Newborn Umbilical Cord Care
By Dr. Brown
It has been tradition (old tradition) to clean a newborn's umbilical cord with rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol. However, studies seem to show that it probably doesn't make a difference whether you do or don't use alcohol. You can still use rubbing alcohol if you'd like, but it's probably not necessary. You're busy enough, aren't you???
The Cord generally takes 10-14 days to fall off, but we've seen them fall off within days of birth and as long as 6 weeks. Sometimes the umbilical area can get pretty smelly with occasional blood, mucous, or brownish fluid coming from the area. A true sign of infection is a surrounding and expanding ring of redness encircling the stump area on the baby's abdomen. Another sign of infection can be tenderness and warmth if you touch the reddish area. If you're not sure what you're looking at, call the office and we can check your baby for you.
If there appears to be a little pinkish bump or polyp coming from the base after the cord falls off, this may represent an "umbilical granuloma". We may have to use a little medicine (silver nitrate) to cauterize and dry up this are so there's not a persistent lump coming out from your baby's umbilical area.
It has been tradition (old tradition) to clean a newborn's umbilical cord with rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol. However, studies seem to show that it probably doesn't make a difference whether you do or don't use alcohol. You can still use rubbing alcohol if you'd like, but it's probably not necessary. You're busy enough, aren't you???
The Cord generally takes 10-14 days to fall off, but we've seen them fall off within days of birth and as long as 6 weeks. Sometimes the umbilical area can get pretty smelly with occasional blood, mucous, or brownish fluid coming from the area. A true sign of infection is a surrounding and expanding ring of redness encircling the stump area on the baby's abdomen. Another sign of infection can be tenderness and warmth if you touch the reddish area. If you're not sure what you're looking at, call the office and we can check your baby for you.
If there appears to be a little pinkish bump or polyp coming from the base after the cord falls off, this may represent an "umbilical granuloma". We may have to use a little medicine (silver nitrate) to cauterize and dry up this are so there's not a persistent lump coming out from your baby's umbilical area.