If you are a first-time mother you are probably excited but you may also have some concerns. There is a lot you need to think about when it comes to taking care of your baby and your baby’s umbilical cord is one of those things!
Your baby’s umbilical cord should fall off a few weeks after they have been born. However, in the meantime, you will have to take good care of it to ensure that healing takes place.
During pregnancy, your baby’s umbilical cord provides nutrients and oxygen for your baby as they develop. After birth, this cord is no longer needed so it is clamped and snipped by the doctor and this will leave a stump.
The Stump
You will need to keep the stump as dry as possible until it falls off. It is no longer recommended that you use rubbing alcohol after every diaper change.
Make sure that you keep the front area of your baby’s diaper closed so that it does not interfere with the healing of the stump.
Do Sponge Baths
There is no harm in letting your baby’s stump get wet. However, when you are bathing your child it is best not to get it wet since this will not help to keep the stump dry.
If you do get the stump wet allow it to dry out on its own. Do not rub the stump and irritate it this will make it fall off before it is ready. Also, during your child care routine you should never pull off the stump, this can lead to infection.
Identifying Problems
When your baby’s umbilical cord is healing it is normal for you to see just a little bit of blood on the stump. This looks like a scab, the stump may bleed a tiny bit when it starts to fall off.
However, some signs are not normal. For example, if the stump begins to ooze a lot of pus or if you notice that the skin around the area starts to become red or swollen then it may have become infected. You will need to get your baby to a doctor immediately to prevent this kind of infection from spreading further.
You should also talk to your doctor if you notice that the stump has not separated in three to four weeks. Often this may be a sign that there are other problems even if you don’t see any outward signs of an infection.
Getting It Right
Taking care of a newborn can be physically exhausting. There may be a lot of sleepless nights, feedings, and diaper changes. There are a lot of childcare activities that you will have to do.
However, no matter how tired you get make sure that you are very observant when it comes to your child’s umbilical stump. The last thing you want is for it to become infected. To prevent this you need to ensure that you examine it at least twice per day.
Picture credit: Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
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