Most people have a belly button or navel that only seems to gather lint.The belly button serves no special daily function for human beings. It is a feature of pure ornamentation.People form their belly buttons about two weeks after being born. When a baby is inside its mother’s womb, the umbilical cord is responsible for supplying nutrients and food to the fetus and for carrying waste back to the mother. When the baby comes out via the uterus, the placenta and the attached umbilical have no more purpose and are snipped by the doctor. The resulting stump falls off the baby in two weeks time and what is left behind is the belly button or navel. Belly buttons can broadly be classified as an ‘innie’ or an ‘outie’. Only 10% of people have an ‘outie’. Outside these broad classifications, belly buttons are also deep hollow, split, round, horizontal, or ’light bulb’.If you enjoyed this article, why not also read about why do cells divide or why do people dance here on Kidadl.What is the purpose of the belly button?The simple answer to this question is that belly buttons have no purpose at all. It may sound like an ancient riddle but it just happens to be leftover from the umbilical cord that you had when inside your mother’s womb.After a baby’s birth, the belly button or navel does not have many biological uses but may come in handy during some medical procedures or health surgery. If a baby that has been just born needs a blood transfusion, the stump of the umbilical cord is chosen.The belly button is also considered to be the center of balance of the body. It serves as an important landmark for the human body. The umbilicus also comes in handy in laparoscopic surgery to introduce laparoscopic ports. A belly button or navel of abnormal shape can be indicative of pregnancy problems. Also, the belly button has an aesthetic role. Many people choose to tattoo or pierce it.The umbilical cord has an important function during pregnancy. It circulates the oxygen-and-nutrient-rich blood to the growing fetus.Why do humans have belly buttons?Humans have belly buttons because they mark the spot where the mother’s body was connected to a child’s body when it was inside the womb. The umbilical cord would have connected to the belly of the child.The umbilical cord is a soft and bendable tube that carries nutrients from the mother to the baby and waste products from the baby to the mother. A belly button can also be called a ’navel’. After the baby is born, she or he cries. This is a sign that it can breathe air on its own and doesn’t need the umbilical cord anymore. This is why the umbilical cord is cut since a newborn baby will be feeding on its mother’s milk and getting rid of the waste on its own. After birth, the doctor cuts the cord from the connected placenta and attaches a clamp on the umbilicus stump that remains so that it can be pinched off. Some days later, after the cord dries, the clamp can be taken out. The stump falls off on its own after several weeks and the child is left with its own belly button.What are the types of belly buttons?When asked about their belly button or navel, most people would say that they have an ‘innie’ or an ‘outie’. However, the anatomical classification can go way beyond innie or outie.The belly button is one of the more unique attributes that a person can have. The following are some of the types of belly buttons that people have, with innie and outie being broad distinctions.A ‘protruding’ belly button, called an ‘outie’ is what about 10% of the world population has. The remaining 90% has an ‘innie’. A person gets an ‘outie’ belly button when the remaining parts of the umbilical stump go out instead of in.Another type of belly button is ‘deep hollow’. A deep hollow is a belly button that usually appears when there is a shadow beneath the top fold of the belly button. A deep hollow button looks like a mouth that is slightly open. Some people also call this the ‘funnel’ belly button which is also associated with having too much abdominal fat.Vertical or ‘split’ belly button is another type. This kind of typically narrow belly button looks like the area of the stomach around it has a small up-down split. Also, the vertical or split belly button has a bit of a hood over the top, which makes it look like an ‘I’ has been imprinted on the skin. The split belly button is known for being one of the most prevalent types of belly button.A typically narrow horizontal belly button is another type. It is also known as a T-type belly button. Most of the fold is horizontal, hence the name. The top side has a depression that makes it look like a ‘T’.The round belly button is almost like an outie belly button. It’s concave and protrudes inwards. There is no hooding or covering and it looks very symmetrical. Another type of belly button is the ’light bulb’. It has almost no hood and is slightly oval-shaped and tapers as it goes down, like any light bulb, hence the name.How is the belly button formed?The belly button is formed when a baby is born and the doctor cuts its umbilical cord from the placenta.After this, only a small umbilical stump is left on the baby’s body. After two weeks of being born, this particular stump falls off the body and the remaining part is the belly button. This makes the belly button a scar. What determines whether it will be an outie or an innie is how the skin grows as it heals. The doctor who delivers you or your parents have no control over how your belly button forms.The reasons that do not influence the shape or appearance of your belly button are how the doctor clamped your umbilical cord, how it was cut, and how your parents cared for the umbilical stump. An overweight person can have a smaller belly button, and an underweight person may have a large one. Also, some people may not have a belly button at all. These people, when they’re born, had some condition affecting the cord like bladder exstrophy, omphalocele, gastroschisis, or cloacal exstrophy. These conditions result in the intestine forming or protruding outside the wall of the abdomen, so the belly button isn’t formed since the umbilical cord will not fall off normally, creating the traditional belly button scar.Belly buttons can be removed, but the result would be another scar in its place. And once removed, it is difficult to reverse the medical process. It is not possible to die from poking the belly button too much. Animals like reptiles and birds do not have a belly button. Most animals who give birth and have a placenta will have belly buttons, but this does not include mammals. Animals like whales, tigers, and squirrels don’t have very noticeable belly buttons as the mothers of these mammals chew off the cords with their teeth which just leaves a flat, less noticeable scar.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for why do we have belly buttons then why not take a look at why do boats float or why do leaves fall.
Most people have a belly button or navel that only seems to gather lint.
