The elephant in the room 房間裡的大象

Supernumerary nipple, also known as a third nipple, is found in 1 in 18 male and 1 in 50 female. (Source Wikipedia)

Figure 1. Example of third nipple. This is not Emre. This is Mark Wahlberg. 

Disclaimer: I didn't plan to write about this topic. It's Nihal's idea. Sorry baby boy, we sold you out.

    We found a patch of skin that is a bit darker and has a different texture on Emre's left belly. (No picture here for privacy reason.) We were in the children's hospital for other medical issue that time, so we asked the neonatal doctor and dermatologist about it. To our surprise, our son has a third nipple!!! We first felt awkward to talk about the third nipple to people. It has been an elephant in the room for us.

    Naturally we were worried about this unexpected issue. It could be a disaster for a kid going to the swimming pool and in the changing room. Who knows how other kids will relentlessly react to this. Its likely Emre will end up with a nickname like "triple nipple" or "freak-ple" or something in that line. No! This is not going to happen to my son. So we decided to: first, talk about this issue like real adults (hence this post) and second, think about possible counteracts.
 
    First thing first, let's understand the third nipple.

• It is common. 1 in 18 male and 1 in 50 female have it. We don't know about this stats is likely because most of the third nipples look just like moles, nothing scary. I should have a filter here not to talk about people in my family who also have it. (Dad, don't worry, your secret is safe with me.)   
• A whole breast is composed with three major parts: areola (the darker patch around the nipple), nipple and glandular tissue. There are several types of third nipple. Some have only areola, some have only nipple, some have both areola and nipple and in the most rare cases have all three parts. In the later type, surgical removal is probably needed. (But it might be very handy for woman with triplets!)
• The cause of third nipple is not clearly known. Genetic is part of the reason. However, no known gene is linked to the development of third nipple. The reason to believe its genetic is because some genetic diseases are correlated with third nipple. 
• Most other mammals have more than two nipples: cow has 4 and pig has 8. Perhaps in the course of evolution (or creation) primate lost the extra nipples. 

   Second, what should we do about it. We don't know yet. We will wait for a couple years to see how it turns out. If it just looks like a mole, we will do nothing. If it looks like a nipple, we will consider a surgical removal or simply put a smiley face sticker on it every morning! It can be a happy nipple, right?

Figure 2. Demonstration of counteracts. A. Before treatment. B. Surgical removal by Powerpoint.
 C. Smiley face attachment. 

    Hey, do you know Bradley Cooper has 5, not 3, nipples and he was the sexiest man alive of 2011 on People magazine. After all, it is not so bad to have an extra one.

    Glad we got the elephant out of the room.