Cord care?

Shine2015

How is everyone planning on caring for baby's cord after they are born? For DS, we were told to use a little rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball to clean it. That is what was recommended when we took our hospital tour this time too. But I have read you should just use water. And that's what was recommended to my sister when she took her hospital tour (different hospital). So I am confused about which way is really best and why. Thanks for any input!

cosplaymom

Uh last time we did nothing, just waited for it to fall off.

buckleyk

We didn't do anything either. It just fell off on its own. At one dr appt, I remember the pedi cleaning it with rubbing alcohol but that was it.

* EDIT* (becaue I can't remember anything) just remembered, the pedi recommended rubbing alcohol AFTER it fell off because it was still oozing a little.

Perfect Sonnet

We *may* have done rubbing alcohol (that sounds familiar), but I don't think we did anything.  I think it took about a week to 10 days to just fall off.

toccoaparker

We used rubbing alcohol, it keeps bacteria from getting in it (I believe?) and dries it out to speed up the process of it falling off.

brinbri

We did nothing. My kids' both fell off quickly. We were specifically told NOT to use running alcohol. I can't remember exactly why though...

jgorley2015

An OB nurse told my sister that rubbing alcohol does nothing for the cord. But she could use alcohol or water if she desired. With her first born she was told to use the alcohol.

My son was in the nicu so long that his cord fell off there. I'll probably not put anything/do anything special this time around.

CaliforniaDream87

brinbri said:

We did nothing. My kids' both fell off quickly. We were specifically told NOT to use running alcohol. I can't remember exactly why though...

Yep, this. We will be following the "use nothing" recommendation this time as well.

lifesabeach85

Follow up - for those in the do nothing camp - do you not do baths until the cord falls off then?

CaliforniaDream87

lbeach5885 said:

Follow up - for those in the do nothing camp - do you not do baths until the cord falls off then?

Yep. No baths until the cord falls off. We just washed baby up until that happened-which for us was about 5 days.

castlec3

In our baby care class we were told to leave it alone and wait for it to fall off.

mrswiebe09

We were told to do nothing. Sponge baths until it fell off.

mjones0721

mrswiebe09 said:

We were told to do nothing. Sponge baths until it fell off.

Same here

jesselayne8

DD ripped her brothers off and it ended up with some drainage which we were told to use alcohol on

jlsweets

Can I just say that my son's stayed on FOREVER! The pedi said it was like a world record ha it was so gross. Started to smell and was nervous it was getting infected but dr.kept saying that the smell was normal since it was dying but was gross. I was so tempted to just pick it off but I resisted and eventually came off. Hopefully this time it comes off faster. Same thing here too with using nothing on it.

kegraves28

I'm a NICU nurse and we recommend to parents to do nothing but keep it dry...if you use water it won't dry out and fall off

Lalala2326

We did the "do nothing" approach also. Took 2 weeks and 4 days. I remember cause we tried tummy time the same day for the first time and figured out DD already knew how to roll front to back :P

Shine2015

Thanks everyone!