Cord question

[tsfairy]

DS is 5 days old today, and I just realized his cord is hanging on by a thread... well I took a good look at it and actually it's three threads - looks like the three vessels are all that is holding his cord stump on right now. The vessels are dark red (like there's blood inside) and there is a little bit of a funky smell (smells sort of like, well, old blood.) Touching it seems to irritate DS, but I don't see any signs of infection or inflammation.

I haven't put anything on the cord except a few drops of breastmilk the other day. The ped said on Thursday that it looked good and was healing nicely.

Should I be worried about it?

[feebeeglee]

Sounds pretty normal to me.

[vesper0]

Yeah, it sounds normal to me. DS1 had the same thing happen. DS seemed to be bothered by it hanging off like that, so I asked at the appt. w/ the pediatrician and he said it was healing well.

[Ruthe]

Sounds like it will come off pretty soon. If you want to hurry it up, expose it to the air (no snap-crotch onesies.) You can also blow air on it for a minute or two after diaper changes, if you have a quiet-ish hair dryer with a cool air setting.

[tsfairy]

Well the cord came off last night. Belly button looks good, no oozing or bleeding and soo cute.

DS1's cord took nearly 3 wks to fall off so I didn't expect DS2's to come off so soon. Of course DS1 had that icky blue stuff put on at the hospital when he was born.

[SheBear]

I had a similar exp. My first dc was born in hosp. and the cord was clamped etc., and they told me to clean it with alcohol at each dipe change : Since I remember my mother doing the same thing with my younger siblings, it never even occurred to me to question using alcohol! His navel took exactly 3 weeks to heal!

DD and ds2 were born at home (dd with a midwife who explained to me that alcohol is so harsh and drying that it causes the umbilicum to crack, similar to chapped lips, which prolongs the healing process considerably. She rec'd that we do nothing to it (other than keep it clean with a gentle damp washcloth if it got icky--you know how newborn poop explosions can be! ) unless it started smelling foul. Some odor is normal, just like you said--old blood--but an actual foulness to it would likely indicate infection. If that happened, she suggested using goldenseal root powder on it, or neosporin.

Hers did get icky, and we used goldenseal--just broke open capsules and sprinkled it on--and it worked great. Was completely healed by day 4.

Same with ds2, although I chose to use the goldenseal from the start with him. It just seemed like a good idea to me, and his was healed completely by day 3! Also with ds2, we used a cord ring instead of a clamp, which I HIGHLY recommend! It was so much easier to not have that bulky clamp there, and seemed to be much more comfortable to ds. Dunno if it contributed to the healing process compared to the clamp, but it was a lot nicer for us!

[saimeiyu]

?cord ring?

Ok, I know this is kind of a tangent, but what's a cord-ring? Do all hospitals have them or should I ask or should I just go out and find one? If it's less bulky it sounds like the kind of thing I want...

[SheBear]

Sorry, it's an alternative to the big plastic clamp. Our midwife's birth kit came with a couple, and I've seen them for sale on lots of birth supply websites. Lemme find a link with a picture.....

Cord Ring This isn't where we order our birth supplies, but the other site doesn't have a picture.

Not exactly sure how it works, but once it is on, there is virtually nothing left to mess with--it really looks/feels like the cord has nothing on it at all, and the ring just falls off along with the stump. Easy-peasy!

ETA, I have no idea whether they are being used widely in hospitals. I would definitely ask your HCP about it, and request it if they can use it. If they don't know how to use it, I might be afraid of asking them to try though!