I've been intrigued with the conversation about cord care because I see so
many extremely well-preserved cord stumps at our postpartum support group.
Invariably when the mother asks me when this healthy-looking two-week-old
cord is going to fall off I find that she's been religiously following the
nurse's instructions to alcohol it with each diaper change.  So I suggest
that she stop being so conscientious and maybe the thing will rot off like
it's supposed to.

So after reading all the comments, I am going to suggest that we change our
advice on this one.  As long as I'm going to be lobbying to get rid of the
alcohol, what do you all tell your mothers about bathing baby?  My
hospital's standard advice is to do a sponge bath until the cord falls off.
 Now, personally, I bought into this one for my first two kids (I'm a slow
learner) but by the third one figured "the cord gets wet when they pee on
it anyway, so what's the big deal" and that child had tub baths from the
start.  I can't believe the major event that these sponge baths are for
parents--the nurses teach them how to do it in the baby care classes, we
have a video on giving baby a sponge bath--why not just dry off the cord
after the bath?  What do you all tell parents and is there any basis for
that sponge bath thing?

Becky Krumwiede, RN, IBCLC, Appleton, WI
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]