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