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How to care for your Newborn's Umbilical Cord

Your baby's umbilical cord needs requires special care until it heals. It will need to be constantly cleaned because the quicker the base dries the quicker it will fall off. You want to keep the area clean and dry. A great suggestion is to clean every time you change a diaper. To clean your baby's cord safely use a cotton swab or cotton round with warm water and clean around the base of the cord. You want to make sure that you do not cover the umbilical cord with the diaper. Many newborn diapers already have the umbilical cord cut out in that area of the diaper.

If your diaper does not have the cut out make sure to fold the diaper down before securing diaper to the baby. This will keep the diaper away from the umbilical cord area allowing it to keep dry. It will take about 7-10 days for the cord area to heal and the cord to fall off. It is very normal when the cord falls off for a few drops of blood to appear when the cord separates.

You will want to call your baby's doctor if you notice that the umbilical cord area is:

soft
has a strong odor
it is streaked with red around the navel
discharging any fluid

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