A really stupid question around umbilical stumps

[december2020]

FTM so please be kind:

Everything I've read says to let the umbilical stump dry out and fall of naturally and not to put the baby in any onesies/sleepers covering it until it does.

If this is true, what the hell do I dress my son in when he arrives mid December and it's cold? 🙈

Please tell me it's something as simple as an over sized onesie and cardigan? Or a sleeper bag?

He’ll be just fine in proper baby vests and baby gros. It’ll just dry up and drop off. Just ignore it and dress your baby x

That's weird advice. Have you asked your midwife? I washed baby with warm water and cotton wall, dried and dressed in a vest and onesie as normal. It dropped off after 10 days ish without issue.

Only thing I did differently was fold down my babies nappy at the front so it wasn’t rubbing on the stump but she was dressed as normal with a vest and sleepsuit.
The midwives will keep you right. Don’t worry.

You leave it to dry and drop off naturally but baby can be dressed. You might need to fold the top of the nappy down so it doesn't rub or irritate it but I never had a problem with vest or babygros.

I have 8 dc between 13 and 8 months, most of them winter babies. I have never seen this advice. Baby should be dressed in a vest and sleepsuit indoors in the winter. The cord will dry and fall off no matter what baby is wearing.

Glad you asked this @december2020 I’m also a clueless FTM I think you can dress them in whatever but fold bye nappy down?

Where have you heard this?

It’s not true. Dress as normal but sleepsuits would be better than jeans for example

Pampers new born nappies have a divot in them so they go under the stump

Yep dress as normal. Best and baby grow indoors. I had a December baby and his stump fell off on day 4 which is quite quick. No issues all normal. Perfect belly button!

I definitely never heard this! We used to cut a little fold in the nappy so it didn't rub (I say we, DH did because the whole thing grossed me out) but didn't dress him any differently!

Not true- just fold the nappy down and dress in a vest and sleepsuit.

My midwife dressed baby as I had a student in with me too, and I needed a catheter and other bits, so couldn't dress baby at the time. She used vest and sleepsuit without commenting at all (also a december baby)

Thank you everyone for setting me straight!

I read this on a lot of Google results when searching what to dress newborns in while they had their umbilical stump, I'm guessing this is now outdated advice (but there was too many results with the same information to shrug it off as a 'random result' which got me wondering).

Haven't started any antenatal classes yet so didn't have the platform to ask there, so really appreciated!

Baby can definitely be dressed before it drops off. I know this because ds2’s cord stump dropped off inside a onesie, but I didn’t realise and washed the suit along with the rest of our clothes that afternoon. I discovered the rehydrated stump amidst our washing when hanging it out to dry and DH, my mum and I stood there for a solid minute wondering what the hell this weird gooey thing was. It was my mum who finally figured it out. Had to rewash the whole load as it had rehydrated and was quite gross.

@AugieMarch OMG!!! My worst fear! The stump grosses me out a bit as it is! So to find a rehydrates version in the washing machine 🙈🙈🙈🙈

The midwife had us dress her when she was a few hours old.

The cord dropped off after 5 days it was mostly dried out by 7 days and properly dried out by 14 days.

We were lucky ours dropped off mid nappy change.