I have lots of experience (observation and anecdotal) with umbilical cords.
Mayo has recently started advising parents to ignore the cord, wash with
water if you think it needs it and to avoid alcohol.  The babies I see from
that population usually lose their cord stumps within the first week.  The
local hospital is still using the slather with alcohol at every diaper
change, some of those cords last for six weeks, but most last at least two
weeks.  The theory here being that alcohol is a preservative.
One of the local doctors has started advising the use of water on the cord
and the nurses are coming back into the room when he leaves and advising
alcohol use.
What we learned in nursing school dies hard.  I had two kids born in the
slather with alcohol era and saved one of the cords for years in a pill
bottle filled with alcohol, not sure what we planned to do with this.  My
son was fascinated in his early teen years with it and lost it.  But my
jewelry box is still full of tiny baby teeth.
So I don't see the breastmilk issue in play at all here.


Pat Thomas PHN IBCLC
Winona County Community Health
Winona, MN

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