Created by the snip of the umbilical cord at birth, your belly button gets its appearance when the stalk from the leftover cord dries up leaving an abdominal scar. Whether you have an innie or an outie has nothing to do with the handiwork of the physician who delivered you, explains Cetrulo.
Whether a child ends up with an innie vs. an outie belly button is purely a matter of chance. Despite popular opinion, it has nothing to do with the way a doctor cuts the umbilical cord or with how the parents care for the belly button area as the skin heals.
Your belly button marks the spot where your umbilical (say: um-BIL-ih-kul) cord was once attached. This cord is a soft, bendable tube that carried nutrients — vitamins and minerals — from your mother to you, back when you were in her belly (womb).
Innie or outie: Whether you have an innie or an outie bellybutton has nothing to do with whether your mother had one or your father or your grandfather. In other words, it has nothing to do with genetics. And it has nothing to do with how the doctor cut your umbilical cord.
Belly buttons are naturally different and can be round, wide, deep, or many other variations. If you don't like the way yours looks, there are surgical procedures that can help.
When you're born, the umbilical cord is cut and you have a small piece left called the umbilical stump. One to 2 weeks after birth, this stump falls off and what remains is your belly button. As a result, your belly button is essentially a scar. Whether it's an innie or outie depends on how your skin grows as it heals.
Most of us have innie belly buttons, with only about 10 percent outies. A few of us may have something in between, or even a little of both! Here are some more fun facts about our belly buttons.
The diameter of the navel varies from fifteen to twenty millimetres. The body weight, pregnancies and abdominal wall hernia can influence the appearance. With increasing age or body weight, the belly button shape becomes oval across and the depth of the belly button increases. After pregnancy, the navel can protrude.
Most people who have an "outie" fall into one of two categories: either they were born with a tiny umbilical hernia, which is most likely, or had a small infection at the base of the umbilical cord that went unnoticed. This will cause unusual tissue called granulation tissue to form.
No. Some people claim you can change an outie to an innie – by taping a quarter over it, for example – but it's just not true.
Sinkkonen pointed out a study by Charles Puckett and colleagues of the University of Misouri, which asked people to choose from a number of navels the one that was most attractive. The subjects agreed: the best-looking navels were vertically oriented with a T-shape.
Contrary to popular belief, the shape of your belly button has nothing to do with how the umbilical cord was cut or clamped—so don't blame your doctor (or your S.O.). Instead, most outies are formed because of extra scar tissue that's found beneath the belly button—something that's beyond anyone's control.
Your belly button is an erogenous zone
Even though the belly button is just a scar, the area has many nerve endings, making it ticklish, sensitive, and — if you're like Madonna — a love button that shoots sex tingles up your spine.
Belly button surgery, or umbilicoplasty, is a procedure in which those that were born with excessive skin in their belly button (an outie) have the excess skin removed. This procedure can also be performed to fix hernias and put the skin in and around the belly button in the proper place.
An outie can occasionally develop if there is a hernia at this site. The most popular explanation is that the difference between innies and outies is due to where the umbilical cord is cut and that extra skin left from the umbilical cord may cause the protrusion of an outie.
Belly buttons can be removed, but you would be exchanging a belly button for a scar. The procedure would also be very difficult to reverse and recreate a belly button after it has been excised.
The shape and dent of your navel essentially determines how the umbilical cord heals. Belly buttons don't necessarily mean anything in particular about your health, however some people would argue that your belly button says a lot about you as a person.”
It doesn't have anything to do with your weight or the size of your stomach. The way your belly button looks is mostly by chance. It doesn't have anything to do with the size of your stomach or your weight.
This photo shows what the belly button looks like from inside the abdomen. As you can see, it is not attached to anything in the body. The belly button is where the umbilical cord attaches to the fetus, connecting the developing baby to the placenta.
Internally the veins and arteries in the cord close up and form ligaments, which are tough connective tissues. These ligaments divide up the liver into sections and remain attached to the inside of the belly button.
According to a study at the University of Missouri, small, T-shaped belly buttons are the most attractive. Researchers showed pictures of innies, outies, and belly buttons of all shapes and sizes to a group of men and women who rated them on a scale of 1 to 10 from least to most attractive.
In a case of palaeontological navel gazing, a new record for the oldest belly button has now been set, after a team of international scientists made a remarkable discovery on the 125 million-year-old fossilised skin of a dinosaur, Psittacosaurus – a distant cousin of Triceratops.
Dip your finger or a soft washcloth in a solution of saltwater (about a teaspoon of table salt in a cup of warm water) and gently massage the inside of your navel. This should loosen stubborn germs that can cause odor. Then rinse with plain water and pat it dry.
Despite common folklore, you can't flatten an outie by strapping something across your baby's belly or by taping a quarter over it. In fact, there's nothing you can (or should) do to change an outie. Instead, as your child grows, help them understand that it's just another way a body can look.
Dirt, bacteria, fungus, and germs can get trapped inside your belly button and start to multiply, which can cause an infection. If you develop a belly button infection, you might notice white, yellow, brown, or bloody discharge seeping out of it. That discharge might also have an unpleasant smell.