Stinky cord stump ?

[hungrytree]

My baby will be three weeks old on thursday and still has his cord stump!
He does not act like it hurts him if you touch it but it oozes some brown goop every once in a while and it definitely stinks! There is no redness or any other signs of infection. Is this normal? Should I worry about it? Can you tell this is my first baby?

[MamaJo]

Thats how it was with my son too As long as there is no sign of infection, I'm sure it will be just fine....stinky, but fine lol

The stink doesn't necessarily = infection even though odor can be a sign of infection.

[dirtdartwife]

As long as you clean it with alchohol, the stump will be fine. There is no pain sensors in the cord stump so he should be fine. The alcohol helps to keep in clean and it'll make the stump dry up faster, therefore fall off faster. HTH's!

My middle one took awhile to lose her cord stump too.

congrats too!

[Malka]

Sounds fairly normal, but if it smells really bad I would call the ped. We even had slight bleeding just before the stump fell off on some of my dc. My first three dc took between 4-6 weeks for the stump to fall off, and then all was well. There is sometimes a relationship to the stump taking a long time to fall off, and getting sick a lot later on. I don't know what it is, but my ped said to remind him about it taking a long time if ds1 got sick a lot later. I'm not sure how important the alcohol is, and I think it might not be recommended anymore.

Dd4 lost hers in a week or so, and then it oozed for months and months. I brought her to the ped twice about it. The first time, there was some stump left and they put something on it. The second time, it looked mostly the same and they said it was just oozing, and they said she would eventually outgrow it as her belly grew and the area got exposed to air more. The oozing stuff is a skin irritant and needs to be wiped away regularly with water or the area will get more irritated and look worse.

Malka

[elioraimmanuel]

Do Not use rubbing alcohol. Years ago it was used to "dry out" the stump. Skin absorbs alcohol and it is toxic! Make sure the stump gets plenty of air (which can be very difficult) and know that stink is common and probably means all is normal. I showered w/all of my kids from the time they came home. We had no probs but some stink. Relax. Be aware that if the stump gets moist it may appear bloody and this, too, is normal.

[hungrytree]

It fell off yesterday, so we are good to go! thanks again everybody

[Hayley]

Originally Posted by elioraimmanuel Do Not use rubbing alcohol. Years ago it was used to "dry out" the stump. Skin absorbs alcohol and it is toxic! Make sure the stump gets plenty of air (which can be very difficult) and know that stink is common and probably means all is normal. I showered w/all of my kids from the time they came home. We had no probs but some stink. Relax. Be aware that if the stump gets moist it may appear bloody and this, too, is normal.

There is nothing wrong with rubbing alcohol. using it is not toxic if you use it correctly just use caution and don't allow baby to drink it. LOL

[FitMommyOf2]

Originally Posted by noahs_mommie There is nothing wrong with rubbing alcohol. using it is not toxic if you use it correctly just use caution and don't allow baby to drink it. LOL

I wanted to comment on this myself, but you did it for me, mama!