baby's belly button

[mama_om]

Hi,
My son is 6 days old. His umbilical stump fell off a couple of days ago, but now his belly button has a little bit of pus/yellowish stuff in it. The bellybutton doesn't seem too inflamed or red, but I am wondering if I should try to clean out the pus or let it resolve on its own?

I tried to wipe it tonight with a wet washcloth, but it didn't come out easily, and I was worried about messing around too much with it.

Any ideas/advice appreciated.

Thanks!

[ruthieroo]

The same thing happened with my little one. She is 8 days today and hers fell off on day 5, I think. And there was this yellowy glob of gunk underneath...ew. And yeah, it didn't come out easily so I just started squirting it with breastmilk at every diaper change and patting it dry. It appears the gunky stuff has dried up and it's looking much better now.

[faithhopelove]

My guy had some red dried blood gunk in his. No pus or anything, but still freaks you out to see their belly button looking funky anyway. The whole cord and belly button deal is just so icky to me anyway. I never like dealing with it. lol

crystal

[Finding Serenity]

My MWs had me order goldenseal in my birth kit--I used the powder for 10 days on the button, wherever it was gooey and raw looking. This stuff works wonders. It dries it out and keeps it clean. DDs button was bleeding too for a few days after it healed but now it's finally all healed up. How cool that breast milk works well on it too!

[deliarose]

I just did rubbing alcohol almost every diaper change and the area is looking tons better already. Forgot about using breast milk.

[mama_om]

Thanks for the suggestions! The breastmilk idea occurred to me this morning, so I've done that once so far. Seems to have helped already. Gotta love it!

And that goldenseal powder sounds pretty impressive -- seems like a good thing to have on hand. Do you mix it into a paste or just use the powder directly?

[deleria]

We had the pussy, yellowy stuff undereath the stump, too. I actually think it was the rest of the umbilical cord that was still wet beneath the dried out part. Why did I think that? Because I couldn't wipe it away with a Q-Tip and within a few hours it had dried out (basically by the next morning).

[Finding Serenity]

Originally Posted by mama_o

And that goldenseal powder sounds pretty impressive -- seems like a good thing to have on hand. Do you mix it into a paste or just use the powder directly?

I used a Q-tip to apply the powder (no paste) to the belly button. I have lots of powder left over and the MW said it can be used to treat any wound on the body so I'll keep it in the medicine cabinet for first aid now. It's also got no expiration date, stays good for as long as you keep it.

[saritasmile]

Just thought I'd second the goldenseal powder, I used it and the stump fell off in 4 days- little bit of irritation lately so I'm using it again and it seems to work really well! I just take a pinch in my fingers and sprinkle it on/in.

[Peony]

I didn't put anything on dd2's cord until it started looking gooey, I put goldenseal powder on it once and it cleared up.