Umbilical cord stumps...

[Mama K]

I have a theory that the purple dye they put on stumps in the hospital makes it take longer for the cord to fall off. I've had this theory for a while, and now DD#3 seems to support that...

DD#1 was born in the hospital. They used a standard clamp and the purple dye and her cord fell off when she was around 3 weeks old, I think. DD #2 was also born in the hospital, with clamp and purple dye. She was closer to a month old when she finally lost her cord. DD#3 was born at home. They used a cord bander and no purple dye, of course. Her cord is hanging on by a thread and she is 11 days old.

SO...

1. How long did it take for your baby's cord stump to fall off?

2. Did they use a clamp, a bander, shoe lace, or what to tie it off?

3. Did they use the purple dye?

4. Did you clean the cord with anything, or did you just leave it alone?

:

[Ackray]

All of my kids were different. One was a week, one was 2 weeks and one was a little more than 3 weeks. None of them had that purple dye stuff. They all had yellow clamps. And we used alcohol wo clean them when we felt like it which wasn't often.

I'd pull it off if it's just hanging there. But I tend to be a picker.

[cottonwood]

Alcohol is a preservative, that's why alcohol-treated cords take longer to fall off.

Cord fell off within 3-4 days for all my babies. I can't remember what the midwives used to tie off the cords, but I know it wasn't a clamp. For the ones I did myself, I used sterilized shoelaces. Didn't treat the cords with anything. If they needed to be cleaned (i.e. if they got poop on them) I just used water and let air dry.

[ckhagen]

My m/w believes that to be true as well (the bit about alcohol too).
IIRC she actually convinced the NICU to stop using it and just leave well enough alone.

My first babe had it and it took 28 days for his cord to fall off!!!
The second, I didn't mess with it at all and it only took like 4 or 5 days.

[pamamidwife]

i think part of it, too, is that in the hospital the cord is clamped right away, so there is more volume to dry up and rot off. if the cord is left intact longer, it tends to fall off faster.

[HeatherB]

1st DS was 2 weeks to the day. Hospital with clamp and all that. Yuck. We cleaned it a little tiny bit with alcohol (didn't buy into it even then). Got a little worried when it got stinky right before his two week check-up, but turns out that was just 'cause it was done! Found it caught in his outfit that evening.

With the 2nd, homebirth and was tied with some sort of string, I think. They did apply goldenseal but that's it. I don't think we did any alcohol. I just checked my pictures for verification, but I think it came off in a similar amount of time. He had it still at 9 days old but not at 13. So it was a little shorter but not a ton, for us.

[Juvysen]

My DD was less than 2 weeks old when her cord fell off. I wanna say like 10 days. I remember the pediatrician was surprised that her cord was gone already by her 2 week appointment and it'd been gone for a few days by then. She was born in the hospital and didn't do anything special to her cord... no blue stuff, no alcohol, nothing. Just clamped off. I had a theory that if they had let the cord go longer before they cut it, it would have come off earlier, but who knows.

[Mama K]

Originally Posted by pamamidwife

i think part of it, too, is that in the hospital the cord is clamped right away, so there is more volume to dry up and rot off. if the cord is left intact longer, it tends to fall off faster.

nak
hadn't thought about that, but it certainly makes sense...

[Lady Lilya]

This purple dye thing is new to me. What is it's official purpose? What is in it?

I always figured they looked purple for the same reasons bruises look purple. I haven't actually seen a newborn in 23 years -- just pics and videos.

[AuntG]

Originally Posted by Lady Lilya

This purple dye thing is new to me. What is it's official purpose? What is in it?

I always figured they looked purple for the same reasons bruises look purple. I haven't actually seen a newborn in 23 years -- just pics and videos.

I have never heard of the purple dye either. They all look purple to me, whether treated or not.

[pumpkinhead]

Both mine were born in hospital and niether had their cord treated with anything. They were clamped with the standard little off white clampy thingie, which were removed before we left. I gave both of them full baths from the get go, didn't treat the stump with anything other than the occasional wipe with warm water and both fell off at around the 10 day mark.

My boss treated her son's the exact same way and his had to be treated with silver nitrate at 4 weeks to get it to fall off.

[mwherbs]

cords that are still plump with blood take longer to dry and in looking at the studies probably have a greater need of antiseptics-- places where they wait to clamp and cut the cord and then use air to dry the cord stump dries faster and falls off quicker- where they clamp and cut quickly the use of an antiseptic regime seems to keep the cord from being infected- but it also keeps it from rotting off as quickly-
my home born children 3 days so all and all pretty quickly just air dry-- and even with my hospital born children the first I used alcohol but #2 no- he was born in 1 hour total and I think that he shunted quickly after birth so even though his cord was cut quickly it was done just as quickly and dried out fast- 4 days or so.
with our clients over the years I think 10 days was the longest I have seen a cord take- and maybe one or 2 babies who had some sort of weeping cord where the stump had fallen off but there was an area in the belly button where it still weeped/sloughed --

[Mama K]

Could there be a genetic factor to how long it takes for the cord to fall off as well?

Meaning, could some babies be genetically predisposed to have their cord fall off quickly; whereas, other babies are genetically predisposed for it to take longer?

[pumpkinhead]

Originally Posted by Mama K

Could there be a genetic factor to how long it takes for the cord to fall off as well?

Meaning, could some babies be genetically predisposed to have their cord fall off quickly; whereas, other babies are genetically predisposed for it to take longer?

I think there definitely could be being as this is something that is also dependant on how quickly a baby 'heals'. I don't think it's the only factor, but I do think it plays a role.

[polishprinsezz]

my sons cord fell off after 4 days. it was summertime. we cleaned it occasionally with rubbing alchol. it was origanally clamped with that yellow hospital clamp. i was kind of sad when cord fell off, he wasnt my " newborn " anymore.

[ustasmom]

Do they use Triple Dye again? :

My first 3 babies had triple dye but that was in 1986, 1989 and 1992. Then the next 3 they changed over to alcohol. (My baby towels were spared from stains). But then on the last one, they said that tests proved that triple dye or alcohol didn't work any faster than doing nothing. So we didn't use anything and everything was fine.

[XanaduMama]

I don't know-- it took ds's at least 2 weeks (maybe slightly more?!) to fall off. His was clamped, but no purple stuff and we didn't do anything to clean it. We tried not to get it wet, but that was about it.

[stacey2061]

1. How long did it take for your baby's cord stump to fall off?
i think it was a week or so

2. Did they use a clamp, a bander, shoe lace, or what to tie it off?
a clamp

3. Did they use the purple dye?
uh, what? i've never even heard of this dye, and no, they didn't

4. Did you clean the cord with anything, or did you just leave it alone?
just water

[XanaduMama]

So ds wanted to look at pictures of himself this afternoon, and we were scrolling through his newborn pics on the computer. We got to one of him as a brand new newborn, in the hospital warming bassinet thing, where they took him while trying to stop my bleeding. I thought they just diapered : and hatted : him there, but now I noticed (thanks to this thread) that he got the PURPLE DYE STUFF!!!!!!! : : : :

I'm furious and sad, bc it's one more thing they did (minor, admittedly, but still) that I asked them not to do. Plus maybe it supports the OP's theory: as I posted earlier, it took 2 weeks for the stump to fall off.

Grrrrr.

Sorry--I know the thread's pretty much done, but I had to post an update.

[GatorNNP]

I guess my question here is , are we assuming faster is better? If the cord stump covers a hole through which bacteria and other crap can enter the newborn baby and set up a lovely infection then why are we in such a hurry? I think skin can only grow so fast to cover up the hole so whatever time it takes maybe we shouldn't try to speed it up. You don't really know if the underside is healed over until it comes off so there is not a good way to peek.

1st kid= c/sec, cord clamped with hospital clamp immediately, one or two alcohol rubbies, then goldenseal powder. Took about 16 days.

2nd kid= vag, cord clamped after several minutes no pulsing, and goldenseal powder. Took about 2ish weeks to come off. I did give her a real tub bath at 5 days old.

One good point that one of my mw students examined in newborn class is, are we sure that the goldenseal powder is free of botulism since it is a root and roots grow in the dirt? I don't think safety has been examined. Nor the safety of putting goldenseal on a newborn.

Alcohol doesn't really kill that many germs these days anyway.