Umbilical Hernia

My 13 month old has an umbilica hernia and she does not have that problem. I went to Friend and Hand it is a health food store and got a powder called Kyo-Dophilus it promotes healthy intestinal function. I put it in her milk daily this helps her body break down the table food and it also helps with her bowel movements. The lady at the store gave me something to think about. When we move babies from baby food to table food their bodies have a hard time transistioning so it manifest in different ways. My daughter started with the hard bowels then she broke out in hives the doctor said it was dry skin but after talking to the lady at Friend and Hand and putting the powder in her milk she is so much better. The store is in the Ukrops shopping center where American Family Fitness on Brook Rd.

N. please see a specialist about this. Your daughter may begin to fight her bowle movements and this will lead to incontinence and bowel muscle problems. It most deffinately could be cused by the hernia or it could be a abnormality in her rectum or bowels. I urge you to puch your pediatrician for a specialist referral so that your daughter can get this fixed before it becomes a huge problem.

Both of my boys have/had umbilical hernias. Our oldest will be 3 in March and our little one will be 2 in April. Our oldest, you can't tell he even had one and our youngest one, his is getting smaller. We never had any problems with the hernias. You have to worry when you try to push it back in and it won't go, meaning her insides are trying to push through the opening. I believe you should try to get her to eat more fruit, bananas do it for our oldest. Sometimes even trying a new food will help. You could get more ideas on what to try from her peditrician.

My son has an umbilical hernia and he is five. I was also told, and still am told that it isn't really a big deal, and can still fix itself. I do not think that your daughters poo problem is because of the hernia. I also have a 15 month old daughter, and she was having hard stools and struggled to get them out. I keep a glycerin suppository around the house just in case of those tough times. A bottle of them costs $2. But my big thing for her was switching her to soy milk. I buy all natural, plain (no flavor) soy milk, and she really likes it. The big thing with babies is their fat intake, so I do not buy fat free. It is also fortified like whole milk is with vitamins, etc. I almost Immediately saw an improvement in her poos. She continues to eat yogurt and cheese, etc. I don't think she has a problem with dairy, but I do think that the whole milk was a bit too much for her baby belly. I would really consider switching your daughter to soy milk. If you are like me, or your daughter is like mine, you definitely feel like something needs to be done. Talk to your Dr.

Good luck!
katie

Hi N.,

My daughter, now 6, was also born with an umbilical hernia. Hers has never closed (like most of them do) & she will likely have it surgically repaired within the next year. I do not think the hernia has anything to do with constipation-as a matter of fact, my daughter often has the other problem! I would see your pediatrician and possibly a GI specialist to discuss both issues. There are rare cases where the bowel can get "strangled" in the hernia, but that is a medical emergency & you would know if that was the problem. In the meantime, try apple juice, prune juice/prunes to help her go more often. Good luck & hope she gets relief soon.

K.

Dear N.,

Our 4.5 year old daughter has struggled with constipation since she was a baby.

most effective things: apple & prune juice, avocados, raisins, carrots, water and being physically active

while limiting: rice, pasta, orange & grapefruit juice and sitting for too long

Hope this helps. It's no fun to see your little one struggling in the bathroom.

J. B
Fairfax

My daughter also had an umbilical hernia and still does at 16 months, even though she's been walking for 6 months. It doesn't seem as pronounced now, though. She does not have any bowel trouble and goes about 2-4 times each day. She doesn't strain. So, I'd say it is not related to the hernia and needs to be checked out. Good luck!

I don't believe the umbilical hernia is causing problems with constipation, but it's certainly worth asking; however, you might want to ask an expert on bowel troubles, not just a pediatrician. But, I do think that all that straining to have a bowel movement could make the hernia worse. I strongly recommend that you try baby-size glycerin suppositories; ask the pharmacist if you don't see them on the shelf. They are tiny at the end so they slip in easily, melt quickly, and should soften the bm and stimulate her to go more regularly. Use them each evening, perhaps just before bath time. They are perfectly safe, and won't hurt her tender anus. My grandpa was an MD and used them for his children, and also recommended them to my mother (mom of 6), and I used them on both my sons as well. What a life and sanity saver! Mine were colicky and it eased that problem immediately also. Current young pediatricians seem to mistrust them, but my family has three generations of safe, happy usage to recommend them. Hope that helps your dear daughter!

I don't know anything about umbilical hernia, but just wanted to suggest that you go talk to a doctor about her bowel movements to see what you can do. My daughter has recently had the same issues, and her constipation ended up getting worse and worse, until she was backed up for 7 days! She was put on a cleaning out regimen to flush out her system and get everything out, but all the constipation she had been experiencing was stretching her out inside, causing more constipation because it was just packing up. She now has to be on laxatives daily so it can heal. She was also screaming in pain from anal fissures, and we got information about helping the cuts to heal. It may not be anything remotely close to my daughters, but it was an aweful painful experience for her to go through the cleaning out regimen... so maybe talking to a doctor to prevent anything such as that may be helpful! We are thinking that my daughter has some sort of a food allergy (hoping anyways), she has a allergist appointment thursday, and then a GI specialist appointment the following week. Good luck!
K.
(One thing you can start now to help the cuts is give her warm baths in epsom salt, and when she is finished with her bowel movent, clean with a wet cloth, dry, and put hydrocortizone (sp?) on her. Those two things really helped my daughter out a LOT...and she was in a lot of pain)
(I will second looking into miralax, that is what my daughter ended up on daily, it was just a shame that the doc we were seeing all along didn't suggest this to us until she had major BM issues...it would have helped if we had used it earlier.)

Our daughter was the same way.We did an food allergy test
found out she has them, within 4 days of being off the foods prune juice alone was all she needed to go and before we were giving her every thing and she still wouldn't go!!. Push the DR. to do one. the sooner the better.

N.,
Try giving your daughter a teaspoon of mineral oil and see if this helps when she does go. I have a nephew that was born preemie and his bowels did not develope fully and he has always had trouble going. His ped has him taking mineral oil every morning to help make it easier for him to go when he does go. Because it is natural there are no effects and it is not a laxative it just helps make going less painful. It is also not habit forming. Another aid I have used with all 5 of my children is pear juice, this works better than apple jiuce. Good luck.

I do not know if it has anything to do with the Umbilical Hernia or not but when my daughter was little had such a hard time going too. I would have to get Q-tips & the vaseline out & help her get it out because she couldn't her doctor put her on miralax to help her be able to go with out me having to help her go. She is 3 now & I still have to give it to her every once in awhile because she will tell me that her but hurts & her poopy won't come out. If I were you I would call her doctor & see what they recommend.

No advice about the hernia but for the hard stools try Miralax (check with you ped. first). Our 3 yr. old son had the same story, straining, tears, etc. during bowel movements. Now we give him a teaspoon of Miralax a day and no more pain, just soft stools. He's been on it for a year.

my daughter has an umbilical hernia still and is 15 months old. her doctor said that it usually closes up by age 2, when the tummy muscles become stronger. the doctor said that if it doesn't heal on it's own, then she'll probably recommend surgery before she starts school. the doctor didn't sound like it was any rush or that it was causing any problems. my daughter doesn't have any trouble going poopy, but the hernia does become more pronounced when she cries or poops. she usually poops at least once a day, but when she drinks apple juice it's usually more. apple juice seems to help my daughter have looser stools. good luck.

hi N.,
hernia or no hernia, you've got to get that stool softened up! even more fruit and water, especially prunes and raisins, and it sounds as if a pediatric stool softener is called for here. you don't want this to turn into an even bigger issue.
khairete
S.

First the hernia..... Both of my girls, now 9.5 and almost 7 had umbilical hernias. My older daughter's closed up on it's own by the time she was 1. My younger daughter's did not and she had to have surgery to close it. Our dr. preferred that she have it done before starting Kindergarten, so the summer that she was 5 is when we had it done. I would guess that if your daughter is 14 mos. old and it hasn't closed yet, it probably won't on it's own. The surgery was outpatient and really wasn't a major ordeal.

Now for the BM problems. I really don't think the hernia is the cause of your daughter's bowel issues. My younger daughter never had any problems with BM's. My older daughter, however, did. But not until she was around 2 and the hernia had long closed up. Like another poster said, all the straining your daughter does could maybe aggravate the hernia, but it really isn't likely that the hernia is the cause of the problem.

At around 2.5, my daughter had a really big BM. It wasn't that it hurt her so much as the actual size of it that I think freaked her out. It clogged the toilet up, lol. After that, she began holding it in which in turn caused her problems. We tried prune juice, glycerin suppositories, Karo syrup, etc, but none of it worked. Eventually we saw a gastroenterologist. She put my daughter on Miralax (this was before you could get it OTC). She was on that for about a year and all has been fine ever since.

I would suggest talking to your ped and trying something to help soften up your daughter's BM's and make it easier for her to go before the pain and struggle gets too ingrained and she really starts fighting going. I had a former co-worker whose son was on Miralax until he was 10. I think the sooner you address the issue, the better for you and your daughter.

Good luck! :o)

My daughter has an umbilical hernia also and it's still not gone either, she's almost 2 years old now. I would say that the two aren't connected my daughter used to get a red face when she did bowel movements (no ripping though) and now that has stopped. She does go regular though, normally at least once a day, every now and then she skips a day but rarely.

Her hernia is small though I fear she's going to need the operation before school starts, I was shocked when she was born I'd never seen anything like it before.

I wonder if there are stool softeners for kids, I would give that try, something low impact obviously.

Good luck, sounds painful poor thing.