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And if so, what do you do? His looks like it came off too early. I'm a horrible mommy and cannot bring myself to look closely at it. There's a significant amount of um, stumpage? that is not dried out left in the belly button. Gracie's just fell out and was a belly button... Should we be worried or is it just one of those gross things that will go away?
Thanks.
Anna
Mama to Gracie (Sept '03) and Eli (July '05)
Is it oozing? Does it look infected? If not, I would assume that part of the stump fell off and the rest needs to dry out before it completely falls off. I don't completely remember, but when Kaya's fell off (in the first week), there was some wetness, but we just kept cleaning it and eventually the whole thing dried out. The other thing is, does he have an "innie" or an "outie"?
ETA: Anna, how is your gall bladder? Are you feeling better these days?
Eileen
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo...n_gold_12m.gif , 17 months & counting
http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catca..._4_Kaya+is.png
Madeline's came off too early too. It was a little too long and when she would kick her legs it would knock the stump against her diaper. The ped noticed it coming off at her one week check up and applied something to it to help it dry out quicker. She then knocked it off completely and the ped had us bring her in and he put more of the stuff on it.
So, I wouldn't worry but I would call the ped and have them check it out to make sure that it's not too raw.
A
We had some oozing and had to go to the doctor for an emergency visit to have it sealed. They used a special silver stuff--how non-medical is that??!! -- to seal it off because it could have been infected. I'll try to see if I can find some info.
that's the stuff I was talking about - all I can remember is that it was silver
I think you are talking about silver nitrate. This happened to one of my DDs too. The doctor just sealed it off to help it heal quicker. You should probably have your ped check it as you don't want it to get infected. I don't think it's all that unusual for babies to lose the cord stump early though.
You mean the stuff was silver or that when it went on it turned silver? I think it's probably silver nitrate, which will help dry it out. But I would think that in most cases, it's probably not necessary.
There's some good info on umbilical cord stumps at diaperpin as well.
Eileen
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo...n_gold_12m.gif , 17 months & counting
http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catca..._4_Kaya+is.png
Make sure it doesn't get infected- it can be dangerous! I wouldn't be frantic about it, but concerned enough to call the ped. They ARE yucky to examine!
DS's fell off when he was just one week old and I thought it was really early. A short while later, it did get a little goopy (and smelled a little funky), so we took him to the ped. Our ped applied silver nitrate and that took care of it. We had been using alocohol on a Q-tip to clean it, as they told us to do at the hospital, but apparently we weren't getting down to the base enough and that's what caused the goopiness.
HTH!
Jerilyn
DS, Sean 10/03
"Baby makes days shorter, nights longer, home happier, and love stronger."
Sophia's got knocked off at one week by those d@#^ Kisslauv 0's and hers was as you describe. Hers even bled quiet regularly :( I called the ped and they said not to worry about it unless it started to get red/hot around the site or had a fould odor. At her 2 week visit the ped looked at it and said she COULD seal it off with silver nitrate but wanted to leave it be unless it started to look "bad". Having had a homoebirth the midwives advocate using goldenseal root to dry it out, so I started cleaning it daily with alcohol then applying the goldenseal root powder to it (it is drying and sntimicrobial) and it took several weeks but it did eventually al dry up. I foudn it continued to fall out in pieces rather than in one whole clump.
Lynne
Mommy to C 3/03
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif[/img][/url]
And Miss Purple, 5/05
I would call my ped to let them know and then keep an eye on it. Our friend's baby got an infection of the cord when he was about 2 weeks old and spent a week in Children's Hospital on strong antibiotics, but he is fine now. Just scary for the parents. And, according to our ped and the neonatologist at Swedish Hospital, the rec for caring for cords has changed. Now they want you (barring anything unusual) to leave it alone, do not put alcohol on it at all, do not clean it with cotton swabs, etc. Our ped said it would dry out faster that way and not get goopy, that putting alcohol on it actually slows the process. Based on his rec, we left it alone and had no problems. (I'm sure most people have no problems even with the prior way of caring for them involving alcohol too.) Our friends had been doing the alcohol swab deal based on their ped's practice, but at Children's they were told the same thing for future reference, to leave it alone.
Kimberly
DS 3/18/04
We had the exact same thing. There is a name for it, and umbilical (something)gioma, as my ped told us. He said it will dry up on its own, or if it was discovered earlier, they could have used silver nitrate to dry it up.
Make sure that's what it is, and if so, no worries. And crazy as it sounds, Julia's cord didn't fall off until 5 weeks! Crazy huh? And then we were left with that stumpy thingy. The ped said she was going to make a career out of her left over cord! LOL!
Marcy
Jordan's umbilical cord fell off at approx2 wks and he had a fleshy looking area afterwords. I took him to the ped. and she said it was a granuloma; she used silver nitrate and told me to keep it dry until the area looked more like regular flesh (only took a couple of days). Thankfully, DS now has a cute 'inny'.
Michelle