Umbilical Cord Care?

[Taryn237]

Who's doing/did what?

I x-posted this in the main Birth forum:

"Very Stinky Umbilical Cord?

DD is 10 days old. Around day 7 her cord really started to smell so I cleaned around it w/alcohol (left alone until then). It still really smells. I called the pedi and of course they're like 'better bring her in' but I hate to go in for every little thing. It doesn't look infected, skin around is nice and pink, no red streaking. Any advice?"

[laurelg]

We left it alone, and it fell off on day 8. It smelled HORRIBLE. It had a little bit of bloody oozing/crustiness, but the MW said everything was normal - including the awful smell. She said we didn't need to be worried unless it really started bleeding or looked red/swollen.

From what I read, the leave-it-alone approach usually results in the cord falling off sooner (I want to think it was an average of 7 days vs. 10 days with alcohol), but it is pretty gross in the meantime. Using alcohol can make it take a little longer, but it's cleaner/less stinky during that time.

[mzminty]

He peed on his and I think that made it super stinky and gross. We used alcohol and kept an eye on it. Then the doc put silver nitrate on it at a well baby visit and said that a granuloma had formed under it. Anyway, the silver nitrate helped it dry up and come off and now it's fine. I think it's only a real problem if it's oozing pus or the skin around it is looking infected.

[Hallielynn01]

DDs stunk too!! MW said leave it alone, asked the ped when she came to the house, she said there is no real recommendation, no proof that alcohol makes that big of a difference. We started using a little alcohol when the smell got bad, made me feel better! LOL. It was fine and fell off sometime last week. Much quicker than DDs when I used alcohol each cleaning!

[Everrgreen]

We left DS's alone and it fell off on day 7 - and I was relieved because it stunk! My midwife said she has a woman with a 10lb baby who has a thick cord which she figures will take a while to come off, and she said it just smells awful.

[mclisa]

I didn't use anything and it came off at 2 weeks.

[brandianndesigns]

my midwife told me with my son (18 mos old now) to use a towel to make sure it's dry (if you bathe the baby) and then to apply a little golden seal (it comes in caplet form) to the stump. whenever it's looking a little wet you just open the caplet up and sprinkle on the golden seal. my DS cord fell off in 8 days with no smell and no redness or anything.

[DizzyMissLizzy]

My poor babe's hasn't fallen off....She's a month today.

I think she wants to keep it forever.

[Phoenix~Mama]

Originally Posted by DizzyMissLizzy

My poor babe's hasn't feel off....She's a month today.

I think she wants to keep it forever.

That is semi re-assuring to me... I keep reading everyone's posts about stumps falling off 7-8 days... DD is 3 weeks old today and her stump is still there. yuk!