to "go" it pops out like a turkey timer... my ped said it should heal on its own within the next year - keep reminding your ped - if it has not gone away - he may need surgery... stace
Umbilical hernias aren't really that uncommon. In the old days they taped a silver dollar over them to "heal" them. Fact is, unless something weird is going on, they heal themselves as their tummy muscles get stronger. In very rare cases, the hernia is large enough to allow a loop of bowel to escape. These hernias are generally surgically repaired to prevent the bowel from having its circulation cut off and causing big problems. If your pediatrician isn't worried, I wouldn't worry. They generally look pretty bad, but aren't serious.
Hope this helps.
My son is 6 now and he had an umbilical hernia also. It never seemed to bother him nor did he cry or seem to have any discomfort. This just means that part of the intestine pokes through a weak spot in the abdominal muscles and it's pretty common. If he doesn't seem to be in pain, I wouldn't worry about it yet. As the doctor told me, once my son started walking his abdominal muscles would strengthen and it would go away. And it did and looks normal today, no surgery needed. If it hasn't gone away when your son starts walking, surgery may be necessary at that point. You'll just need to watch it and see what your doctor says about it then. Hope that was helpful.
