umbilical cord question

[mistisa]

i have read all the posts about cord care and a lot of people do nothing and it drops off fine. ds was born on friday and i have not been using anything on it at all and last night i noticed it smelled bad. now i am worried it's infected. it's not red or swollen and not oozing anything, just some blood on his dipe, which i thought was normal. it also looks dried out.

trying to reach his ped, but can anyone give me any advice now? should i be using alcohol? i feel so bad, like i am a bad mother for not taking care of it right!

[pamamidwife]

it does smell bad normally as it dries and falls off. any sort of piece of our body that is cut, then dries up and falls off will smell.

signs of infection include what you said: being red, or having red streaks around the bellybutton, warmth, etc.

The blood is normal - and even after it falls off, there could be some spotting of blood here and there as the adhesions on his skin break apart a bit.

You can do a bath if you'd like, but it may delay the cord falling off completely. It sucks in the summer, because that's when the stumps stink the most!

[thepeach80]

I rarely did anything to AJ's. I did use a little alcohol every once in a while to make myself feel better. His fell off at almost 3 wks.

[CarrieMF]

With all 3 girls I gave them fully immersed(other than heads) baths. After their baths I cleaned it with a dry q-tip, moving the cord to get under a bit if I could. The longest it took was 10 days to fall off. If I wasn't giving them a bath, I would wet 1 q-tip, use it first than a dry one.

[cottonwood]

Listen, it's basically decaying flesh, so yes it's going to smell a little funky. Like Pam, said, I'd wait for signs of actual infection before treating it. If you put alcohol on it, that will basically pickle it and it will take a lot longer for it to fall off, and washing with water will delay that too. As it is, it'll probably separate within the next couple days.

[mistisa]

thanks mamas! the nurse called back and said the same thing as you all did, with the exception that i should be cleaning it. it makes sense that it would smell as it's been very hot here and he's been sleeping on my chest, so no air circulation most of the time.

i am going to make sure he gets it aired out and just watch it. i feel a little better now!

[Changed]

I'm curious about this. Why not clean it or put the dye stuff on it? A friend and I were talking about this the other day. Her kdis came home with the clamp on and mine didn't. I never saw them with the clamp on, they put something on the stumps and took the clamp off. What is the best way to do it?

[mistisa]

MHL - his cord fell off today! i took 7 days of nothing vice 12 days w/dd when i used alcohol...so it seems doing nothing is better.

question for everyone, its off, but still looks very pink inside...normal? i cant remember. should i wait to bathe him until the inside is dry

[Changed]

YAY! Thanks for the info!

[gottaknit]

I know nothing about cords, but Congratulations on you new baby!! :

[Mamid]

DD's was finally peeled off by her sperm donor at almost 4 weeks. It had just started to get infected. This was back when they told us to use alcohol to sterilize all the time.

DS's fell off after about a week. Nothing more than just keeping it dry and clean with soap and water.

[2+twins]

My 2nd dd's belly button remained scabby for weeks after the cord feel off until I finally got impatient and picked the scab off. It was just clinging on there, as it turns out, so it was fine. I'm pretty sure you can get that area wet now.