What to do if your child is constantly picking at his belly button

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Author of the article

Lyudmila Sergeevna Sokolova Pediatrician of the highest category

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Article last updated: 04/16/2019

Unfortunately, “bad habits” occur not only in adults, but also in children. From about five months, the child begins to take an active interest in his body. He carefully examines the arms, putting them in front of his face, pulls the legs to his chest and examines the fingers. A normal development process is that he tries to try everything, puts everything in his mouth. At such a tiny age, this happens involuntarily.

Children try for the first time, and subsequently put into practice, various grasping and “twisting” movements, repeat the facial expressions of adults, and make various sounds. All this is a stage in the development of the child’s motor skills and consciousness and usually does not last long. Gradually this will be replaced by something new: jumping in puddles, hitting a plate with a spoon, etc. But it happens that a child repeats a certain movement constantly, and over time this habit not only does not go away, but also gets worse. In young children, belly button picking is often one of these compulsive behaviors.

Possible reasons why a child is fiddling with his belly button

Before you grab your child and take him to a child or family psychologist, you need to try to find out why the baby is constantly fiddling with his navel.

Most often, there is nothing complicated about this, and the answer lies on the surface. You just need to watch your child a little. Reasons may be:

1. physiological;
2. psychological.

With physiological reasons, everything is clear - the child is bothered by something in the navel and he constantly touches it. To find out whether this is so, just carefully examine the navel and the area around it. Perhaps there is some kind of rash there that causes itching in the baby, or he peels off the scabs from an accidental scratch.

If your child constantly touches his belly button, the first thing you need to do is make sure that this is not caused by some pathological process in this area (for example, inflammation or a wound).

You should also be alert to the appearance of other accompanying symptoms of malaise: fever, lethargy, drowsiness, refusal to eat. After a fairly short period of time, the navel area becomes painful, and the child does not allow him to touch it. Changes visible to the naked eye appear: redness, swelling, possibly some discharge. In this case, the child must be urgently shown to a doctor.

Navel irritation in adults

The causes of irritation in adults are similar, but include a more extensive list of factors. In addition to allergic reactions, hygiene problems, and stressful situations, one can add diseases that are more common in older age groups. These include:

• fungal infections;
• scabies mite;
• tattoos and piercings;
• pregnancy.

Fungal infections

A rare phenomenon, it often appears in people who are prone to obesity and neglect the rules of hygiene. Signs include itchy red spots with yellow and white-gray scales, and a regularly recurring desire to scratch the irritated area. In addition to consulting a doctor, regular water treatments are necessary for healing.

Scabies mite

The delicate skin of the umbilical cavity is susceptible to damage by scabies parasites. The infection can be recognized by characteristic red lines with entry points, which are tick passages made in the skin.

Irritating itching occurs due to the reaction of the epidermis to deposited waste products. Infection occurs through direct contact with the carrier, using common household items.

Tattoos and piercings

An itchy navel may be the first sign of infection after visiting a tattoo parlor. The risk of infection increases significantly when amateur piercing or tattooing occurs.

Even in special salons, sterilization of the instruments used is often neglected. Infection can turn into suppuration, which will require serious medical intervention.

Irritation in pregnant women

During pregnancy, discomfort in the umbilical region is due to the development of the fetus. Its growth provokes the appearance of stretch marks on the skin on the abdomen, which are very itchy. Tight clothing made of rough or synthetic fabric will be an irritation factor.

What not to do

First of all, you need to understand that perhaps these actions have emotional value for the child and allow you to get rid of accumulated negativity and tension. And if you rudely forbid him to do this, then such behavior will only worsen the situation. There is no need to cover the navel with a plaster or smear it with mustard, hit the child's hands or shout at him when he picks the navel.

Under no circumstances should you ridicule his habit or compare his behavior with other “good” children. This is the key to the development of an inferiority complex in the child, which is very difficult to get rid of.

You can’t take a child’s word that he won’t do this again. Children, in principle, are not able to keep promises, and constant violations of this word will lead to the same actions in adulthood.

What does navel picking lead to?

Scratching your belly button can lead to infection

If the baby continuously scratches and picks at the birth scar, this can result in unpleasant consequences:

• scratching the skin in the folds of the navel;
• ingress of dirt, infection;
• development of an inflammatory and sometimes purulent process (due to the difficulty of accessing the depth of the scar folds);
• the need for surgery to remove or clean the inflammation.

It is important to teach your baby to observe the rules of personal hygiene from a young age. It is advisable to regularly examine even a navel that has already healed after birth.

What will help in finding out the reasons

It is necessary to find out the reason for this bad habit and help the baby cope with it.

Try to give your child at least a little more attention than usual. Ask him to tell you how his day went, what interesting things he saw, what he remembered. Show interest.

1. If your child starts touching his belly button while crying or being scolded, try to find a way to calm him down so that he doesn't have to do it himself through this habit.
2. You can come up with interesting activities to distract your baby for a long time. It is better if this is a visit to some public events or crowded places where the child simply will not have the opportunity to get to his navel.
3. It is necessary to help the child make friends who are the same age, since often bad habits appear from a lack of communication “on the same level.”
4. For some time, try not to punish the baby, do not reproach him for anything, or put him in a corner. Maybe the problem will resolve itself.
5. Do not forbid your child to scream and cry. This is how he expresses his negative emotions and anger. Suppressing negative emotions can not only lead to belly button picking, but can also cause many problems in the future.
6. To wean your child from a bad habit, show him how to enjoy other activities: how interesting it is to draw and have fun playing, how fun it is to pick flowers or pick up colorful leaves.
7. A simple method like drawing helps a lot. Ask your child to draw what he is feeling now and even by the color of the chosen pencil, you will understand whether your child is experiencing positive or negative emotions at the moment.
8. Ask your child to retell his dreams every morning. Children's dreams are a reflection of the subconscious of a little man. All his fears and discontents, resentments and sorrows are reflected in them. Therefore, reading good bedtime stories can be an excellent way to indirectly influence the habit of navel picking. This will calm your child, influence his dreams and thus eliminate the need to make obsessive movements.

How to deal with the problem

Spend more time with your child

The solution to the problem depends on the reason that provoked the child’s behavior. Experts recommend the following:

• Examine the skin of the navel for inflammation, rashes, and lumps. Particular attention should be paid to pain in the scar area when pressing on it. If you have any alarming external signs, you should consult a doctor.
• If the baby receives insufficient attention from his parents, the family’s daily routine needs to be reconsidered. Spend more time with your child. Play fun, albeit ridiculous, children's games. Run, jump, read, draw together. Maximum love neutralizes the baby’s feelings of uselessness and fear.
• Monitor the situation in kindergarten. Find out whether the baby is comfortable there and whether the teachers and nannies are competent. Does the child have conflicts with other children? You can talk about this both with the baby himself and with other parents, teachers, and preschool staff.
• Attend mass children's events and playgrounds more often. Here the baby will make new acquaintances, learn to build proper social relationships, and be able to cope with the feeling of possible loneliness.

  
  Get a pet, it will help your child get distracted

• Get a pet. A puppy, kitten, or at least a guinea pig will not only become a child’s friends, but will teach him to take care of his smaller companions. They will distract you from constantly studying your body.
• If the child is already talking, discuss the day, the movie he watched, the book he read. Be interested in his emotions and views on the actions of certain heroes. This way you can find out the true picture of the child’s psychological state (aggression, loneliness, hatred, sadness, lack of love and attention).
• Try to gently switch the baby’s actions at the moment when he begins to fiddle with the birth scar. Just unobtrusively move your baby's hand away from the navel and give him a pencil or a paintbrush to wean him off the bad habit. Ask them to bring something, make something, make it.
• Give your child a restful, full-fledged nap during the day. Even if at first glance he is not tired and does not want to sleep. Please know that children's psyche is extremely unstable under the age of 7 years. The emotions experienced during the day greatly overload her. Therefore, help unload your baby’s psyche through at least an hour of daytime sleep.

With a gentle approach and influence, the bad habit will go away on its own.

Hernia

Hernia is considered one of the common diseases in young children. It can be formed due to non-standard natural data - a large umbilical ring or weak abdominal muscles. It is not difficult to notice; the hernia seems to protrude above the skin. But sometimes she tends to be drawn inward. The child does not understand that this is an abnormal condition of his navel, and tries to play with the hernia, pressing on it so that it hides under the skin and looks back out. This process does not bring pain to the baby, so he finds it interesting, but parents must understand that this requires mandatory medical intervention so that complications with the child’s health do not arise in the future.

A one-year-old baby and a two-year-old baby and a bad habit

Mothers often ask, what to do if a year-old child picks his belly button? After all, at this age it is difficult to explain to him that this cannot be done. At this age, the baby is exploring his body, so you should just distract him with interesting toys, and very soon he will forget about the harmful activity.

At any age, a bad habit can arise, for example, if a child at 2 years old picks his navel, then you need to find out whether there are physical and psychological prerequisites for this. If these problems are solved, the baby will grow up happy and healthy.

Emotions

But it happens that not everything is so easy to identify! And touching the navel became a bad habit. You need to find out the psychological factor behind this action.

Navel picking may be associated with the manifestation of certain emotions:

1. Anxiety.
2. Anger.
3. Aggressive behavior.
4. Nervous overexcitation.
5. Resentment.
6. Sadness.
7. And plain boredom.

All of these emotions are more negative than positive. And the root cause of their manifestation may be hidden not only in the mental state of the baby, but also in the home environment in which he is constantly located. If parents often quarrel among themselves or lash out at the child, then his reaction with touching the navel may be defensive behavior or fear. In addition to parents, negatively-minded relatives - brothers, sisters, grandmothers, as well as any persons in contact with him who can frighten the child - can cause unusual behavior in the child.