belly button bleeding...help?

[beansmama]

Okay, so ds's stump fell off around 1 week old. He was in a cloth diaper and the cover bumped the bottom of the stump and kinda ripped it away from his belly button. The stump didn't fall off at that point - but it did bleed a bit.

So we started putting him in sposies (he was in nb cloth covers - but they were still too high in the rise) and folding them down away from the cord...it fell off a couple of days after the first incident.

Well, his belly button is still bleeding. Not non-stop or anything - but it is filled with black, dried blood that i'm afraid to clean up because under it looks like raw flesh. We still see blood every other diaper change or so - even with being cautious.

There isn't any discharge. It doesn't smell. I'm just unsure of what to do? Is this normal? Should i call a doctor? Can i put him in cloth yet or should i still not cover the belly button cause the bleeding?

Help?

[Mama_Michelle]

DD3's got ripped off from the covers at a week too. It was really raw looking and smelled infected to me. When we took her to the birth center at a week old for a weight check, she had a slight fever so they sent us to our ped. When we got to the ped, I showed her DD3's cord. It looked better(ish) but was pretty red and inflamed around the rim. The redness concerned the Dr. so she put silver nitrate on it (it must of stung a bit, but I nursed her right away) and we had to come back the next morning to make sure the redness was gone (otherwise she was going to have to be admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics!). By the next morning it looked better but still sort of raw so the Dr. re-did the silver nitrate and that dried it up. Its totally fine a week later.

I don't really have advice, I just wanted to share my experience. Like I said, I thought it smelled infected and it was pretty red around the rim of the belly button, those were the two things that concerned me. I have not had experience with bleeding so maybe others will have a better advice for you.

Hope your LO's cord is better soon.

[naupakamama]

If there is no fever and no redness around the belly button and no foul smell, it is probably not infected. Treat the belly button with each diaper change with hydrogen peroxide or isopropanol on a Q-tip. We have the same thing. Our pediatrician said to use hydrogen peroxide. And if it doesn't stop by the next visit, she would take care of it.

[aricha]

Our little guy's belly button started bleeding, too, a few days after birth while the cord was still on. My MIL was holding im and I think his cord/belly might have just gotten rubbed the way she was holding him or something. The midwife said it was like picking a scab. The next day she used goldenseal to help it dry out and warned us that when the cord fell off it might bleed a little and scab again. They checked it at about 10 days and said it looked fine-- they would have done goldenseal again if they'd needed to.

[Ianthe]

Our ped put silver nitrate on it and it helped a bunch. It stopped pussing and bleeding right away.

[melamama]

I use a goldenseal powder on dd's stump. I think she was held and put down with a little too much friction by my ds a few days ago because the stump came off before it's time. Like you describe there is dried blood in there now. I just keep dusting it with the goldenseal when it looks moist. I think as long as it's not red or giving off discharge it's ok.

[half-pigeon]

we had almost the same experience. cord came off at one week due to cloth diaper covers. pussing & some bleeding for about a week. i tried alcohol, but it didn't work. midwife told us to use hydrogen peroxide & after a day & a half & 3 applications, it no longer oozed. his belly button has been great ever since (over a week).