my little man has a hernia

[mimmymoo]

my health visitor picked up a hernia in my little mans groin back end of last week, apparently its quite common in premature babies although its only just presented itself .. he probably had it all along, but its only just popping in and out
he's currently 5 weeks and born at 33 weeks, he has been referred to addenbrookes in cambridge for a consultation and i guess date for his op will follow
just wondering approx how long until he has his op, does anyone have any idea? have been told he might not have it until he is 3 mths old - only by a friend who used to work on a ward that dealt with this sort of thing, gp and health visitor cant say for sure - but i think almost another 2 mths is a long time for my lo to be in such pain waiting for his op.
the neonatal nurse who visited cpl times when he was first discharged said the babies on scbu who have hernias (she's based at another hospital) have their ops before they are sent home - doesnt make sense why he has to wait so long
any thoughts or advice about the above would me much appreciated x

 

[AP]

I can only speak on behalf of my friend, that had her lil boy at 27 weeks. He too had a hernia and although it was operated on before he went home, he did have follow up ops for it though. He was 3 months when he had it operated on.

https://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/health/hernias/

This seems to be good, and explains that hernias can sometimes be found well after birth when baby is older x

 

[Agiboma]

The two babies in my nicu that had a hernia had it operated on befor they left the hospital it was abouttheir dues dates they had he surgery so 40 weeks gestation hope his helps

 

[Isaacs mum]

My little boy who was born at 32 weeks also had a hernia in his groin. Same as you it was not picked up whilst in SCBU, I noticed it soon after we were home and mentioned it to the neonatal nurse who was still visiting us. At his 8 week check with our GP we were referred to a consultant at the hopital. The first consultant we saw said he would not operate until Isaac was about 18 months, which we thought was a bit strange as we were told by the neontal nurse that they usually do them asap.
Then for some reason we were referred to another consultant at a different hospital, who said that they would do the op as soon as possible.
Isaac had his operatin at about 8 months (6 months corrected). But there were 2 other babies having their op done and they were much younger, in fact the one who was also a premmie was only a few weeks old. The only difference being that we only had to stay in hospital the night before the op where as the younger babies had to stay in the night after. The op only took about 30 minutes and you can't even see the scar. Also Isaac did'nt seem to be in any pain. If you have any questions please ask.

 

[pink.crazy]

My LO was born at 28 weeks and had his hernia surgery at 35 weeks - but they initially said they'd wait until 40 weeks as they like a bigger baby to work on - sometimes if they do it too soon, they may only have to repeat the procedure.
They said that they only operate if they need to and some hernias correct themselves. Leo's was sometimes irreducible, which is why they did the surgery when they did.
Good luck, and try not to worry. You'd know if your LO was in pain with it honey, my LO only had "trouble" with his once and he instantly went off his feeds and had swelling in that area etc. xx

 

[nineena]

No advice just wanted to give hugs and hope your lil man gets sorted and better really soon xx