Parenting Made Easy
How to look after your baby's umbilical cord.

Umbilical cord care

Until the umbilical cord drops down, it needs to have some special care. After the everyday bath (remember to dry very carefully the baby's belly), you should apply 70� alcohol, with a sterile gauze. In the first days of the baby's life is not recommended to use any antiseptic that contains iodine. The iodine gets absorbed in the baby's skin and can alterate some early age tests, like the test of the heel, thyroid ... because they check the level of iodine in blood.
If the temperature outside is good, you can leave the baby without the nappies or diaper for a little while to help the skin around the umbilical cord to dry. In baby boys it is recommendable to leave the umbilical cord outside the diapers because it will keep dry.
The Umbilical cord care is not complicated, after the bath dry carefully the skin around the umbilical cord to make sure it will not get infected. See if that skin is not red or a colour that might seem to have an infection. After checking the skin, put a little bit of 70� alcohol in a gauze and clean well with it the umbilical cord, after dry it well with an sterile gauze. The last bit will be covering the umbilical cord with another sterile gauze. The importance of all of these procedure is to make sure that the Umbilical cord is dry and clean so it will not get infected.


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