How to Clean and Care for a Newborn Baby's Umbilical Cord Stump

After the umbilical cord is cut, there will remain a dried up stump on your little newborn for days or weeks. It will eventually fall off, but it needs to be cleaned and kept dry so that it does not become infected. Here is a step by step process of how to effectively clean your newborn's cord stump.

Things You'll Need

  • Rubbing Alcohol
  • Qtips

Instructions

    • 1

      Always be gentle with a newborn's stump. It is like a scab that is trying to heal, so be patient when waiting for the scab to come off. NEVER PULL ONE OFF YOURSELF.

    • 2

      Set up a bottle of rubbing alcohol and Q-tips at your changing table. You will need to clean the stump at every diaper change.

    • 3

      Dip one side of the Q-tip in the alcohol and first swab the top of the stump. The Q-tip will probably look dirty after the swab--this is okay--it means you are effectively cleaning!

    • 4

      Dip the other side of the Q-tip in alcohol. Now you are going to swab the sides of the stump. GENTLY pull the skin down from the stump so you have access to the moist areas of the stump and can help dry them up. DO NOT FORCE THE SKIN AWAY FROM THE STUMP. Simply push away skin that is folded up against the sides of the umbilical cord stump.

    • 5

      When putting a diaper on your newborn, fold the top of the diaper down so that nothing rubs and irritates the sensitive stump area. If you have a boy and he was recently circumcised, make sure that you fold the diaper toward you as you fold it down so that the edge of the diaper doesn't irritate his wound.

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