Umbilical Cord Stump- concerned??? - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

myloathe · 06-16-2006, 09:20 AM

My dd is 3 weeks old today and STILL has her umbilical cord stump attached. The doc advised me to not put anything on it and it should fall off by the time she was 2 weeks. Now my mother is pressuring me because I wasn't swabbing it with alcohol, even though the doctor told me not to. (**** forbid I listen to the doc and not my mother:-)

Should I give the doc a call and let her know, or just give it a little more time??

baby#2 · 06-16-2006, 09:30 AM

At 3 weeks of age I would say it is odd that she still has it. Does it appear infected? Is it red around the edges or oozing white/yellowish goop? If not I would say it's fine and that it will fall off soon but I would still go to the Doctor. My ds is 7 weeks now and finally has a normal looking belly button. His cord didn't fall off for 2 weeks and when it did it was more like a break. There was still a wet chunk right in the middle of his belly button and it was pretty gross looking! We just made sure we dried it after baths and eventually it went away!
It really couldn't hurt to call your doctor about it. As far as the alcohol swabbing goes, we were told not to do this as it actually prolongs the healing process! My Mother tried to tell me to do this as well. I listed to the Doctor instead though....

kitkat77 · 06-16-2006, 09:32 AM

Don't be mad at your mom because she's got the right idea. The umbilical stump needs to dry out in order to fall off!

If the area surrounding it appears infected you need to call the doctor. Otherwise I would keep the area clean and DRY and give it a few more days to fall off.

kitkat77 · 06-16-2006, 09:38 AM

Oh I should also mention that with my first child I did the alcohol thing and his stump fell off in under a week, leaving a clean perfect navel. With my second child I did not do this and not only did the area become red and was oozing (dr said it was okay), but it took over 3 weeks for it to fall off and he too had a gooey chunk left behind in the center. Second child has a slightly outie bellybutton, not sure if this was the cause.

baby#2 · 06-16-2006, 11:10 AM

I didn't swab with alcohol for either of my babies and my first's cord fell off at 4 days perfectly clean. He has the cutest little innie belly button now. My second also has a slight outtie. weird.....