How to Take Care of Your Baby's Umbilical Cord Stump using Goldenseal

Would you like your baby's cord stump to dry up, but not get infected? A little known fact is that the umbilical stump should not be cleaned with alcohol or soap and water. Without too much hard work, I will teach you to care for the umbilical cord so that it will probably be gone after 1 week and completely healed after 2 weeks

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Goldenseal Powder

1. Wash your hands.

2. Apply Goldenseal Root powder to the umbilicus at every diaper change. Blot some on all sides and try to get it under the place where the stump folds down to one side -without pulling on the stump. If you have a boy, put a cloth bunched up under the umbilicus while changing his diaper to catch any urine he may decide to set free.

3. change diapers frequently to avoid filling of his diapers -especially in the first few weeks while his cord stump must fall off and heal. The idea is to avoid infection.

4. keep the baby's diaper low enough that it does not touch the umbilical cord. Keep his shirts from constricting the area. Never pull on the umbilical cord. Avoid using pins for his diapers so they will not introduce infection. Do not bathe the baby or wet the umbilical stump.

5. Do not wash with soap or water or put alcohol on the umbilicus. Alcohol kills his natural skin flora which is his skins only defense from infection. The Goldenseal powder acts as a natural antibiotic. As a midwife and a mother I have used this on my child and my patients children and never had to see an infection of the umbilicus.

6. Using this method, the cord stump usually falls off spontaneously after a week. But NEVER put it off. Continue applying the Goldenseal root powder until the umbilicus is completely healed -ie. until it looks like your belly button.

7. Breastfeed your baby. Breastfed babies rarely -if ever contract any sort of infections. It is the best thing you can do to keep you and your baby happy and healthy.

[tundranut]

on 4/14/2009 My daughter, a pregnant physician with a 17 month old son and a baby due in about a month, probably never heard of this. She will be delighted to receive this article about healing your baby's umbelicus using goldenseal powder. And, oddly enough, their last name is Stump. Sigh. 5*

[jcrush]

on 4/13/2009 I love ideas like these. I only wish I knew about this when we had our baby 18mo ago. We had a hard time with this umbilicus not healing totally. Well, now we know how to take care of you baby's umbilical cord./*****

[jenng]

on 4/3/2009 Great tips my son has a baby on the way we will try 5*

[carby]

on 4/2/2009 very unusual article. 5*