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Red or Inflamed Navel in Babies
10 min read
Also known as: Omphalitis · navel infection · infected navel · weeping navel · navel inflammation newborn · red belly button baby · suppurating navel · infected umbilical stump · navel discharge
Your Body Is Speaking
The navel is the first scar. The spot where your child was connected to you — physically, directly, without detour. For nine months this connection was its entire universe: nourishment, warmth, heartbeat, shelter. Then it was severed. And what remains is an open wound — in the most literal sense.
When your baby's navel reddens, becomes inflamed, or refuses to heal, that is first and foremost a physical process that deserves medical attention. But the psychosomatic perspective asks an additional question — one that has nothing to do with germs or wound care: What is happening at this transition point between the old oneness and the new separateness? What is expressing itself through this small body that has only just begun to become its own being?
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