CORD CARE

The umbilical cord will be blue-black from Triple-Dye (a topical antibiotic / antifungal) when your baby leaves the hospital and may be wet at the base. The cord will usually fall off in about 7 to 21 days. When I started training in the 1980s, we were taught to clean the cord 4 times a day. Around 2010, the standard became to not clean it after leaving the hospital. It turns out cleaning it caused the cord to take much longer to come off and probably did not prevent any infections. I have seen only one serious infection of the cord since this change occured.

When the cord falls off there will continue to be a discharge a few days after the cord falls off, and the area will look like a scab was just picked off a wound. This is normal.  You may want to use a Q-tip soaked with alcohol to clean this daily. This will not hurt your baby as the cord has no nerve endings, but your baby may cry from the cooling effect of the alcohol and because you are bothering him or her. Also, you should not bathe your child until the cord has fallen off and it has completely healed, but rather, you should give him or her sponge baths. Fold the diaper down or use the new diapers with the cord cut-out to keep moisture off of the cord. If the cord does get moist, clean it with rubbing alcohol to dry it out. Should you note any persistent or bloody discharge, swelling or redness, then please call me at the office. A small amount of bleeding is normal when the cord falls off, but should not be persistent. Once the cord falls off, the discharge may continue for up to 2 weeks. If the discharge continues for more than 2 weeks after the cord falls off, then please call the office.