17 days old and cord hasn't fallen off - very smelly!

[Bexcas]

As the title says my little one is 17 days old and the cord is still attached and very smelly. I've cleaned it with water and cotton wool and patted it dry which was the advice when I phoned the midwife.

It's a little gunky but not like puss so don't know if it's infected or just slow to fall off.

I've attached a photo so you can advise if it's normal as I'm a first time mum!

Thanks in advance x

I don't know for certain but it doesn't look infected. With both of my dc their cords came off after a bath. With dc1 I was rubbing him with the towel and it came off in my hand. Maybe you just need a bit of intervention

OP I would go and see a health visitor about this - do you have a drop in clinic you could go to? It doesn't look infected but it does look a bit gunky, it should have dried up more than that by now I think. A friend's DD was slow to heal and they wiped something on it to help it along (it looked like iodine but I don't know what it actually was)

For reference all the other babies in my NCT group had lost their cords by 10 days old. My DS lost his when he was 5 days old. So this does seem quite a long time for it still not to have fallen off!

My midwife gave me an antibacterial talc for dd1's cord. It had also become smelly so that you could smell it through her clothes if you got close. It did the trick beautifully. Dried it up and the smell went pretty much straight away. The cord came off a couple of days later.

I'd bath him and see if any improvement. I'd go to a doctor if not. Check he hasn't got a temperature too.

Thanks everyone. We've just given her another bath and patted it dry... It's come away all round the edge now... Just waiting on the inside to come away. If there is no improvement by tomorrow I'll phone the HV.

How's it looking Bexcas?

It came off! I think it had stuck to her nappy an I whipped it off! Oops
Do you think the underneath looks okay?

It looks abit gunky, my sons was like this and after it had fallen of it was still pussy and smelly so i took him to the doctors and they prescribed some cream that I and to put on it and it cleared it very quickly after that xx

Looks how they normally look when they drop off in shorter time span.

Congratulations on a lovely wintry baby

If the doctors is shut cool you nip to Boots or other late night pharmacist to get advice. They may sell you a cream.

That looks perfect! As a guess, did you have a caesarean? Or did the baby have antibiotics?

In order for the cord to come off, it needs the skins healthy bacteria to dissolve the dead tissue. Where a baby has a sterile (caesarean) birth or has antibiotics, the healthy skin bacteria take a while to build up and this can delay cord separation.

Vaginal birth babies without antibiotics usually lose their cord by 6 days.

As you noticed, the separation can be smelly!

Mayhew I never knew that! Both my boys were sections and both took a month to lose their cords!!

I never knew that either! Yes we had a tough birth with forceps and she went straight on antibiotics... I'll keep an eye on it for now and if it's not drying up for the next day or two we'll pop to the docs on Monday. Thanks all x

My son was an emcs (after being 12 days overdue) and it took 12 days for his to fall off - I thought that was a long time lol the midwives and hv all said it was normal x

And wow - never knew that!!
my DDS (vaginal birth)came off in 5 days..

I had a c-section and my daughter's dropped off in six days.