My friend's baby is one week old. She was diagnosed two days ago with a rectal polyp. The details that I have are scant. What I know is that she had a little bit of flesh on the outside next to her anus which they originally thought was "wildvlees" in Dutch, which would translate literally to wild meat. My daughter has a small amount of this, too. I don't know what it's called in English but it's totally benign and common.
The midwife thought it looked different and got a pediatrician to visit them. She has diagnosed it as a polyp and has referred them to a pediatric surgeon, who they will see on Monday. They've been told the baby will need a colonoscopy. I think the idea is that that procedure will happen reasonably soon.
I've done a bit of reading and can't find a whole lot about tiny babies having polyps. I'm guessing that they want to do the colonoscopy to see if there are more inside. In my reading I didn't find any obvious references to this being a benign/common/not too bad condition. Does anyone have any experience to share? My friend is understandably freaked out. Her first birth was traumatic. This birth was a wonderful unassisted homebirth. I think that experience was perhaps just enough to help her get past her traumatic birth, but going back to the hospital with a sick baby is going to be very hard for her. She is very young, as well.
Thanks.
