How To Take Care of a Newborn Baby's Belly Button Infected Umbilical Cord, Navel

 So you're home with your newborn baby. This is a time of excitement, happiness, and great joy. It can also be a time of worry, apprehension, and anxiety when you are not for sure exactly how to do things. First of all you want to get rest, it takes a couple weeks for your body to fully heal. So just take it easy. There are many firsts that you and your baby will have together. There's worrying about how many bowel movements and wet diapers your baby has. If he/she is eating enough and then there's things like baby's first bath and how to take care of the umbilical cord stump. Don't worry, it's not hard at all even if the umbilical cord gets infected or is oozing there are easy solutions to these situations that may arise.

 The simplest way to avoid infection is to clean the umbilical cord 4-5 times a day with rubbing alcohol. Avoid getting it wet, do not give your baby a bath submerged in water until it falls off. Even then, make sure it's not red or oozing. Both are signs of infection. Do not use any lotions around the umbilical cord area, lotion make things keep their moisture. You want to dry out the umbilical cord.

 Sometimes the umbilical cord gets infected. Some of the signs of infection are oozing around the umbilical cord, bleeding, bright red on the stomach area surrounding the umbilical cord, or a whitish fluid coming out of the umbilical cord. First of all, don't panic. It does happen and is quite simple to get under control. You should call your pediatrician at the first sign of infection.

 If your baby has any of the signs of an infected umbilical cord, just keep putting on the rubbing alcohol. Make sure your hands are always clean and use a q-tip and make sure to get as far underneath the scab as possible. Do not tug or pull on the scab. Make sure to tuck down the diaper underneath the umbilical cord. Otherwise moisture can get to the umbilical cord and it won't be able to heal properly. Also, put loose clothing on baby until it's healed and falls off. Otherwise it can get caught on tight fitting clothing.