bellybutton

[julesjlb]

My 4 week old son lost his umbilical cord stump last week. Since then his bellybutton has been oozing. It does not look infected. Should I be worried?

[starrynight]

Does it look like there is still a yellowish spot in the middle that didn't totally dry up? Is it oozing puss, clear fluid or what? It could be a umbilical granuloma (sp?) the only way to know for sure is have the doc look at it and put silver nitrate on it to dry it up if is is a ug. Both my girls had them and as soon as they got the sn put on it was healed up in a day or so.

[julesjlb]

It is oozing a yellowish brownish sticky substance . . . hard to describe! It does not look like pus. He goes to the doctor on Wednesday, but I didn't know if I should call before then or not. Like I said it doesn't look infected, but I still worry.

[new_mommy25]

Our son also needed a little silver nitrate. The doc also advised us to add a little alchohol on a q-tip. Normally you do nothing but in our case it helped it dry up a little faster.

[starrynight]

If it's not puss and isn't bothering your son, I'm sure it can wait until the doc appt Wensday. Just have the doc look at it, he/she will know by looking at it if it needs the silver nitrate or not.

[julesjlb]

Thank you for your advice. We had our son to the doctor yesterday and he did just what you said, silver nitrate. Thanks for preparing (and reassuring!) me.