Why We Almost Went to the ER

Tilly has an "innie" belly button. (Random, I know, but it is an essential part of the story.)

Tonight, Eric, Tilly and I were just playing in the living room like any normal night. Tilly was playing, and for some reason, Eric picked her up. When he did, he happened to touch her belly button. (She was fully dressed.) He said "man, Tilly's belly button feels really hard. Then he kind of held her up, and I noticed through an outline in her onesie that she looked like she had an "outie" belly button. My initial thought which I expressed to Eric was that it may be a hernia. I've heard these are not uncommon in children. Tilly was in no apparent pain or distress, so I did not panic. I just asked him to take off her clothes and look at her belly button. He pulled off her pants (never an easy thing because of her ham bone thighs) then unbuttoned her onesie. When he raised the flap of her onesie to see her belly button, he turned four sheets of white, quickly covered her back up and said "something is really wrong....something is really wrong....it's gonna be okay, but something is really wrong." I scooted over to her to see for myself. Indeed, it did not look right.

There was a pink substance in her belly button. I felt of it, and it was hard. When I touched it, she didn't even flinch. Then, I pulled out a pink, pea sized piece of some sort of CANDY!!! Eric fell out on the floor as if he had been holding his breath throughout the entire ordeal.

Don't ask me how that candy got there...I can only assume she got it from one of the kids where she stays during the day. I think that someone else stuck it in there, because I know my child, and she would have EATEN candy--NOT put it in her belly button!

Eric said, "Leslie, it is a good thing you were here when I noticed this. Otherwise, I would have taken her to the emergency room! I thought her intestines were coming out of her belly button!!"

Oh dear.