Two comments regarding recent threads. Antibiotics and hospital deliveries. No an IV does not mean the mom got antibiotics. Most of the hospitals that I'm involved with her in Cleveland are fairly conservative with antibiotics pre-delivery except with mom's positive for group B strep and most of them get two doses of ampicillin during labor. When I was a resident (early 80's), if antibiotics were given during labor the baby had a septic workup and 48 hours of antibiotics (blood cultures, urine cultures, and a spinal tap); but luckily that practice is no longer standard. Cord Care: the main hospital that I deal with officially suggests air dry only- which is what I did with my two girls (cord off in 4-6 days), but old habits die hard and I think the nurses tell them to use lots of alchohol on the cord. Most of the parents that I see are so squeamish about handling the cord that if they use ETOH it mostly just dries out the skin. What I tell my parents is to use ETOH on the bae of the cord if it looks moist or if it smells, and then I show them where to put it. Mary Murphy MD pediatrics