My 1 mo. old daughter's umbilical cord stump fell off @ 2 weeks but a small stump remained. At both her 1 week and 2 week appointments the pediatrician said that it was normal and to continue to clean with alcohol. The stump doesn't show any signs of drying up and remains the same. It has a little discharge and today while I was cleaning it, it bled. I called the pediatrician and he told me to apply pressure and that was it. Am I worrying too much or should I be concerned? It just didn't seem normal to me and I'm concerned that she is now a month old and still has this stump. Has anyone experienced anything similar?
My daughter had the same thing. She is now 3 1/2 and doing great, belly button completely normal. They called it an umbilical pollup and her peditrician applied something to it to dry it up. It wasn't drying up either. She went in three times and had it treated and it dried up fine. I hope this helps. I had never heard of it either, her older brother had nothing like it.
i would just recommend gently pulling back the skin around the stump and using a cotton swab (Q-tip) dipped in alcohol to make sure you are getting the alcohol way down in all those little creases. use the alcohol EVERY time you change her diaper and keep her diaper rolled down a little in the front so the diaper doesn't rub over the stump and irritate it. also, make sure she isn't too hot, if she sweats it could be keeping the stump moist.
my 2nd baby had pretty much the same thing happen, i just wasn't remembering to use the alcohol as often as i should have been. once i started using alcohol at every diaper change and gently pulling the skin back, the rest of the cord dried up pretty quickly and fell off in little chunks
hope this helps!
My little boys umbelical did fall off all together, but before it did it also bled a little and had some discharge. I was extremely worried but Dr. said alcohol and eventually it healed normally.
my pediatrition with my daughter told me to use alcohol, it took 6 weeks to fall off. It was painful when it came off and it bled. She cried. It was awful. My midwife with my son (4 years later) told me that alcohol is a preservative and will keep it from falling off. Use hydrogen peroxide instead (which has the added benefit of not being painful) and within 5 days it fell off.
Just wanted to say dido to what Umber's midwife said. Alcohol IS a preservative. My son spent 12 days in ICU when he was born and had his cord swabbed every time his diaper was changed. His umbilical cord didn't fall off until he was about 6 weeks old. My sister-in-law had a baby the next month and had a midwife who told her NOT to use alcohol. Her son's umbilical cord fell off when he was 2 weeks old! I wish I would've known sooner!
Do not worry that is part of the healing process. She is only a month soon you will see the difference in how it will change just keep it clean.
