Does umbilical cord look infected picture include TMI! new mum !

[sweetypie878]

Hi ladies DS was just born 2days ago and its my first child so not sure what to look out for the midwife told me to leave the umbilical cord alone to dry and it'll fall off but everywhere I'm searching everyone has cleaned their babies one so I'm going to start do you guys think it's infected ?

Nothing is coming out of it I'm just concede about the yellow looking thing

Concerned *

It doesn't look infected to me, it looks normal.

As your midwife says, just leave it alone and it'll fall off by itself.

Is that green solid or wet?
Does it smell?

It uses a gangrene type process to fall off. Unless there is red ring of skin around it that feels hot to the touch, it’s probable fine.

The skins looks a lovely even colour so try not to worry. The way they fall off is a bit of yucky process.

They thing is to keep it dry so don’t be tempted to get to too wet with any cleaning

@CanWeHaveSnow it's solid and I haven't smelled any bad smells I will try see if it has a funny smell

Listen to your midwife, she knows what to look for. And Congratulations

My 5 week old got that exact gungy looking yellow bit when the cord dropped off - totally fine, just took another few days to dry up

I think it looks normal.

It’s most likely fine - any heat, wetness or bad smell are signs of infection, so if none of those I wouldn’t worry. It will look miles better when it has dropped off.

Infection will be red and water to touch around the site. That goes looks healthy. My DD’s looked similar, like sticky as it was starting to fall away.
Don’t mess with it just let it come off. Will look funky for a week or so but soon heals lovely.

Normal

Looks absolutely normal to me (midwife). They tend to smell a bit (as PP said, it’s basically gangrene) but an infected cord tends to smell so bad you’d notice it from quite far away!

@sweetypie878 if you are worried get it checked! Our baby boys looked like that... yellow/green oozing and awful smell ( I could smell it through his clothes when I was holding him) so we got it checked, they said it looked normal but I asked for then to swab it anyway, and it came back that he did have an infection and needed antibiotics straight away. Follow your mummy instincts!

Going back a.few decades here but we were given medicated talc for our babies. Do they not do that now ?

Thank you all for the responses really appreciate it

I also wanted to ask did any of you with DS had a trouble of when you changed their diapers and they wee'd while you was changing them did any of it go in the umbilical cord as it's happened to me any tips on how to clean it pls xx

Keep a muslin at hand at all times. Cover his bits when naked. Boy pee gets everywhere.

My DD had a very gunky umbillical cord before it fell off. I was advised to treat it with breast milk as it is full of natural antibacterials. Obviously not working for a proper infection but might be good for a bit if local inflammation.

Look exactly like my little girls did. In a few days it will dry out and start looking better x

Both my kids umbilical cords looked like that. Looks normal to me!
And yes, cover with a muslin cloth.
Congratulations on your new arrival!

OP how is your little boys umbilical cord looking now? My little boys umbilical stump had an infection at 6 days old which resulted in him being admitted to hospital. It was a bit 'gunky' but the big give away was the smell coming from it. He was fine in himself otherwise x

@TheAgeOfAquarius so sorry to hear that hope he's doing better & all was good with his umbilical cord it actually dropped off itself a few days ago which they said was normal and it's looking really good now

Thank you all for your reassuring messages his umbilical cord is fine and there's no infection

Best tip I've ever got when changing a boys nappy is to open the nappy and let air get to him and then cover with the nappy again as the air makes them wee. Also I put a little flannel or towel or muslin folded over his belly button whilst changing to stop it getting wet if he did pee x