Umbilical Cord and Bathing

ladybug03

My LO finally lost the remainder of her cord. Now how long after did you wait to give your LO a bath after they lost theirs. I can't wait to be done and over with these sponge baths!

Ciarrai

I think we gave the girls "real" baths within a day or two of losing their cord stump. (DS still hasn't lost his.)

Abinormal

I gave my LO an actual bath the first day her cord fell off. However, I wouldn't recommend this, what I didn't know was that even though it had fallen off there was still some healing to do. Her belly button had some bleeding and scabbing for about a week after her cord fell off. When I asked the pedi she told me  I should wait until a week after the bleeding and scabbing had stopped.

jhenry1204

LO's dr told us 2 or 3 days after she lost it.  He said theres going to still be some "gunk" in there and that it needs to finish completely healing.  I think we ended up bathing her 3 days after and all seemed fine.

gaijinmama

Here (Japan) they gave LO a bath everyday (we were in the hospital 6 days).  After her bath they always rubbed iodine on her cord, wrapped in gaze and put a bandaid over it.  Not sure if the cord fell off on its own or they took the remainder off but it was off when we left, still had to continue putting some iodine in her belly button.  Never had a problem.