rubbing alcohol on umbilical cord?

Question

should you put the wipe cotten ball on the cord its self, or on the belly skin around the cord?

Answer 1

the skin around it as close as you can to the umbilical cord

Answer 2

I was told to do nothing to it. However, once it fell off, the doctor gave me alcohol swabs to clean the skin since there was a little bit of residue from the cord left (which is normal). Every doctor is different. Don't worry about putting the rubbing alcohol on every day. My daughter's fell off at 8 days during a diaper change. She's almost 3 years old and the most perfect belly button ever.

Answer 3

Do nothing. There is also some evidence now that it's fine to give babies with a cord stump a bath.

As with so many things with (healthy) babies, nature, not an "expert," knows best. Just pretend it isn't there and it'll be fine.

"While parents traditionally have been told to swab their baby's umbilical cord stump with rubbing alcohol at each diaper change in order to prevent infection and encourage the stump to fall off, some research has brought that long-standing advice into question, finding that umbilical cord stumps fall off sooner if parents do nothing than if they make an effort to swab their babies' cords with disinfectants. The researchers concluded that the alcohol may kill off "good" bacteria that help the cord to dry up and fall off."

http://www.parentsconnect.com/articles/newborn_umbilical_cord.jhtml?ccc=10485&psc=10017

If babies needed rubbing alcohol on their cord stumps, they would be born with little bottles of rubbing alcohol...

Answer 4

try a q-tip. Dip it into rubbing alcohol and run it around the umbilical cord. It should try up and fall off in a couple of days.

Answer 5

alcohol dries out the cord. That's why doctors recommend it to swab the area several times a day. I wouldn't put it on the skin. I would place it on the cord itself.

Answer 6

With the cotton ball, I wiped around and then squeezed a bit. The reason is to disinfect the belly button area that is healing up and still open a bit. Once it starting drying out, I used the q-tip, just to make sure I was getting it clean and helping it dry.

While the umbilical cord might be dead tissue, it is still attached to live tissue, your baby, and has to dry and heal properly. It can, and will, get infected.

Answer 7

I was told by the doctors in the hospital just to leave it alone. There is no reason to rub alcohol on it, it will only irritate the skin. ]
Just keep the area around the base clean.

Answer 8

Rubbing alcohol is a running debate w/ the chord. We were told by the hospital to rub it on a cotton swab around the chord.....some parents would tell me to use it on the chord to help it dry out....I think that's old school.

We did what the hospital said...not every day....so that we were sure it was healing correctly.

Answer 9

12 years ago when my son was born we were told to use it. My daughter was born in oct this year and they discovered that it does nothing to help the cord fall of any faster. Just kep the diaper from covering it and mae sure it's dry when you are done with a bath.

Answer 10

When I had my baby's they gave us alcohol pads and told us to clean around the cord, even showed us how and it was around. If you are at all concerned call your dr. and ask them and see what they say, when in doubt call the dr:) Happy Holidays!