[Amila]

I have a two and a half week old newborn, and her stump fell off Thursday night- it got wet with urine twice because we were using Tushies and it soaked her entire diaper

: Anyway, since then it seems like after I clean the inside of her bellybutton a tiny bit of blood crusts in it. When I wipe it away again I notice the dried blood again a few hours later. Is this cause for concern? It is not active bleeding, meaning that I don't actually see any blood drip out. I'm a little freaked b/c I didn't get the Vitamin K, and I know that bleeding from the stump can be a sign of HDN. Am I being paranoid?

 

[Ruthla]

Why are you cleaning her bellybutton so often? My guess is that it's starting to scab over, then when you clean it you dislodge the scab and it bleeds a little bit again.

I suggest you just leave it alone and let it heal naturally.

 

[bhawkins]

In the kindest way possible, yes, I think you're being paranoid

. There's often a little bleeding after the cord falls off, sometimes for several days later. I'm a nruse in an OB unit and this is one of our really common phone questions. The dried up cord is essentially a scab, so it's no biggie to see a little bleeding. It will heal over soon. Good luck with your new bundle of joy.

 

[Jeni_Houston]

This happened with our DS too. I didn't clean it and it went away in a few days. We didn't do vit k either. Congrats on your babe!

 

[Hollin]

My baby had crusties for like 2 weeks after his cord fell off. No big deal imo. My baby did have the vit. K and it happened anyway.

 

[BelgianSheepDog]

Just watch for yellow or green goo or a nasty smell. If it's clear of those, it's probably OK.

 

[LolaEight]

My 2 week old did the same thing. I called the ped, and he said no big deal. We didn't do vit k either.

sorry-nak...

 

[broodymama]

I'm glad you asked this, the same thing is happening to DD's belly button. I'll just leave it alone and let it heal, I had been wiping it away.

 

[ecoteat]

I worried about the same thing, but after a week or two, it stopped oozing blood. It would bleed the most when dd cried hard. I wiped it away; it wasn't a scab as a pp suggested, it was just blood that had oozed out and dried. i found that gently wiping it away with a damp washcloth made it easier to keep track of how it was healing. Since the stump was gone and the bellybutton was fully formed, I felt better keeping the skin clean. Oh, and we did do vit K drops and still had an oozy bellybutton.

 

[pinkskittles]

we had the same thing... as long as it doesn't start to smell bad, you're ok!

 

[ndunn]

I didn't give Vit K but kept an oral preperation on hand for a "just incase" scenario. Scientific Botanicals is the brand that makes it, and its just in an olive oil base. You can search it online, it might make you feel better to have some in the house. Sounds like normal to me though.