Belly button blood

[MeredithK]

Ok, I'm getting a little tired of blood. I'm still bleeding PP, but from reading the earlier post, I guess it's normal. I just don't like seeing the bright red blood reappear.

But, what's up with DS and his belly button? He's about 4 weeks and the cord stump fell off about 6 days after he was born. But, the belly button keeps on bleeding. We're making sure that the diapers go below the belly button, but I think it just gets rubbed by his clothes and then bleeds.

Is that normal? Or should I call the Dr? I've been using alcohol about once a day to see if that helps, but I don't think it is really doing anything besides cleaning off the dried blood. There is no smell and no discharge besides the blood.

[firewoman]

This is EXACTLY what happened with my daughter. She was four weeks on Wednesday and it only just stopped bleeding a day or two ago. I think it depends on how much it is bleeding. If just a little seeps out and it is a dried scab on his bellybutton I wouldn't worry too much. If it is weepy or wet most of the time and/or bleeds A LOT than you made need to talk to your midwife/pediatrician about what to do.

[jaylily]

Thank you so much for this post! My little girl's cord fell off really quickly too (I think she was also 6 days old actually) and it keeps scabbing and I keep hoping it's okay... we're keeping a close eye on it. This didn't happen with my son!

[abigail_b]

Ours didn't go on that long, but we did have the same problem. I called the dr and he said if it was just a little blood then it was fine, and to stop with the alcohol since that could irritate it. When it continued and also was a tiny bit oozy, I did take her in to get it checked. He said it was normal/common, and that it was just irritated and recommended putting some vaseline type cream on it. So I used some coconut oil and some grandma el's diaper rash cream on it for a few days which seemed to help it to finish the healing process.

[star*mora]

ds2 has proud flesh/granuloma so it is often red from friction with clothes/diaper

his is long enough it will have to be tied off - not considered a problem but our dr is at a clinic that is being used to assess h1n1 cases to relieve the pressure on hospital ers...so think we'll wait a while on making the appt and deal with it until the darn swine flu stuff calms down...sigh...