Belly Button Ring Problems! Heeellllpp!?

Question

Ok I got my belly button pierced this past July in Hawaii. Ive tried antibacterial soap, salt water, alcohol, peroxide, neosporin, even changed to plastic belly rings and it STILL hasnt healed!! I REALLY dont wana have to take it out so if someone could please please help me with any tips on how to heal it i would appreciate it SO much!!!!

Answer 1

Holy crap. You have done a lot wrong.

For starters: don't use alcohol, peroxide, neosporin, Bactine or other harsh cleaners. While they work for some people, generally they just make problems worse and slow healing time drastically. At this point, you should just shower daily and wash the area with a mild antibacterial soap. Use sea salt soaks twice daily on the area for 10-15 minutes..that's all you need. (I mainly used sea salt soaks on my piercings and they all turned out fine)

Also, never change the jewelry to plastic while a piercing is healing. Plastic is porous and can harvest bacteria, slowing healing and increasing risk for infections. Changing the jewelry too soon can ruin the fistula (which is the healing tube of skin that forms inside a piercing) and can cause rejection in navel piercings. What you need to do is visit a local piercer and for the jewelry fee ask them to get you a titanium curved barbell (or at the very least surgical grade stainless steel) and insert it for you. All other materials should be avoided for a while and do not get bulky jewelry. Often large and decorated jewelry is heavy and it will wear on the healing piercing causing migration, tears and increases risk for rejection.

So...get high quality jewelry in there, stop cleaning it with harsh cleaners and treat the piercing like it was new.

Navel piercings take AN AVERAGE of 6 months to heal, but in some cases it can take up to a YEAR. Your piercer should have explained things better to you and told you that patience is needed. You set your healing time back by making a few poor choices (not all your fault), but now you know and know you can fix the problem. Good luck.

Answer 2

Well first of all I think your using too much stuff on it, you should never use alcohol or peroxide on any piercing. Go back to using the mild soap (Soft Soap is a good one) on it once a day and do sea salt soaks on it twice a day, then as it heals you can cut the salt soaks down to once a day. Don't use anything else.
You should also go to a professional piercer and have them change the ring to a surgical steel captive bead ring and this time don't change it until you KNOW the piercing is healed. These are the best to have in a new piercing because it makes cleaning easier (you rotate the ring while your washing it so you clean the inside of the piercing as well). Don't use the plastic rings. Belly button piercings can be tricky and take up to a year to fully heal so you really have to have patience with them.
Also another tip to help healing is drink a lot of water and just overall keep yourself healthy, your body will heal faster this way. Don't touch it unless you wash your hands first and if you not cleaning it then leave it alone. And make sure you change your bedding often and try not to wear any tight clothing over the piercing.

Answer 3

Hawaiian Belly Button Rings

Answer 4

The navel is a depressed scar which tends to collect dirt, and if not dried properly after bathing can become subject to fungal infections ie. Candida Albicans (Thrush) even if it's not pierced. Once it's pierced extra care must be taken with cleaning to prevent infections, I can't stress strongly enough that it must be looked after carefully!

Navels take a long time to heal because the navel is on your waist, which is like the hinge of your body, it's subject to a lot of movement and you clothes constantly rub and irritate the piercing. It usually takes 3-4 months to heal, but it can take up to 12 months for some people to heal.

Don't be alarmed the only difference between a healed and unhealed navel is a very small amount of redness just around the area where the ring pierces the body, and it's hardly visible. The healing time depends on a variety of factors: health, weight, diet, clothes, profession, and most importantly how carefully you care for it.

If you're worried about having difficulty getting the piercing healed then you should consider getting pierced with a navel jewel as they get knocked around less than rings and therefore heal a lot easier. They are more expensive however but, heal quicker and after it's healed you can change them yourself, whearas you need a plier to change rings and this is difficult to do by yourself.

the first 4-5 days your navel will look fine, then you will start to get a very small amount of redness where the ring pierces the body. You will start to get crusting around the ring, this is just dead white bloods cells from the healing process. The piercing will discharge small amounts of milky fluid, this is not a sign of infection its just the result of you body trying to heal a wound with a foreign object in it. If the discharge becomes thick and yellow, or you develop any pain or excessive redness, this is a sign of possible infection. If this occurs see a dr immediately.

After 6-8 weeks the discharge and crusting should lessen, and there should only be a small amount of redness around the piercing. The piercing is not fully healed until all redness disappears, if you stop cleaning it before it is fully healed you may develop an infection.

Answer 5

Use a plain round SURGICAL STEEL ring, keep it clean (I use Clean & Clear soap w/ salicylic acid every other day, just a drop on the ring, work it back and forth thru the piercing then rinse the same way. Rinse really well!!) Try to keep waistbands, etc off of it, and don't touch it without washing your hands well. If there is a little oozing, using a dropped to work some peroxide thru the same way is okay. I noticed that mine got a lot better after I went to the beach and swam in the salt water.
If it doesn't clear up, see your doctor, you may need anti-biotics for infection.

Answer 6

Dont use peroxide!! peroxide will make it close up and will not help at all...bad idea. i used peroxide on mine and it gave me an infection, only took a day or so to clear up, but still. dont use it. use sea salt, not epsons salt (or whatever its called?) or table salt or anything like that...make sure its natural sea salt. your body is made up of the same sort of atoms and such so it really helps to heal. just take a cup of warm water and put lots of sea salt in it, lay back and put the cup over your belly button. i did it for like 2-5mins, but i know ppl usually do it for up to 25mins, you might want to do it longer. you can do that like twice daily until it starts to heal.
just dont do it too much. try to not touch it very much, turn it in a circle every once in awhile so the skin doesnt attach to it, but playing with it all the time does not help.
and does use soap on it. especially scented soaps, it will irritate it. when ur in the shower and stuff just ignore the peircing and dont wash it.
i also used bactine, its kinda expensive i gues, about 7 bucks for a small bottle, but it fights infection, and unlike peroxide will not force the wound to close.
and if you do think u have an infection, i was told the best thing to do is leave the ring in and let the infection come out. bc if you take it out the skin will close, traping the infection inside and that would be really painful.
alright i hope this helps!!! try this for awhile and if it doesnt work then id recommend taking it out letting it heal and try peircing it again. a friend of mine had to try 2 or 3 times before it actually worked and healed. you just have to take good care of it and make sure it stays clean, without irritating it.
alright well im done, i really hope this helped!! sorry its soo long lol! ttyl
<3

Answer 7

DO NOT USE ANYTHING BUT SALT WATER SOAKS. everything else will irritate the wound and prevent it from healing. Go to a piercing studio (a reputable one) and have it looked at, and have them sterilize a barbell or ring and replace it for you. Then, DONT TOUCH IT! Your hands have tons of germs, even if you just washed them, and fiddling with your healing piercing is like sticking your finger in a big cut. Also, navel piercings usually take 6 months to fully heal, even though they say 4-6. I left mine in even longer than that to make sure it was alright to change, and it's been fine. Because you seem to be having problems, ask the studio how long you need to keep the one they put in for you in. It will probably be another 4 months if you're having troubles.

Answer 8

Sounds like you're having a reaction to the metal. You should go to a reputable place that pierces navels and ask them for advice. They can possibly replace yours with a different type metal, although they may not want to be responsible for an infected area to begin with.

Antibacterial soap, alcohol, peroxide are caustic and prevent new cells from developing and healing the area. Gentle soap or just warm water are all you should be using, with maybe a bit of bacitracin (something like neosporin, but with much less possibility of allergy) placed on the spot with a clean q-tip for during the day.

If it's really reddened, swollen, draining greenish or thick fluid, you should remove it and see your doc. People have gotten gravely ill from body piercing infections.

Answer 9

Try some Colloidal Silver spray or creme. When I got my bellybutton pierced it got infected a few times and this seemed to help.

You could also monitor the amount of Vitamin C and Zinc you're getting in your diet, since these can affect your body's healing ability.

Maybe your body is reacting to the material? I know that there are some metals that I can't wear, and some plastics can be irritating too.

Answer 10

Dont worry i went through the same thing it took me 6 months for it to proper heal, just clean it regularly and wait until it heals also dont play with it and dont take it off for long because the hole will get smaller, mine did so i had to force the belly bar back in and it HURT!!
If it gets worser go to wherever you got it pierced and they might help you.