Umbilical Hernia - Newport Coast,CA

My daughter at 7 years old, had surgery per her Hernia. There are many kinds of hernias and degrees of severity.
My Daughter had what is called an "Inguinal Hernia."

My daughter did fine with the Surgery. It was performed by a Pediatric Surgeon who specialized in this.
Now, my daughter does not have to worry about it or any complications because of it or about it getting "strangulated." ie: it getting closed up and upon an internal organ and it getting gangrened.

A Hernia is a hole in the abdominal wall. And the size of the hole can vary. It does not always close up on its own. Or sometimes it will close up and you cannot predict if it will or not. And if it does close up, it can "strangulate" an internal organ. Because, what is sticking out of that Hernia hole and making it "bulge,", is often an internal organ/intestine etc. In my daughter's case, it was the Ovary as well.

And per my daughter's Hernia, which she probably had since birth, it started to cause pain in her groin and in her legs and whenever she exerted herself or walked for a long time.

She had Laparoscopic surgery and it only took 1 hour and it was General Anesthesia and all of it was handled by a Pediatric Surgery team. It was fine.

Our Pediatrician referred us to a Specialist in Pediatric Hernias.
His own son, had a Hernia. One day he got an emergency call. His son, was being flown to the hospital due to his Hernia. Emergency Surgery had to be performed. Because, his Hernia had closed up and it was "strangulating" an internal organ. If surgery was not performed in this situation, then the internal organ sticking out of that Hernia, would have had Gangrene and he would have lost that organ and/or his life.

Hernias vary. It is wise that you saw a Specialist.

My daughter had complications because of hers.
She even told us after the surgery that she was glad she had the surgery. Because it was causing her pain and limited her in her physical activity and it was bulging.

I don't necessarily have an answer, but wanted to register my confusion on this as well. On the one hand, I thought it was normal for people to have "innie" or "outie" belly buttons. Growing up ('70s child), I don't remember anyone getting surgery to correct their outie belly button.

On the other hand, while an outie isn't a big deal, a hernia sounds like a major deal (don't adults have to get surgery for that? why not children?). My son is going on 3, and I have to say that I was always skeptical about the Peds telling me "it will close up on it's own". Especially because they kept saying that at his check-ups and I never asked about it first!

If any doctor or nurse can shed some more light on this, I'd appreciate it too!

I am thinking that the other peds know that these things close on their own most of the time. Then you saw the last one who may have seen a similar one that did not close. So you were refferred to a specialist who has seen the most and dealt with the most who is an expert in this area. So their opinion based on their expertise is that it needs surgery. Ask them why they think it will not close on its own. Ask them how long you can/should wait before going with surgery. Ask what would happen if you did not have the surgery. Will it get better at all?

I would be very sure the surgeon was very good if you have this done. The muscle can separate and maybe won't if done without incision but they just need to know what they are doing and get a couple of other opinions.

Depends on how severe it is. My daughter had this and we used to call it her little grape but now she's a teen and it's totally gone! She has an "innie" now; no more grape :)

Yes, my 8-year-old has one. She was born with it, and it was much more noticeable when she was small, but it is still there.

Her pedi told me that it is completely unnecessary to have a surgery to repair the hernia because they are so small. No, they will not close on their own, but the risk of something happening from it is so small that the surgery would be more of a risk than having the hernia.

We chose not to repair the hernia and she's never had a problem or pain. I'd rather not subject her to an unnecessary surgery.

My son had an umbilical hernia that was huge, like golf ball size huge. We saw a surgeon when he was about 3 months old to get an idea of what to expect. We were told to let it be to see if it closed on it's own. If it didn't close by age 4 or 5 to come back and then we would talk about surgery. My son's did close on it's own but if it hadn't I would have had the surgery done.