In US parents do usually put alcohol on the cord site.  It is a ritual.
Actually makes the cord come off a little later (recent article from
JOGNN).  There is a "normal" smell to a properly drying cord, but a nasty
"sick" smell to an infected cord site.  BTW I can also sniff Strep
infections fairly accurately - which goes along with someone's dog who
could smell ear infections.  We'd make a great team  :-)  Sincerely, Pat in
SNJ