umbilical cord - is this normal?

[olien]

The cord fell off today. LO is 3wks old.

There is what looks like a stump of flesh that sticks out of her belly button about a 1/4 of an inch. is this normal?? will it go down at all? I really dont want her to have an 'outy' belly button.

I really dont remember what my DS's looked like when it fell off.

[flmommy09]

When my son's umbilical cord fell off (he's 5 mos old now), there was some leftover tissue on his belly button too. It wasn't as much as what yours sounds like, because we couldn't really see the tissue, only that his belly button kept draining mucousy stuff. When we went to see the ped, she used silver nitrate (I think that's what it's called), and it dried up the remaining tissue. No more problems after that! I believe Dr Sears said it can resolve on its own sometimes, but ours didn't. No big deal once taken care of though.

[TortelliniMama]

She might have an umbilical hernia. That's when there's an opening in the abdominal wall and the intestines poke the belly button out a bit. It's not a problem, just a little odd looking. If that's it, it will almost certainly clear up in the next few years. Ds2 had one, and it went away sometime around 3 months or so. (BTW, don't listen to anyone who advises you to tape coins over it. That was the advice years ago (my parents did it with my brother's umbilical hernia), but now it's known that's not a good idea.)

[firewoman]

It may heal up and be just fine or it may be popped out. My son had a pretty big umbilical hernia and it was all healed by the time he was one. My three year old daughter, however, had a fleshy almost spike when her stump fell off and her belly button is a little weird. It appears to be an innie but she can pop it out at will. To fix that would require surgery. You'll just have to watch it. If it is still herniated at the age of four, it is unlikely to heal itself.

[Gimme Pineapple]

My son's did the same thing. It took quite a while to heal up. I asked his ped about the silver nitrate thing because it was bothering me, but he refused. It did finally heal (around 3 months), but that guy is no longer our pediatrician.

[akat]

My babe still had some gross wet flesh left, and gross blood kept seeping out, and it didn't smell so hot. Ugh, why me, right? I asked my doctor would it fall off, too? I thought only half the cord fell off. He said, no, but if I put goldenseal root powder on it, it would dry up and disappear. I thought he was crazy. But he was right.

[Anastasiya]

Originally Posted by olien

The cord fell off today. LO is 3wks old.

There is what looks like a stump of flesh that sticks out of her belly button about a 1/4 of an inch. is this normal?? will it go down at all? I really dont want her to have an 'outy' belly button.

I really dont remember what my DS's looked like when it fell off.

My dd had that, and yes, she has an outie.

Can I ask why it matters if she has an outie button?

I personally think they're really cute. I wish the rest of my kids had them.

[marinak1977]

DS had a giant outie when the stump fell off, but he grew into it and around it and now it's a cute little innie. It was just grownup sized on a newborn tummy.

[Katie T]

All of my kids had that, I did nothing and they all have innies. I agree with pp that outties are really cute, but I may be partial because I had one as a child.

[star*mora]

could be a granuloma - aka proud flesh.
ds2 had that and it didn't go away (used various remedies like salt, golden seal etc) so at 3mths his dr used silver nitrate and got rid of most of it that way. there is the tiniest bit still left but it was more because it kept chafing with his fitted diaper and i couldn't use a diaper cover on top at all because it would chafe and bleed

[redvlagrl]

DD had what honestly looked like a small penis once her cord fell off. I was worried because i thought either she would have an ugly belly button or it was a hernia. It sucked in over time (a months or 2?) and now her belly button is totally normal. Don't worry about it.