Umbilical Cord

[LouisianaMomma]

My DS is 3 1/2 weeks & his umbilical cord (stump) has still has not fell off & it is starting to smell. (It's not red around it or anything so I am pretty sure it's not infected.) Is there anything I can put on it to help it come off besides alcohol?

[caefi]

have you been using alcohol this whole time?
b/c that may be WHY it's still there, if you have been.
can you expose it to the air? (w/o freezing the baby! lol)

[AnnieNimIty]

I have heard also that alcohol makes it stick around longer.

[mamakims]

This is the first time I haven't done a thing to the cord stump and it has fallen off the fastest out of my three kids. I've also avoided giving her a bath until it completely healed to keep it nice and dry.

So I'm another who suggests leaving it alone (if you aren't already) and letting it air dry as much as possible. With my ds, my dr. recommended gentian violet to help it heal as it was starting to become infected.

[momofsamandaddi]

Alcohol makes it stay on longer, so I agree w the pp, don't put it on anymore. My mw also told me it starts smelling funky 12-24 hours before falling off so as long as it doesn't have puss or red around it, looking like an infection, the smell is prolly from that. Hope it's off already & you're not having to worry about it anymore!

[Faliciagayle]

We did goldenseal and oregon grape root powder. It fell off at 7 days pp...

[acordio]

I did nothing to it for a few days and it was drying very nice except around the base of the stump. It was kinda smelly too. I used some golden seal powder and it really helped dry it out the rest of the way and a couple of days later it fell off.

Our ped said not to use alcohol because it would kill the bad AND the good bacteria.

[LouisianaMomma]

Update...I took him to his ped today & she said his umbilical looked good. The discharge & smell was normal. It's about ready to fall off.

[Sharlla]

Mine fell off on the 3rd day. I didn't use alcohol but I did put a cotton ball on the end. I did the whole alcohol thing with my other 2 and theirs didn't fall off until about 3 weeks after birth.

[nudhistbudhist]

Slippery elm is great. We did a lotus birth this time but I still put slippery elm on as soon as the cord detached.