Hey everybody in today's video I'm sharing the best way to care for your baby's umbilical cord
from birth through the stump falling off and I want to make sure that you know the
best way to clean your baby, best way to dress your baby to keep baby safe and really promote
care of the umbilical cord. We'll also cover when you might need to worry about the umbilical cord
and when you might need to seek help from a pediatrician. Also, I want to bust some common
umbilical cord myths that are lingering in society. You might believe in them as well. I'm
going to share those at the end, so I recommend sharing this video with your partner and maybe
even any family members that might be questioning how to take care of the umbilical cord. After the
baby's cord is cut at birth there will be a small section of that cord that comes out of the baby's
belly button and that's what we call the stump. I know it's a bad it's kind of gross word. The
stump doesn't have any nerve endings so the baby doesn't feel any part of this process.
The stump is going to change in color. So it'll probably start as like a dark yellow and it might
end up eventually being black as it dries up and falls off. So that's the normal process and this
process takes around 5-15 days. Now don't panic if it goes longer than 15 days. When it does fall
off it's normal to see like a little bit of blood. There might be some crusty dry blood
and this is a spectrum of how it works. So there are some differences
but as long as you're not seeing any of the concerning signs then things should be fine.
So, let's talk about these signs. These are ones that if you notice it might mean that your baby
has an infection in the umbilical cord. So, you're looking for things like if the baby has a fever
if there's redness around the belly button or if that skin is kind of swollen, if there's a lump,
if you see yellow or green pus coming out of the belly button or if you have
see that smell that foul smell at that site then, if you're noticing any of these with your baby,
I recommend that you call your baby's doctor and they might want you to come in and have a look.
So, I don't want you to get to the point of an infection. So, taking care of the umbilical cord
stump is actually really easy let's first talk about how to clean the baby. Now this is where you
might hear or read some conflicting information. For many years it was recommended to clean around
the stump with an alcohol solution a few times a day. You might even have a grandma or an older
family member that's giving you advice on this is the best way to do it. But research has found that
this is not the best for baby. That alcohol may actually kill the good bacteria which is
found around the cord that helps it dry and detach earlier. So no alcohol for the stump, instead you
want to keep the stump dry. So, what this means is avoid submerging your baby in a bath, in a tub.
So, you don't want to do this until the stump has fallen off. So, if you need to clean baby, use a
washcloth. give a sponge bath and avoid getting that umbilical cord area wet. If the cord gets
wet or dirty you know, pee or poop, clean with a really mild soap using a washcloth and then just
pat dry. Now, you might notice some crusty blood around the cord sometimes or even some like clear
secretions. That can be wiped off with fresh water and a washcloth. A small amount of blood is fine
and very common actually but if you see more than that you want to call your care provider. Now when
it comes to cleaning this area it's really less is more of a strategy. During this process (that you
know like I said can take up to two weeks or maybe more) you might get impatient and you might want
to pull on the cord or pick on the cord but no don't do this. It's important to be really hands
off when it comes to this process and order it order for it to heal properly. So, now let's talk
about diapering and dressing baby. When it comes to diapering and dressing a less is more strategy
is also the way to go. Now I'm not suggesting that you let your baby go without a diaper of course,
that'd be pretty messy, but it is important that the diaper not cover that umbilical cord area
until the stump has fallen off and this can be tricky especially if you have a tiny baby or if
you have a premature baby, There's a few ways to make this work. So, with disposable diapers
you can fold the front of the diaper down before you put it on put this the tabs on with it folded.
Also, you can use diapers that have a newborn cut out has a little notch in the top that makes it
easier to not cover the stump. So, many brands of newborn sized diapers have the cutout. So, popular
brands like Pampers and Huggies and Amazon's Mama Bear Gentle Touch (I'll link down below). Now,
if you are using cloth diapers for your baby I highly recommend getting enough disposable
diapers to last until the stump falls off because with the cloth diapers it's really difficult to
fold them down low enough to not cover the belly button the stump and that makes it harder to
keep dry. And I'm speaking from experience here because this was a mistake that I actually made
with my fourth child. Now that we have diapering covered, let's talk about how to dress your baby
for optimal health and care of the umbilical stump. You might be tempted to dress your baby
in cute clothes that you purchased recently or received from family and friends but again
less is more is really the strategy here. You want to skip tight clothes like onesies that
your baby will eventually spend time in. But, I would really go with just a diaper if you
can most of the day and you can keep baby warm by wrapping them in a loose blanket and just remember
skin to skin is still really beneficial to baby even after you come home from the hospital. So,
if you're holding baby skin to skin it's really a win-win here. You get all those benefits that come
with skin to skin, the bonding, the brain development and you aren't putting clothes on the
baby so the umbilical cord has that access to air and it allows the stump to dry faster. When you
do want to dress baby, consider like those loose fitting gowns or the kimono style button shirts
and if you're not sure what I'm talking about I'll put some links below to those as well.
Okay so I ran across a product recently on Amazon that was called a umbilical cord belt for babies.
It's like a small piece of fabric and Velcro that goes around their umbilical cord and I definitely
don't want to recommend that. Um definitely avoid that and you don't you don't want to
cover the stump with like a bandage or anything. It's going to look gross and that's normal. It is
you might want to um pick at it because you see it don't just leave it alone. Less is more!
I know I mentioned that I was going to bust some umbilical cord myths
and these are good ones that I still hear. The umbilical cord
does not attach mom to baby so the cord actually attaches from the baby to the placenta. Then
the placenta is attached to the mom's uterus have the baby right here. I'll show you guys.
So, baby cord to placenta and then the placenta is inside growing to the wall of the uterus.
So when the placenta comes out after the baby there's no cord attached to the mom.
This is something I think that is really confusing for a lot of people. So hopefully we busted that
myth. If that was one that was in your mind. Now the second myth is a big one and I hear it a lot.
It's whether you or your doctor can impact whether your baby has what's called an innie belly button
or an outie belly button. Now I've heard people say that the doctor didn't tie someone's umbilical
cord right and that's why they have an innie or an outie. First of all the umbilical cord it's not
tied it's just cut and the body closes the point where the cord attaches to the body. So there's
absolutely no tying involved and the appearance of your baby's belly button is something that
no one can control. It's dependent upon your the way that your baby's body is made. Hopefully
that's a myth that's busted for you. Now taking care of the umbilical cord is easy so don't forget
to alert your doctor if you see any of those signs of infections that we went over and if you would
like to learn more about the actual cord cutting, cutting the cord I have a great video right here
that will answer the internet's top 20 questions on cord cutting and if you're still preparing for
birth I know that you'll like to see my video about positions to make labor faster and that
can be found right here. Now thanks for joining me today and I'll see you guys next time, bye.