Caring for your baby’s belly button require some precautions to be observed. Read on to know tips on how to care for the belly button of your infant.
Caring for Baby's Belly Button
Babies are just the perfect addition to your happy family. However, taking care of your little bundle of joy needs a whole lot of effort and a great level of awareness. New parents are often clueless and almost easily intimidated on how to attend to the personal, delicate, and little known body parts of their newborn. With little idea and loads of apprehensions, anxious parents often go to great lengths to make sure that their little ones get a hygienic upbringing. However, basic hygienic care may not be sufficient for your baby. What you really need to understand is that apart from the basic precautions of sterilizing your baby’s bottle and using anti-bacterial soaps and cleaners, there are some other important things that you need to take care of. Baby’s belly-button or navel care is one important aspect of your child care that should not be neglected. The navel is a delicate part of your child’s body and after birth; care should be taken to ensure that the umbilical stump dries and falls off naturally. Baby belly buttons are susceptible to infections and other complications like blood emission, discharge of white smelly fluid, among other things. Read on to know how to care for your baby’s belly button.
Caring Tips for Baby Belly Button
You baby’s belly button is something very special; it’s that one thing that connects the baby to you and serves as a source of nourishment, while the baby is still inside you. However once the cord is snipped after the baby’s birth, it is important to take care of the leftover part of the cord to protect it from infection and help it dry well.
- It is sensible to allow your baby’s belly button heal naturally by always keeping it dry and clean as possible.
- Always wash your hands before attending to your baby’s cord. Unwashed hands can be potential carriers of harmful germs.
- Until the stump dries and falls off, it is advisable to keep the baby’s diaper off her belly button and avoid anything from rubbing against it. Each time you put on a new diaper, fold the nappy at the top to ensure that there are no skin abrasions. Also, roll up the dress to allow free circulation of air.
- It is essential to keep the cord dry until it has fallen off. You can avoid giving a full bath to your baby or be careful not to drench the cord while bathing before the stump has fallen off and the area is healed.
- It is advisable to clean your baby’s belly button area, at least once a day. To clean the cord gently use a cotton tip applicator dipped in cooled, boiled water and softly pat the area. This will help the cord to dry off fast and reduce any risk of infection. Repeat the process for a week after the stump has fallen off.
- Do not forget to dry the area with a cotton swab after cleaning it. Also avoid using cotton balls as fibers from it can get stuck to the cord and cause complications.
- Never use lotion, oil or powders on or around your baby’s cord.
- After 1-3 weeks, the cord will dry and fall off naturally. However, if there is recurrent bleeding or infection, or abnormality of any kind, please consult your pediatrician.
- When falling off, it is sometimes normal for the stump to bleed and this should not make the parents anxious. It might take 5 to 10 days for the area to heal after the stump has fallen off. No special care is needed after this.
Seek Help If:
- The belly button gives off any odorous fluid.
- The belly button releases any bad odor.
- The skin around the belly button area is inflamed.
- If your baby has got fever.
