quick clicks

moms today articles

moms today q&a

message boards

research baby names

prepare a birth plan

content channels

ip channel rss feeds

read birth stories

read parenting stories

recommended books

e-newsletters

safety recalls

ip diaries

ip store

mom of the month

dad of the month

editor's letter

letters to the editor

Belly Buttons After Pregnancy

Mommy, Why Does Yours Look Like That?

By Jenn Director Knudsen

To repair this hernia, a surgeon opens up an area around the navel and pushes the tissue back inside the body, thus deflating that balloon.

Sometimes, the hernia sometimes repairs itself; if surgery is needed, though, it's a quick one. "The treatment is usually a single stitch," says Dr. Richard Hodnett, the leading plastic surgeon of the Thousand Oaks Surgical Center, part of the Beverly Hills Physicians Medical Group.

As all kids learn, their belly button once kept them fed and alive while inside their mommy's tummy. Such an important part of the body, then, shouldn't be up for ridicule, right?

Well, they do come in such varieties of sizes and shapes that it's no wonder kids – and, admit it, you too – spend so much time contemplating their own and others' navels. If not poking fun at them.

Including those of their own mommies, of whose bodies they were once part.

And, I argue, especially curious about their mommies' belly buttons are daughters, given they intuitively know their bodies one day will more closely resemble their mom's than their dad's.

When Hayley first noticed the "crumbs" inside my belly button – which, I gently told to her, weren't food particles but bits of lint from clothing worn tight against my tummy – she was relieved when I plucked a cotton swab from my cosmetic bag and did a swift and thorough cleanup job.

At this point in our "conversation" I'd managed to dry myself, but I still was naked.

She inhaled again and so I braced myself – again – for the pubic hair question.

Instead: "Mommy, why are your boobies uneven?"

Want to see more?

• Check out our Article Library.
• Talk about it!
• Body Talk: Teaching Your Toddler Body Parts Through Play
• Get Your Body Back! Postpartum Exercises for Mom
• Post-childbirth Abs: You Can Get Them Back!
• Have Baby, Still Exercise: 5 Fitness Solutions
  for the First Year of Life

Post As:
Enter your comment below:
Title
Comment Text
CAPTCHA
Please note that any comments submitted become the property of Disney Family / iParenting and can be edited and posted at our discrection.