A navel stone forms when sebum and keratin from dead skin cells collect in your belly button. The material accumulates and hardens into a tight mass.
Removal. The only treatment for a navel stone is to remove it. Your doctor may be able to pull it loose with instruments like forceps. Sometimes, doctors will use a liquid to soften the navel stone and make it easier to pull out.
Navel lint usually does no harm, but its removal may be advised since it could sometimes cause omphalitis or even sepsis. A navel stone can be removed easily by soaking it in sterilised olive oil.
As dead skin cells and sebum — the oil secreted by your skin — accumulate in your bellybutton, they can form an omphalolith over time. Also known as a navel stone, they're made of the same materials that form blackheads.
It usually forms when the surface skin is folded in on itself, which is often the case in a belly button. As skin grows, dead skin cells can't be shed like it can elsewhere on the body. It can leak a cheese-like substance and have a foul-smelling odor, but it is typically not dangerous and does not require treatment.
Navel stones are generally dark in color. Sometimes they appear to be black or brown. The dark color may come from the pigment of dead skin cells. It also may come from the oxidation of oils from your skin.
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.
A deep hollow belly button typically occurs when the hood of skin casts a shadow on the inside of the button, giving the visual impression of it being quite deep. This shape is also common in people who have some excess belly fat around the abdomen.
Belly buttons are barely a few millimetres deep at a young age. At a young age, belly buttons have an elongated shape. The diameter of the navel varies from fifteen to twenty millimetres. The body weight, pregnancies and abdominal wall hernia can influence the appearance.
The navel (clinically known as the umbilicus, commonly known as the belly button or tummy button) is a protruding, flat, or hollowed area on the abdomen at the attachment site of the umbilical cord.
You should regularly be giving your belly button a little extra TLC to make sure it stays clean and infection free. “I recommend patients clean their navel daily in the shower with gentle soap and water,” says Dr. Bard.
If you develop a skin infection, you might see pus leaking from your belly button. Sometimes the pus will smell. Other symptoms include not only pain, but also redness or discoloration, and swelling in the area.
You need to swab your navel with a cotton bud dipped in warm, soapy water or alcohol once a week. Make sure you dry the entire area thoroughly afterwards.
Cleaning your belly button
Depending on the sensitivity of your skin, you can use water, a saltwater solution, or hydrogen peroxide to clean your belly button. Dip one side of a cotton swab into a cleansing agent and gently wipe your belly button.
Why Is Your Bellybutton Bleeding? Bleeding from your bellybutton can have several different causes. Three of the most likely causes are infection, a complication from portal hypertension, or primary umbilical endometriosis. Keep reading to learn more about bleeding from the bellybutton and what should do to treat it.
Using warm water and mild soap, use a washcloth to gently clean around and just inside the belly button. Rinse with clean, warm water and dry with a towel to make sure that all water has been removed from the belly button. Showering or bathing regularly can help to prevent skin problems and odor.
"At the navel, you have the ability to stimulate not only the skin overlying the navel, but also the fibres of the inner lining of your abdomen," he said. "As you stick your finger into your belly button, it sends a signal from the deeper fibres that line your inner abdominal cavity to your spinal cord."
Located directly behind the stomach, the pancreas lies deep in the center of the abdomen. Its position corresponds to an area 3-6 inches above the “belly button”, straight back on the back wall of the abdominal cavity.
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.
The protrusion is through a normal 'hole' in the base of the belly button, which previously allowed through the major umbilical blood vessels. After birth this small hole usually closes off and as as result the belly button heals up with no bulges. If the hole doesn't close then abdominal contents can bulge through.
Misconceptions about belly buttons
Others believe their belly button is somehow connected directly to their uterus or the placenta or even the baby's belly button. This isn't the case. As you can see in the picture below, the belly button normally isn't connected to anything in adults.
The depth of your belly button can change throughout your life, depending on how much fat your are storing around your middle. Innie belly buttons often get deeper when someone puts on some weight.
The majority of people have “innies,” the very scientific term for belly buttons that dip inward. Protruding “outies” can be found on approximately 10 percent of the population. They're about as common as left-handedness.
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.