# Belly button not healing at 5 weeks.... what is this?



## VTnurse (Feb 17, 2008)

Hi ladies. My baby is 5 weeks old. His umbilical stump fell off at 10 days. His belly button has a little section that sticks out. It's wet and gooey, for lack of better term. He doesn't seem to mind and it doesn't seem to be causing him pain. I just can't figure out what this is. It doesn't seem infected and it's not red. We have a routine doctors appt this week so I will ask then, but I just wanted to know what you thought. I was thinking maybe it was an umbilical hernia, but all the pictures of those don't look like his belly button. His isn't a big lump, but a small 'wet' amount of skin bulging out.


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## heidirk (Oct 19, 2007)

Are you putting anything on it?

The reason I ask is because DS"s stump fell off on day 4 and his cord area stayed wet and weepy(and stinky) for a while. Our doc told us to wash it in his bath, with soap and warm water, and not to use alchohol at all. He said the new skin needed to colonize with healthy bacteria and the more we did to it, the more slowly it would heal.


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## MissRubyandKen (Nov 2, 2005)

Does it look like this? My dd had an umbilical granuloma. It resolved itself with no treatment. It did take its good old time though. I wasn't using anything on it as recommended now until I realized this is what was going on. I started using a q-tip with rubbing alcohol poured on it several times a day to swab it. I was very careful for a long time so there was nothing rubbing the area, even before I knew because we had issues with the stump bleeding for awhile before it fell off as well. Not fun. My other two children had no issues with their's whatsoever.


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## VTnurse (Feb 17, 2008)

Yes!! Thank you!! That is exactly what it looks like. What a relief to know what it is! I am going to take him to his doc tomorrow and it's nice to be able to suggest what I think the problem is. Thanks!


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## MissRubyandKen (Nov 2, 2005)

Glad to help. Sending healing vibes for the lo.


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## brandianndesigns (Jun 8, 2008)

my midwife suggested to use goldenseal when my DS was born. it dried up the stump, and after that fell off - the bellybutton and allowed it to heal. it only took 1 capsule and after bathtime, you dry it off and open the capsule and sprinkle a little goldenseal on the bellybutton and then pat it in a little bit.

then just put the diaper on and go. you use the goldenseal whenever you see it 'wet' looking. i think it took my ds about 10 days to completely dry out (from birth).


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## Lady Lilya (Jan 27, 2007)

We also have what is shown in that pic. Our pedi sent us to a dermatologist to be absolutely certain. They called it a strawberry hemangioma. They said that it occurs when tissue heals, but the body overdoes it with the healing and makes too much new tissue. They said it could be cauterized, but most of them go away by the age of 5ish. DS is almost a year old now, and it looks smaller and more pale. In the beginning sometimes it would bleed a tiny bit if it was touched or if he cried. Now it just stays a bit gooey, but luckily never stinks. (But fuzz from his clothing sticks to it a little and give him a rainbow belly button.)


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## Datura (Mar 18, 2005)

I was referred to a pediatric surgeon by my family doctor for DS2's. She had us use silver nitrate sticks (they look like long matchsticks) to kind of burn them off. It doesn't hurt, but it makes it come off a layer at a time. 3 treatments and it was gone!


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## MissRubyandKen (Nov 2, 2005)

VTnurse, saw this thread bumped up again and just wondering how things are going?


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