umbilical stump question - Page 2

[claras_mom]

Originally Posted by Azreial

that's very true. When I had the twins, they were in the NICU and the nurses were surprised that peds still tell parents to put alcohol on the stump. They didn't have anything put on their stumps and theirs fell off the soonest. I asked dh and said that both of theirs were off before A came home, so by 11 days old

Also without the alcohol their cords didn't smell like the other kids

Originally Posted by acp

DS's just fell off today (Day 10). We didn't put anything on it (which is what we were told both this time and at my last birth), but I'm wondering if I should wipe it with alcohol now, as there's still a bit of pus/fluid etc coming out...
DD's fell off around day 10 or 11, I think.

One of my eye-rolling experiences at the hospital had to do with cord care. The official printed handout says to clean with water once a day. The on-call ped (who wrote the discharge papers) advocated rubbing alcohol 2x day. The nurse du jour (who I really thought was a bit of a dingbat, for a variety of reasons), weighed in with rubbing alcohol 3x day. I think I wound up doing water a couple of times a day, since there was no rubbing alcohol in the house and water worked just fine last time.

Anyway, Dd's fell off on day 13. At her 2 week appointment (day before yesterday) the ped recommended cleaning it with soap and water to get the last of the crud.

[Murph12334]

Interesting the different responses

So there is:
Nothing
Goldenseal powder
Alcohol (however many times a day)
Water

hmmm

[pastrygirl]

My son's took 4 weeks, maybe a little more. It felt like forever! I asked repeatedly if I should use something on it, but always got the same response. Don't use anything but water on a cotton swab. After it fell off, the inside of his belly button was brown and crusty and I was told it would stay like that forever. If it's still brown in there, I can't see it (he's almost 3).

[fruitful womb]

I wonder if the duration of its present has anything to do with how quick or delayed the cord is cut.

Home birth babies have their cords cut at least an hr after birth, when the cord stops pulsating. Unless you're doing a lotus birth, in that case you never cut the cord, they detach from the newborn even quicker.

Hospital birth babies have their cord cut immidiately. Doctors fear delay cord clamping so they cut it as soon as the baby is born.

My first baby who was born in the hospital: cord stump fell off in two weeks.

First home birth baby, it was two days. Same with dd. I used golden seal powder on it to dry it out and peroxide to clean it, rarely used the peroxide.

Now, third home birth baby I used the proxide and changed the powder more frequently. The 'stump' fell off in a week but there were reminents left over that stuck to the body. This left over became gooey and ooozed. Probably because the folds weren't letting the reminants dry out. It was not pleasent. I went to the pediatrician and they put a purple dye (I think silver nitrate) on it and it cleared up by the next day.

What I learned was this: The more 'sterile' the stump is, the longer it sticks around. Bacteria is the catalyst of how quick the stump falls off.

Don't clean it so much. It will fall off quicker, lol!

[HotJabanero]

Originally Posted by fruitful womb

I wonder if the duration of its present has anything to do with how quick or delayed the cord is cut.

Home birth babies have their cords cut at least an hr after birth, when the cord stops pulsating. Unless you're doing a lotus birth, in that case you never cut the cord, they detach from the newborn even quicker.

Hospital birth babies have their cord cut immidiately. Doctors fear delay cord clamping so they cut it it as soon as the baby is born.

You know I think this is true. The few lotus births I've been around the cord dried up super super fast and fell off in 3-4 days. I've noticed with my own kids the ones who were cut the quickest stayed on the longest I think because they were still so juicy when they were cut.

I would love to do lotus birth just for this very issue. The cord has got to be my least favorite part after birth.

[inky leeuhhh]

Originally Posted by IncaMama

ok leah that is FOUL.

um yeah. i didn't actually see him commit the crime, but he loves to climb up there, and he loves to eat random small objects, so that's the conclusion i came to. : . i lost dd1's stump too, so i guess i just wasn't meant to keep my babies umbilical stumps!

[dawncayden]

Originally Posted by fruitful womb

What I learned was this: The more 'sterile' the stump is, the longer it sticks around. Bacteria is the catalyst of how quick the stump falls off.

Don't clean it so much. It will fall off quicker, lol!

This is what my MW says and most nurses and docs around here. In our BC medical health guide it says don't even get it wet with water.
MW says it was 10 years ago that health professionals were advocating alcohol with a Q Tip...
interesting, I wonder if its a different country thing?

[riversong]

With all three of our babies we only put goldenseal powder on the cord stump till it fell off. They all fell off at different times.

Ds2's cord came off after a week and then it started looking really red on the skin around it and it looked goopy and infected in his belly button. I don't know if the diaper cover was irritating it or what, but the velcro on that same diaper cover made ds1's belly button bleed, too. I have him in disposables until the belly button is all healed. I am not a fan of the ProWrap covers, but I don't want to buy new ones when he's going to outgrow them in a month or two.

The doctor and my homeopath recommended cleaning his belly button with alcohol and using bacitracin (topical antibiotic) and it cleared right up. I'm not a fan of antibiotics unless they're really necessary, but the ped was talking about putting him on oral antibiotics if it didn't clear up in a day. Yikes. I really did not want that.

[momma2be_k]

my little guys fell off at 12 days. We were told not to clean it with anything... and it got super smelly. I was totally happy for it to be gone.... no baby should ever smell like that...lol

[MelW]

Originally Posted by dawncayden

This is what my MW says and most nurses and docs around here. In our BC medical health guide it says don't even get it wet with water.
MW says it was 10 years ago that health professionals were advocating alcohol with a Q Tip...
interesting, I wonder if its a different country thing?

They did a study at BC Women's hospital maybe 8-10 years ago looking at nothing vs. triple dye vs. alcohol on the cords and I'm pretty sure that's where the "leave it alone" attitude from health professionals here came from. Though they were looking at infection rates, not at time to fall off.

In my experience, stumps often smell a little right before they fall off- they dry out, but then the base where they fall of is a bit smelly and wet as it separates. I work as a public health nurse and a lot of my postpartum clients call me with concerns about a stinky cord- I tell them to give it a wipe if it's mucky and to watch for signs of infection (red skin around the cord, fever, etc.) . Almost always the cord falls of within 24 hours of the concerned phone call

This is an interesting thread to see different practices and different outcomes. I hadn't considered early vs. late cord clamping affecting when the stump comes off, but it makes sense.

[MissyLissa]

DD's fell off on day 4 or 5 but it's been bleeding off and on since then (this is day 16) so we think it got snagged on something and got ripped off rather than fell off on it's own. We found her stump in the washing machine a few days later. DS's took about the same amount of time to fall off and his was not snagged.

[IncaMama]

well, i did nothing to it and it fell off today.

[EdnaMarie]

Originally Posted by fruitful womb

I wonder if the duration of its present has anything to do with how quick or delayed the cord is cut.

Home birth babies have their cords cut at least an hr after birth, when the cord stops pulsating. Unless you're doing a lotus birth, in that case you never cut the cord, they detach from the newborn even quicker.

Hospital birth babies have their cord cut immidiately. Doctors fear delay cord clamping so they cut it as soon as the baby is born.

My first baby who was born in the hospital: cord stump fell off in two weeks.

First home birth baby, it was two days. Same with dd. I used golden seal powder on it to dry it out and peroxide to clean it, rarely used the peroxide.

Now, third home birth baby I used the proxide and changed the powder more frequently. The 'stump' fell off in a week but there were reminents left over that stuck to the body. This left over became gooey and ooozed. Probably because the folds weren't letting the reminants dry out. It was not pleasent. I went to the pediatrician and they put a purple dye (I think silver nitrate) on it and it cleared up by the next day.

What I learned was this: The more 'sterile' the stump is, the longer it sticks around. Bacteria is the catalyst of how quick the stump falls off.

Don't clean it so much. It will fall off quicker, lol!

That may be true but I had two homebirths, same midwife, same policy, and one cord fell off a week and a half later (it was more) and the other one, which was cut closer to the tummy, came off in five days. Neither smelled.

No peroxide, no nothing. The advice I was given was, keep it dry. If it gets wet, pat it, and if it gets a lot of poop on it, clean with a wet cloth very gently (like the rest of the baby that has poop on it) and pat dry.

I have never read anything, not even in What to Expect, about using alcohol! How odd.

On another note, in my DH's culture, the stump is saved and kept (in a plastic bag or sealed box) under the mattress of the cradle as a good luck charm for the baby. Nobody touches it or anything but it stays around. I totally have DD#1s and the second baby has hers in a bag under the mattress. Why not? And I can't lie to MIL- and if she asks she will have a heart attack if I say "no, I threw it out". That was the baby's first spoon!

[acp]

Originally Posted by fruitful womb

Home birth babies have their cords cut at least an hr after birth, when the cord stops pulsating. Unless you're doing a lotus birth, in that case you never cut the cord, they detach from the newborn even quicker.

Hospital birth babies have their cord cut immidiately. Doctors fear delay cord clamping so they cut it as soon as the baby is born.

Interesting - I've had a hospital birth and a home birth now, and I think the cord clamping/cutting was the same - and didn't fit either of these categories. In both cases the cord was clamped maybe 10 minutes after birth? My home birth midwives definitely didn't wait an hour, and my hospital midwife didn't do it immediately. I cut the cord with this most recent (home) birth.

In terms of what to put on it - in both cases, one at the hospital, one at home, two years apart, I've been told the same thing by pediatricians, doctors, and midwives, which is that they used to recommend alcohol, but that policy has changed, and they now tell parents not to do anything to it. My guess is that some hospitals (and midwives perhaps) still recommend alcohol, but i think the trend is moving toward telling parents to do nothing to the stump. I know that's the case with all the hospitals in my area.

[nancy11]

I have no experience with this (yet), but my inclination would be to just keep it dry and clean. Clean, meaning if something gets on it, clean it off gently. It's almost like dealing with a scab -- keep it clean and dry and it falls off with minimal scarring. Anyway, that's how I see it. I'm sure alcohol was used on me, and all the babies in our family, to help it dry out faster, but I think keeping it dry would work just fine without having to play with it every day. Preventing infection would be they key, and I don't think alcohol really helps too much there.

Aaaaanyway, it seems logical to me to do nothing, other than to keep it as dry as possible.

[AngelBee]

Dalainey's fell off overnight. She was born at Sat.....so 3-4 days?

I know my other children have gone longer than that.

[heatherweh]

Glad for this thread. I just noticed a bit of brownish blood or discharge on DS' diaper and outfit today and ....a yucky odor. So now we'll start applying alcohol.

From what I just read, a recent study shows that no alcohol is better than using alcohol because it showed stumps to fall off two days earlier (at 8 days approx versus 10 days approx). The jury is still out though because the 2 days earlier may or may not be worth it when there is some odor.

Water and/or baths are to be avoided because they would make it take longer to fall off because they prevent it from drying.

Some odor is normal, especially as stump is ready to fall off. The concern is where there is unpleasant odor and discharge like pus.

DS loves the bath and we've been taking him in with us so it might make it a little longer to fall off I guess. DS 1 (who is almost 3) says baby has "2 peepees" and it took me awhile to realize he was referring to the umbi stump.