What to do if your child keeps picking his belly button

When humans are still in the mother's belly, the belly button becomes a bridge of connection between the mother and the baby. After a newborn baby is born, the doctor will cut the belly button. After a period of recovery, the belly button will gradually fall off to form a belly button. According to the older generation, the belly button cannot be picked with hands, otherwise it will cause stomach pain. If you find that your baby has the habit of picking his belly button, how should you correct it?

What to do if your baby likes to pick his belly button

First, let’s take a look at the baby’s behavior of picking his belly button. What does this behavior mean? We know that after the baby is half a year old, the exploration function of his hands will gradually be unlocked, and the baby will use his hands to understand everything in the world. After the baby's self-awareness sprouts, he has a strong urge to understand himself. So, when he uses his little hands to explore his body, we need to know that the baby is getting to know himself.

However, we do not recommend letting babies pick their belly buttons frequently. Because the belly button, as a part of the human embryonic organs, is more closely connected with the abdominal cavity. If the baby always picks his belly button, it will irritate the internal organs in the abdominal cavity and cause discomfort in the digestive system. In addition, once the skin of the baby's navel is damaged, external bacteria can easily invade, increasing the chance of infection. Therefore, no matter what the reason is that the baby always picks his belly button, parents should not allow the baby to develop this bad habit.

So what should we do when the baby has started to pick his belly button? There are two things we need to do: one is to check the baby's hands to ensure that the baby's fingers are clean and hygienic, without long nails; the other is to check the baby's belly button to ensure that there is no inflammation or dirt in the baby's belly button. In addition to these two points, tell your baby the harm of frequently picking his belly button, dress him in appropriate clothes, such as a jumpsuit, and slowly correct his behavior.

The dangers of belly button picking

The skin, fascia and peritoneum of the navel are directly connected and have no fat tissue, so they are very fragile and can easily cause abdominal discomfort due to cold. Therefore, the old saying "Never let your stomach get frozen" still has some scientific truth to it.

There is no lymphatic tissue around the navel, but there are capillaries all around the navel. These blood vessels are connected to other abdominal tissues. If the navel is inflamed, it will spread to other parts of the abdomen along the veins and may cause sepsis.

The round ligament of the liver is formed after the umbilical vein slowly closes, but studies have found that about 70% of people do not complete the closure process, so in severe cases, the inflammation will also spread to the liver.

In other words, if a child whose body functions have not yet fully developed has his belly button injured accidentally and becomes inflamed, there is a possibility of infection of the internal organs.