Umbilical Cord Care



After the birth of your baby, the umbilical cord will be clamped to your baby’s stomach, and cut off in a painless procedure. This leaves a ’stump’ which will eventually dry up and fall off. This will generally happen within 10 – 21 days. Once it falls off, there will be a small wound that will take a few days to heal. It’s very important to take special care of this area, before and after the stump falls off to avoid infection.

  • keep area clean and dry as much as possible
  • fold the diaper under the stump to keep it from being exposed to your baby’s urine. You can also buy diapers with an area cut out to keep the stump from being covered, although I found that folding a regular diaper worked just as well, if not better.
  • don’t be alarmed when there is a little blood on the diaper after the stump falls off. This is perfectly normal and expected, although I have to admit, it does look kind of gross!
  • until the stump area heals, you might want to give your baby sponge baths to keep the area from getting wet.
  • while it’s healing, you may see little bits of flesh in the belly button. This is also normal for slow healing umbilical cords, and these ‘connective tissues’ will go away.
  • clean the base of the stump with a wet cotton swab or Q-tip. Just use water and not alcohol, which can kill the good bacteria that helps the stump heal. This can be done at each diaper change.
  • expose your baby’s naval to the air as much as possible. This will help the cord to dry out.

NORMAL
-your baby’s stump turns black
-blood on the diaper right after the stump falls off

NOT NORMAL
-fever
-naval becoming swollen or red
-pus starts to appear in the stump area
-foul smell
-bleeding that lasts more than 3 days

Umbilical Hernia

If your baby develops an umbilical hernia, it will appear as a small bump in the naval area. This will generally go away as your child gets older and won’t cause any problems, but you may still want to mention it to your doctor at the next post-natal visit. Umbilical hernias are actually quite common in babies because their muscles are still weak and not fully developed yet. They are usually best left alone.