Poor Little Belly Button

I noticed a few days after the M&Ms turned 2 months old that Mikey's belly button was oozing. After further investigation i noticed a bulb of skin inside his belly button. I called the pediatrician's office and they suggested having him come in and get looked at. Mikey and mommy had their 1st solo date and went to see Dr.H that afternoon. Mikey was a really good boy in the car and was FASSSTTT asleep by the time we got to the doctors office. They weighted my chuncky monkey and he was 12.2 pounds!!!! Getting big fast!

Anyhoo...the doctor looked at his belly button and said he had an "umbilical granuloma" which is a piece of tissue that remains after the umbilical cord falls off. This tissue can ooze and become irritated. The treatment was some silver nitrate applied to the granuloma. The pediatrician we saw that day was not our normal doc and she apparently didn't know how paranoid i am b/c she never warned me what would happen to his poor little belly button. The pediatrician did tell me his skin would get stained and look yucky but nothing to worry about... she failed to leave an important disclaimer out!!! Apparently silver nitrate can cause a chemical like burn where its applied, but i found this out the next morning when it looked like poor Mikey had 2nd degree burns all around his belly button. Obviously i ran and called the pediatrician. The calmed my fears and told me it was normal and how to care for it.

Mikey the next day after his 1st silver nitrate treatment.
Dr. H said that id it was still oozing by next week to call them and bring Mikey in for an additional treatment. A week later his belly button looked slightly better but still oozing and the granuloma was still there... so in again we went. This time we saw Dr.S and Mommy and Mikey were very happy. Dr. S said 1 more treatment and "Mikey Man" (that's what Dr.S calls him) will be just fine. So another round of silver nitrate (this time more carefully applied to limit the amount of unnecessary burns) The nurses suggested letting air get to the belly button to help dry it up and keep the oozing from staying wet and icky and instead turning it hard and crusty so it would fall off. So for a day or so after the treatment Mikey had to sport a not so flattering look!!!! (all that kept running through our heads is "fat man in a little coat" hahahaha!!) Its hard to see but he is healing nicely and just this morning all the scabs were gone and the granuloma is nearly gone and Mikey is back to sporting a better look.

Mikey and his cool new look!