Baby belly button from hernia-like to normal (updated)

Previously I was concern about the protrusion (and collapsed region) observed in our baby's belly button. The pediatrician assured us that our baby's umbilical hernia is normal and will recover after several months. We waited for 2 and a half months and indeed the hernia was less obvious (and the region of collapse had also disappeared).

After 3.5 months, our baby's umbilical hernia disappeared.

What we did during the wait (as according to the doctors and nurses) was to allow our baby to exercise the tummy more.

Helpful exercise

• We would gently tickle our baby's belly to induce him to contract his stomach muscles.
• We placed our baby on a rubber mat with the belly facing down so that he can lift up his head and try to kick and move. The main purpose was to train and strengthen his tummy muscle.

It worked! We were worried about persistent hernia but fortunately, it was just normal hernia. For information about persistent hernia, refer to Umbilical hernia by Children Surgery. New hernia service at University Surgical Center, National University Hospital (NUH).

3 months old cries

Our baby used to be all smiles and then suddenly all cries at 3.5 months old. Our concern was that something was wrong. We thought that it could be fever, stomach discomfort, or shoulder dislocation (paranoid me). The first two possibilities were demonstrated to be remote, whereas the latter physical injury was nil. It seemed that our baby is at the stage where he will start teething. Our baby would still break a smile to us, but whenever he is uncomfortable, he will scream and cry out the most dreaded cries that would leave us with cold sweat.

Teething & Symptoms
BabyCenter provides information about baby's teething. Few indications of teething are as follows:

• Drooling (our baby is doing that)
• Difficulty sleeping (probably due to teething-associated discomfort)
• Likes to bite (when we cleaned his gum, he would nip at our fingers; although he hadn't started biting mummy's nipple). Note that mummies would be the first to know when their babies are teething because they will start biting nipples.
• Cranky (irritated by the discomfort)
• Refused to be fed (probably due to distraction from the discomfort)

We still haven't observed the last indicator.

Other associated symptoms (though it might be inconsistent) would be:

• fever (probably due to infection as teething babies likes to stuff things into their mouth, hence predispose them to infections)
• others (refer to Baby Center)

Means to alleviate symptoms

• Teether (to soothe the "pain" (it's an itch-cum-pain feeling). A refrigerated, cooling teether could help to alleviate the gum discomfort.
• If baby is not comfortable with teether, then using a finger and muslin cloth would be a good idea. Rub it gently around the gum and allow baby to bite (slightly painful) whenever he/she has the urge.
• Apply Bonjela gel to soothe the discomfort.
• We tried Bo Ying Compound (Chinese medicine) to soothe our first baby's discomfort during teething, but after a scare about contaminant that can be harmful to children (reported not long ago in Hong Kong [FDA report]), we dared not try it anymore (though I believe that Singapore scrutiny on its products is of highest stringency compared to other places).
• Carry our baby and soothe him/her with comforting voice/lullaby and attention will help to alleviate their fear and anxiety (of the unknown because teething is our baby's first experience and can be frightening).

 When can my baby eat solid (semi-solid)
 Some said we can give our babies at around 4 months old (we preferred to wait until 6 months).

More adventurous means to alleviate teething discomfort (if in doubt, consult pediatrician before trying the following). I have not tried any of the following. Also, make sure the ingredients are safe for children (e.g. be organic with no pesticides)

• Rubbing the gum with ginger slices, spices, almond (or vanilla) extract, banana, chilled food or plastic utensils, and other solid food (referred to Home Remedies For Life).
• Home-made teething oil (composed of olive oil, coconut oil, and clove bud essential oil; referred in MommyPotamus).
• Teething cream (composed of coconut oil, cocoa butter, clove essential oil; Modern Alternative Mama).

Newborn urine turns reddish brown indicative of hemoglobinuria

What is hemoglobinuria? 
Our red blood cells (RBCs) are composed of hemoglobin (red pigment) that carries oxygen and carbon dioxide in our circulatory system. If there is excess of RBC lysis (or breakdown/turnover), then our blood will have excessive amount of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin will be filtered out from kidney along with urine and because of its colour, the urine will stain reddish to brown.

Why it is pertinent to us?
Our baby had reddish to brown urine during the first postnatal week. The nurse said that it was normal to see reddish diaper stain sometimes and that upon subsequent feeding and passing of water, the stain will go away.

However, that reddish stain later served as an indication of persistent jaundice that we experienced later on. I am blood group B+ while my wife is A+ and our baby is AB+. Fortunately, we requested that our baby's blood group be tested (it was not normal routine for our hospital to test baby's blood group and we had to explicitly ask for it), or else we wouldn't have gotten this important information that facilitated the medical staff to conclude that our baby was having ABO incompatibility (and persistent jaundice).

What is ABO incompatibility?
ABO incompatibility happens when mother's antibody recognizes and attacks baby's blood cells. It seemed that mother's antibody can traverse from the umbilical cord to the baby's blood circulation.

As an example, if mother had no antigen B in her blood cells (i.e. she is A+ or O+), she will have antibody against this antigen. If baby has antigen B on the blood cells (e.g. if baby is B+, AB+), then the maternal antibody will start attacking the baby's blood cells. This causes excessive blood cell loss and increases circulating hemoglobin and its broken-down product, bilirubin.

Update

It has been more than a month and our baby still has jaundice (indicated by higher bilirubin level). We had phototherapy for 3.5 days and it didn't help to reduce baby's jaundice. Liver function was tested normal (indicated by testing the ratio of conjugated vs unconjugated bilirubin; where normal conjugated bilirubin signifies a working liver). Regular visits to polyclinic depletes our wallet but not the jaundice problem. We got to know that some parents just stopped visiting the clinic after the repetitive tests and brief "consultations" informing them numbers ranging from 180 to 210 of bilirubin level. The consultation fee was very high as compared to the price of the test itself (almost10 fold difference!), e.g. SGD 6.00 per test as compared to SGD 45.00 per consultation. My opinion is that there shouldn't be a flat rate of SGD45 for consultation pertaining to reading to parents their babies' bilirubin test results and setting another appointment for further tests!

How I wished there was an over-the-counter test kit for measuring bilirubin at home. Alas, a spectrophotometer is required to test bilirubin and that machine is not cheap to be placed in homes.

Solution
Now, we are advised to mix formula with breast milk for our baby in order to hasten the clearing of his jaundice. Although we wanted to give complete breast milk, but under the current circumstances - breast milk alone had failed to reduce baby's jaundice and thus - we are obligated to get a tin of formula and start giving mixed milk to our baby. Hope this approach will help reduce our baby's jaundice.

Strike three and I can't guess why my baby is still crying

Earlier I have written about what to do when my baby starts crying, e.g.

1. Feeding
2. Discomfort - (a) need diaper change, (b) trapped air in stomach, (c) flatulence, (d) constipation, (e) colic cries with no discernible reasons, (f) insomnia caused by discomfort, (g) awareness and stress, etc.

 The second reason baby cries is the most challenging aspect to troubleshoot. It is not that the baby will be able to cry out a code for parents to decipher based on a decoder key. I am at my wit's end trying to figure out what is wrong with our baby these few nights.

 The only suspect would be colic (discomfort in the alimentary tract), either failure to burp or having too much gas (could it be due to lactose intolerance?), tummy bloated, constipated, etc. If that is the case, there is nothing I can really do about it.

I tried patting/rubbing baby's back to soothe and induce burping (but that didn't help even after few successful burps), applying medicated oil by rubbing on both palms to make it warm before applying to baby's tummy (to soothe and help baby to pass gas, but that too didn't work), massage the back, placing baby to sleep on the tummy (back facing up), moving back and forth to promote undulating movement to soothe baby to sleep but without success. He keeps on crying... and only stop when he is too exhausted. After which, he will doze off. My wife is worried that such cries are not healthy for baby (and I concur).

The only thing that can really soothe our baby to sleep would be to let him latch on. Well, I can only stuff a pacifier to his mouth but the baby is a selective brat who doesn't fancy NUK pacifier.

It is so challenging trying to figure out and deal with baby's cries (or feeling helpless when all else failed to console our babies).

Baby colic
Wikipedia provided suggested reasons for baby colic (inconsolable cries) and here is the list.

• Stress
• Hunger
• Postpartum depression (mother)
• Trauma from hospital visits or 
• Child abuse (such as shaken baby syndrome). Violent shaking of babies will cause head trauma.

Normally baby colic will dissipate once baby reaches certain age (from 3 months and up to a year). Babies' cries are known to stimulate milk production in mothers and as family members, we should understand that baby's cries do not translate to mothers' incompetence in caring for babies. That is why I always remind myself and other members that baby's cries help to communicate with us and especially mother. If other family members are less anxious (anxiety), then the mother will not be anxious too.

Related blogs

• 2 hours intermitent feeding, diaper changes, and more.

Baby's (neonate) belly button (navel) shape and appearance

I noticed that my baby's (neonate) belly button (or navel), where the umbilical cord used to be located, is hard to the touch. When he cries, there is a depression (collapse) above the belly button. I wondered if that was normal and went to search for any information pertaining to baby's belly button and hardened and collapsed. 

To my disappointment, Google image search produced lots of babes with their belly button, or mum's with belly button or belly hardened. There were few pictures with neonates' belly buttons! Fortunately I found one (from YouTube).

Baby's belly button, showing hardened and collapsed area.

From the above picture, the region with depression isn't as obvious as my baby's when he cries. The following is my baby's belly button.

My baby's belly button and the region above the navel is collapsed (more obvious as shown above when he cries).

I give up trying to figure if this is normal because at 3 weeks old, my baby's navel is healing and that area of collapse or cave-in could be a normal process to close the gap/channel. The peritoneal membrane, muscle or whatever tissues that's supposed to be closed could still be opened in my case (which will eventually closes as the healing process progresses). Well, fortunately, there is no protrusion of the belly button or navel, which would indicate umbilical hernia in babies (or neonates), which is quite common. For more information about umbilical hernia in babies, visit WebMD. Just for my reference, here is a photo showing a baby with somewhat common umbilical hernia (but I would send my baby to see a pediatrician nonetheless). For umbilical hernia, some parents indicated that this will go away in few months time (but have to look out for complications such as infection or irregular bowel movement).

Photo sent by parents from the community in BabyCenter (link is here).

For now, I will try not to freak out considering that our pediatrician didn't suggest anything wrong with our baby's belly button. Hopefully the collapsed region will go away.


Updated: Our baby's hernia disappeared after 3.5 months.

K is cautious, shy, and cheeky

K is a cautious kid. She didn't venture into our kitchen until she was two plus. When we told her that the kitchen is dangerous, she avoided it. It was when she was at her inquisitive age, circa 2 yrs 2 mo that she tried placing one foot into the kitchen and looked at us for approval/denial.

After sometime, she just dashed into the kitchen. I guess that was her greatest achievement to being able to decide for herself what she wanted to do (disregarding other people's thought).

My lil bud is 2 yrs 4 months old

So much has changed, from the first day I saw her and the subsequent days seeing her grow up to be our lil buddy (bud) now. When she was so little and fragile, we always wanted her to grow up, so that she will be strong. We also wanted her to be able to express her thoughts. Now,  what a talkative lil fella she is today.

Our baby K.