My daughter has the same thing - a lump on the left side of her chest as well. The dr said that not everyone is born with symetrical bones and not to worry about it. But I am still worried - and have not found anything on the web. Have you come across any other information?

Yes I found out that it is normal my daughters docter told me it was nothing to worry about I cant remeber the name for what it is caled but its is normal belive ne I was scred too but its ok its normal..

She has just had mmr vaccine (8 days ago) and had a bad cough and throat infection following. She is on antibiotics, and we noticed a slight lump (almost like an insect bite) on her chest 2 days ago. Tonight it is much bigger (1 inch in diameter) but no sign of pinprick - it just feels like a boil and looks like a cartilage growth under the skin. Has anybody experienced similar or have any views on this? Thanks - worried mum

You guys got me checking on my baby.... Kind of scarry but she doesen't have that.... Hope your babys will be ok I will pray for you ...

"Below the sternum is a hangy down bone nubbin called the xiphoid. Its main function is to terrify parents into thinking it is a tumor. "What's this bump?" This is especially true when the youngster is thin and when the sternum is spoon shaped pointing the xiphoid forwardish rather than down."

i am a 22 year old male student in decent physical shape. i too was scared out of my wits when i noticed this bump. like a fool i kept it to myself for a while, feeling more anxious with every passing day. one day i cracked and while visiting my family covertly patted my father just above his stomach and noticed the bump there as well, i did the same thing to my brother, just a pat was enough to notice the bump. my fathers bump was smaller than my brothers' and mine was of a different size than both of theirs. this put me a little at ease but i still could not quell the hypochondriac itch. a few days later i asked some of my friends if they had it, and one of them (who also had never noticed it before) noticed the bump and she got extremely upset and started rambling about cancer. for some reason, despite the fact that all three people i asked or "examined" had the bump, despite the fact one of these people is a woman and despite the fact none of us are related by blood (me and my brother are adopted from different families) i had managed to convince myself and my friend that we had tumours. i eventually gave up and just went to my doctor. do you know what she told me!?

"That is just part of your sternum."

and then she laughed. all this worry for nothing. i told my friend when i saw her next and she cracked up. when i told my family about it afterwards they had a wonderful time hysterically laughing. for so many people all over the place to confuse a normal body part with a cancerous lump or some other sort of harmful infliction is sort of humorous in a mildly dark way, when you think about it. dont believe me? here are some links on the topic;

http://www.pediatric-orthoped ics.com/Topics/Bones/Thorax/thorax.html
http://en.w ikipedia.org/wiki/Xiphoid_process
http://www.mnsu.edu /emuseum/biology/humananatomy/skeletal/ste rnum/xiphoid.html
http://www. answers.com/topic/xyphoid-process

i hope you all rest easy after reading this.

peace be with you.

(p.s. unless it is causing you a great deal of pain or growing significantly larger, or oozing puss or something inexplicably unusual, it is most likely just this very normal part of the human sternum.)