I'm sure this question has been covered a million times in this forum, but I still can't seem to figure out what this is and if it is indeed similar.

I have a innie belly button and one day when I was about to go to bed, I noticed that my belly button was itching like crazy! I reached to scratch it and then noticed this large amount of puss and crusty stuff accumulated inside my belly button. I later tried to clean it out and then noticed that it was red inside. I've asked a few of my friends who are doctors what to do. All they recommended was to keep it clean with warm water and soap.

The unfortunate part is that it was about a month ago and I still have the irritation and the crusty stuff happening. I try to clean my belly button every morning in the shower.

My question is what is this and how do I treat it? I keep reading not to apply any topical creams to it (my friends even told me not to). So if I did go to my doctor and he prescribed one...What do I do? Also, as an fyi, I had a laparaoscopy performed about over three years ago. Not sure if this is related to that or not but figured i'd mention it just in case it is related.

Thanks!