What's wrong with the baby's labia and the two sides?

In every family, the baby is the center of the family. Because babies' physical fitness is not high during their early childhood, and their various body functions cannot be compared with those of adults, they are easily affected by many factors and develop diseases. It is very common for babies to have adhesions between their labia and the sides, but many mothers do not know why this happens. So, what's the matter with the baby's labia and the two sides being adhered?

First, why are the baby's labia sticking to the sides? The mainstream view on this phenomenon is that it is caused by chronic infection, and a small number of babies are born like this. There is also a saying that vaginal adhesions lead to difficulty in urination and secondary infection. Few people doubt this statement. Medical professionals in my country also recommend early and active treatment of this phenomenon, using various tools to mechanically separate adhesions, or prescribing estrogen-containing ointments for caregivers to apply at home. Mechanical separation may not be smooth. Some operations can be cut with a cotton swab, some will tear the epidermis, and some require surgery. In my country, such minor operations are basically not performed in the operating room under general anesthesia. It is good enough if they can be done under local anesthesia. The baby often cries in pain and then falls asleep (a self-protective regressive behavior of infants when they encounter intense pain or pressure). The ointment usually needs to be applied for several weeks or even a month. If the application is stopped after the labia are separated, the recurrence rate is also quite high. Medical staff will usually tell parents that vaginal adhesions are caused by inflammation, most likely due to diapers, and advise them to use diapers less or not, and to go home and carefully open the labia and clean the baby's genitals.

Second, this is because the child’s vulvitis was not discovered and treated in time, resulting in adhesion of the labia. This adhesion will become more and more serious, and in adulthood, menstrual blood retention and sexual intercourse disorders will occur. The main reason is that the skin and mucous membranes of young children are delicate, and the skin and mucous membranes of the vestibule area of ​​the vulva are easily exposed to various infections and abnormal stimulations, which can cause exudation over time, causing the labia minora on both sides to adhere together. For example, mothers are too lazy to change their babies' diapers, resulting in the baby's tender vulva being often soaked in smelly diapers. Urea and other substances in urine will irritate the vulva. In addition, some children expose their vulva, do not pay attention to cleanliness, sit anywhere, or wipe the vulva from the anus to the vulva with toilet paper after defecation, which can easily cause bacterial infection of the vulva and vulvitis.

What's going on with the baby's labia adhesions? There are two causes of labia adhesions: congenital and acquired. Congenital labia adhesions are extremely rare and are usually discovered during physical examination after birth, and hermaphroditism needs to be ruled out. Most of them are formed after birth, due to infection and inflammation caused by irritation or damage to the local skin or mucous membrane, and failure of parents to discover it in time. In terms of the location of adhesion, both the labia majora and minora may be adhered, but in the vast majority of patients, only the labia minora are adhered. If the labia majora and minora are adhered, only a piece of skin tissue or only the clitoris is exposed on the vulva, and urine is discharged from a certain crack. There are two types of labia minora adhesions. One is complete adhesion, in which the left and right labia minora are connected by a thin layer of gray membranous tissue. There is a small hole in the center of this membranous adhesion, and urine can be seen discharged from this hole. The other type is incomplete adhesion, but the tissue at the adhesion site is thicker. If the upper parts of the two labia minora are stuck together, covering the clitoris, urethral opening and most of the vaginal opening, urine will be discharged from the crack below the adhesion. If the lower parts of the two labia minora are stuck together, covering the vaginal opening and urethral opening, urine will be discharged from the crack above the sticking part.