Baby's belly button stump

acsanchez9609 · December 2013

Hi ladies. Hope everyone and their LO's had a great thanksgiving/weekend.

I tried looking for a post on this and could not find one but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Just curious as to when your lo's stump fell off? Did you use alcohol? How many times a day?

I've noticed some discharge coming out of baby's stump the last few days and called the pedi but he said nothing to worry about unless it's swollen and red and she has a fever, which isn't the case. TIA

Ninjamama86 · December 2013

Fell off about at about 7 days old, but I think the norm is withing the 1st few weeks. My pedi said no alcohol, and ou sponge baths until it came off.

babymama619 · December 2013

Fell off about day 10 I think. No alcohol. I think this used to be common practice but is not recommended now.

PeachyBella · December 2013

Simon's fell off at 11 days. We went to the ped at 9 days bc it smelled a little funky and had some oozing. They said not to worry unless he had fever and redness/tenderness. Just treat with alcohol at site, which we'd already been doing per hospital instructions. Two days later we had a perfect belly button.

acsanchez9609 · December 2013

Thanks ladies! I just changed her diaper & noticed it fell off! Did you clean with alcohol after or just leave it?

EandIMommy86 · December 2013

My sons fell off after 4 days, but the belly button had little drops of blood that came out every day for about a week or so afterwards. It healed and scabbed over. We used alcohol on the stump then once it fell off I would blot the belly button with warm water and a wash cloth.

lmcgt · December 2013

We are at day 18 and still hasn't come off. We use alcohol at least 3 times a day per instructions from the hospital. It's getting close but not off yet, wish it would hurry up so he can have a real bath!

Chargersgrl33 · December 2013

Day 4 and no alcohol. They actually don't suggest using it over here (Portugal) and I'm wondering if that is why it fell off so much quicker.

justmepreggo2020 · December 2013

After 10 days and didn't do anything to it

Princess_Lily · December 2013

We treated it with alcohol 2x a day to dry it out, and only did sponge baths (avoiding that area) until the UC fell off.

At 2 weeks, it still had not fallen off 80% of it was falling off by the 2w appointment, so pedi removed the remaining. DD had a umbilical granuloma (nothing caused it). There was a discharge, but it was clear and had no foul smell.

I had to go in twice to care for the area, I was alarmed by the look initially. When UCs fall off, they are flesh toned, and DD's was a rose red & had some discharge. They told me to come in that day - and the pedi used some silver nitrate to help it scab over and heal (twice I had her be treated). Now there is just a small black scab where the granuloma was and 2 weeks he will remove it (if it doesn't fall off before then). Also crustiness & dried blood(?) were on DD's inner clothing during this time too.

Sounds like your LO has what DD had.

I'm a little concerned that the pedi didn't tell you to come in to have your LO checked out, at the very least. Did you tell your pedi how you are concerned, and that there is a discharge?

acsanchez9609 · December 2013

katielou711 said:
No alcohol here. They actually told me TO bathe him as long as we dried the area very well. His fell off in less than a week. Since then I haven't treated it at all and it seems fine. A little bit of gunk but the doctor said it was totally normal.

That's what I was wondering. Now that it fell off there's some crusty stuff around it and on the inside of her onesie. Thank you!

hollowway · December 2013

M's fell off around 18 days... No alcohol and we were instructed to bathe her (she had steri-strips over her incision site from her surgery that they wanted to get wet and fall off)... It got crusty with blood the day before it fell off.

Dreamingmommy4 · December 2013

Her cord stump just fell off last night, she is 8days today. No alcohol, just kept it dry with a-tips. And she has had 2 baths so far, one at the hospital and one at home. It hasn't been a problem.

tammura · December 2013

We are at day 14 and the stump is still holding strong! The dr said no alcohol but if we wanted to, it wouldn't hurt! It's clear that there is no real timeline for when they fall off because the replies are all over the place! I love how all our babies are unique

dobrydney · December 2013

LO's fell off in about 4 days, which I thought was kind of early, but we just found it in her diaper. We were told only to sponge bathe until it fell off, and I still might for a few days until it looks more healed up. They didn't tell us to do anything extra.