# Natural way to CLEAN UMBILICAL CORD?



## mama2ashlynn (Jul 16, 2005)

I was wondering what everyone recommended to clean the umbilical cord. I remember having to use alchol with dd1 at the hospital but this is a homebirth and I was wondering if there is anything natural to use instead, or just use alchol and q-tips again?
TIA


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## pamamidwife (May 7, 2003)

i recommend not using anything.....alcohol is a preservative and will not help in it falling off faster.


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## Kelleybug (Jan 25, 2006)

I haven't ever used anything on the umbilical cord of my children. They were all hospital births and I was told to just leave it alone and it will fall off in a week to 10 days after the birth. It gets a teeny bit stinky at the end, but then it falls off and is no big deal.


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## savithny (Oct 23, 2005)

Our ped said alcohol makes it take longer. He said if it got gunky to dab it with a qtip with clean water, but mostly to leave it alone. DD's cord fell off weeks sooner than DS's (with whom I did the alcohol thing).


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## eclipse (Mar 13, 2003)

We didn't use it on any of our kids either.


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## fourgrtkidos (Jan 6, 2004)

If you feel the need to use something you can use calendula tincture or witch hazel. I recommend using nothing.


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## Full Heart (Apr 27, 2004)

When I had my 1 hospital birth they put something on her cord and that thing took forever to fall off (over 3 weeks!), and I didn't do anything different. All the others fell off w/i the first week. Anyone know what that stuff was?


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## alegna (Jan 14, 2003)

We didn't do anything.

-Angela


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## pamamidwife (May 7, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Full Heart* 
When I had my 1 hospital birth they put something on her cord and that thing took forever to fall off (over 3 weeks!), and I didn't do anything different. All the others fell off w/i the first week. Anyone know what that stuff was?


was it purple? could have been triple dye


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## Full Heart (Apr 27, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *pamamidwife* 
was it purple? could have been triple dye

Yup it was purple. My mw had me put goldenseal on the cord after a while cause it smelled and looked nasty. After that it fell off pretty soon. But before that I was just using a wet q-tip to clean it up every once in a while.


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## Blue Dragonfly (Jun 19, 2005)

I totally forgot to do this with DS2







:


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## mum2James&Bean (Dec 8, 2006)

Yeah, we were actually TOLD by the hospital not to put anything on it. So we didn't


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## Hey Mama! (Dec 27, 2003)

I used nothing on dd 3 and hers fell off in 3 days. The kids I used alcohol one took over 2 weeks.


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## mamadeb (Sep 22, 2006)

One of my midwives uses a mixture of frankensence and myrrh oil - the other uses goldenseal. We decided to do both. The oil was acutally a nice annointing and the cord smelled nice. The goldenseal stuck to the oil. DD's cord fell off in 6 days.

Doing nothing is great too!!


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## pamamidwife (May 7, 2003)

I always recommend breastmilk if it starts getting gooey, but frankly, it is something that is rotting off the body....I expect SOME smell if it's longer than 4-5 days.

Most cords we see are long gone by one week because of delayed cord clamping....less in the cord when we cut and tie means it takes less time to dry up.


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## QueenOfThePride (May 26, 2005)

Frankinsence and myrrh have been used to dress the cord since Biblical times.

My OB told me not to use anything on the cord, b/c it would dry out faster and fall off earlier. Well after a week and a half, it was still gooey and smelled putrid so I started cleaning it with witch hazel. It fell off a few days later. I think the problem these days is that the cord is cut too short. DS had an innie right from the start, so the tiny bit of cord they left was sucked totally into his belly button and couldn't get any air. For this next baby, we are going to leave 6 inches of cord so the moisture can be wicked out of the belly button. And I'd like to use frankinsence and myrrh. And delay cord clamping.


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## User101 (Mar 3, 2002)

I have a goldenseal powder I use if I remember, but I usually use nothing.


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## mother culture (Oct 19, 2004)

I agree, use nothing at all. the dryer the better.


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## 2Sweeties1Angel (Jan 30, 2006)

Saffron's is the only one I've left completely alone and it fell off in a little over a week. It smelled pretty rank there at the end, though. With the others, I cleaned them with alcohol and they didn't fall off for at least 3 weeks.


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## zek_grrl (Jan 9, 2007)

With my DD we washed her everyday and the stinky little thing took 17 days to fall off.... grosss

My MW recommends no bath for bub until cord falls off - she says its the constant wetting that causes it to hang on. She recommends using almond oil to "clean" bub. We are going to follow her recommendations this time and will be curious to see what happens.


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## Electra375 (Oct 2, 2002)

My little guy is 2 wks old today, I've done absolutely nothing to his cord and he still has it. It isn't even getting yucky. I gave him his first wash down since the birth yesterday, so it has not been exposed to anything but air.

I don't recall the cords staying on this long with any of my other children, even the first whom I was told to alcohol swab which was done a few times at best due to my state of non-functioning.

MW is supposed to be coming tomorrow to check me. She was surprised last week when his was still on. Now I'm wondering what's wrong...


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## ~*~MamaJava~*~ (Mar 7, 2004)

This is a lightbulb moment for me!!
I always wondered why my babies' cords came off 'so early' - 4 or 5 days after birth - when I distinctly remember my sisters cord and my cousins taking weeks (when I was a child).

Alcohol! Okay! I get it now! I have always wondered about this







because once my kids' stumps came off I cleaned the wound with alcohol to dry it up quicker...thought this was what they meant about 'cleaning the cord'.

So people were cleaning the ACTUAL cord stump, okay, that makes sense.

I never did anything with it til it came off.


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## kerikadi (Nov 22, 2001)

I take herbal baths twice a day for a week or more after the births and bring the baby in with me. We also delay cutting the cord - both of my girls lost their stumps in 3-4 days. We did use callendula a couple of times.
This time I bought some powdered cord care from www.gentlemoon.com that has goldenseal and some other stuff in it. I figure each time we get out of the herbal bath I'll apply it.

Keri


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## jlwagner (May 2, 2006)

The mws put goldenseal on it after the birth. I think I cleaned it once with witchhazel and a q-tip. It fell off in 5 days.


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