What causes intestinal hernia in a baby boy?

Intestinal hernia is a very common pediatric disease that occurs in male babies. It mainly refers to the change and displacement of an organ or a small tissue in the child's body, resulting in a bulge in the body. The main sites of occurrence should be the child's groin, abdomen and diaphragm. Surgical treatment is generally recommended.

Causes of inguinal hernia in babies

During fetal development, a boy's testicles develop in the abdomen, and then before birth, a pair of testicles descend into the scrotum through a canal in the tissue between the groin and the abdomen (called the "inguinal canal").

In girls, the ovaries also descend through the inguinal canal into the pelvic cavity (pelvis). Then the passage through the abdominal wall in the baby's body should close.

In about 5% of babies (mostly boys, especially premature babies) the opening of this passage is still large enough for the intestine to slide down into the inguinal canal after birth, thus forming an inguinal hernia. An inguinal hernia will not heal on its own.

Symptoms of inguinal hernia in babies

If your baby is a boy and has an inguinal hernia, you will find a hard, oval-shaped mass about the size of your thumb in his groin area or scrotum. But you may not notice the lump until weeks or even months after your baby is born.

The mass may bulge out when the baby is very active or crying (increasing the intra-abdominal pressure). When the baby calms down, the mass will return to the abdominal cavity and disappear.

Inguinal hernias are much less common in girls than in boys, but they do occur occasionally. In girls, an inguinal hernia occurs when the intestine pushes through the abdominal wall and into the baby's groin area and sometimes into the labia (the soft skin at the opening of the vagina).

Treatment of inguinal hernia in babies

For boys with inguinal hernias, your doctor may recommend a minor surgery to treat it, usually around the age of one. Because although inguinal hernia itself is not a big deal, the protruding intestinal tube may get stuck somewhere, affecting the blood supply to the local area and causing permanent necrosis of the tissue, which will have a great impact on the baby.

If a baby with an inguinal hernia has his intestines stuck, you may notice that the mass suddenly becomes larger, harder, or even black, and you won't be able to press it back into the baby's abdominal wall.

To sum up, generally speaking, if a child has a hernia, it can be solved with just a minor operation, but it is recommended not to perform the operation after birth. At best, the operation should be performed when the child is about one year old. At the same time, if it is a female, it is generally caused by excessive hormones or fluids, which can be excreted from the body with urine.