Baby Umbilical Cord Care: 3 Ways to Treat an Infection
Baby umbilical cord care matters when infection signs appear. Learn three steps: wash your hands, keep the cord dry and change the gauze often.
Signs of an umbilical cord infection are a fairly common problem, and poor hygiene in baby umbilical cord care is one of the causes. An infection can cause serious symptoms in a baby. So what can a mother do if her baby's umbilical cord is already infected? Here is how to deal with it.
How to Treat a Baby's Umbilical Cord Infection
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Always Wash Your Hands Before Cleaning the Baby's Navel Area
Hands touch many objects throughout the day, so it is no surprise that they can be a source of disease. For the same reason, hands that are not clean can make an infection of the baby's umbilical cord worse. So if you want to change the gauze or clean the area, you must wash your hands first.
Handwashing is the first step. Mothers should wash their hands from the very beginning, not only after signs of infection appear, even when the baby's umbilical cord is perfectly fine. Infection can appear when bacteria attack, and the mother's hands can be one of the causes.
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Keep the Umbilical Cord Dry
Keeping the cord area dry is the next step in baby umbilical cord care. A dry area prevents bacteria from multiplying, because bacteria love moist places. A damp navel area can also cause an unpleasant smell, which may be an early sign of infection.
Where does the smell come from? It comes from bacteria that are multiplying. The smell can even come with a sticky feeling on the baby's skin around the area. Dampness combined with sweat makes the spot ideal for infection-causing bacteria to grow, and the infection gets worse.
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Change the Baby's Umbilical Cord Gauze Regularly
If the baby's umbilical cord is already infected, the mother should change the gauze covering it as often as possible. Skipping this makes the infection worse. If the condition worsens, it can lead to other illnesses that threaten the little one's health.
Gauze that gets soaked with sweat is one reason an infection gets worse. A baby's sweat cannot be avoided, so what matters is keeping the gauze and the baby's clothes clean. Before you change the gauze, make sure the baby's skin is dry, as part of caring for the umbilical cord.
Those are 3 tips for caring for a baby's umbilical cord that has become infected. If it does not get better, you can consult a doctor. For more tips, you can check the articles at Mitu Baby Care, which offers a range of baby care guides that can help you.
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