Baby Belly Button Red

by Jessica
(Amarillo tx)

My sister's son is fixing to be 2 mths and his belly button is really red and looks raw. i was wondering if anyone has had this happen to their baby also?

The docter told her to wipe it with a little bit of alchol but the baby screams when she does it.

Baby Help Line:

Possible Umbilical Granuloma

When a baby's belly button is red and sore, it can be an umbilical granuloma, which in plain English means that instead of healing completely when the umbilical cord stump fell off, some tissue remained. It happens in around 1 of 500 newborn babies.

The most common treatment for an umbilical granuloma is silver nitrate, which is applied to help the wound dry up. If it doesn't work, or the umbilical granuloma is too serious, the doctor may suggest surgery instead. But most of the times, the silver nitrate will do the job.

Since the alcohol is painful for your baby, call his doctor back and tell him about it, and discuss silver nitrate instead!

Hope this helps,

Paula

Comments for
Baby Belly Button Red

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Aug 11, 2008

Belly button
by: Sarah

Hiya,
i don't know how long ago you left this message as it doesn't show but just to let you know that my son's belly button was like that and the doctor called it a granuloma. he put silver nitrate on it which help it dry up and cleared it after 3-4 treatments. It could be that so nothing to worry about. I would tell her to go back to the doctors.
Hope this helps!
Sarah

Sep 24, 2008

Leaky Button
by: Jennifer

My son is 4 months old and we are still dealing with this issue. He has been treated w/silver nitrate 4 times now, the most recent was yesterday so we're still not sure if this time worked.

Since after his cord stump fell off his belly button has oozed a clear liquid and becomes crusty every few days. It is frustrating b/c our pediatrician seems to have never dealt with this issue much before. It is a relief to see the previous person's comments about it taking 3 to 4 treatments to clear up, maybe this last time will work for my son as well=)

Aug 12, 2009

Granuloma Home Remedy
by: Amy

My baby had a granuloma and after doing some searches online, I decided to treat it at home with salt. If you search, you can find a study where they tested the salt treatment and found it highly effective with no side effects. It took 3 days, the granuloma disappeared, and my baby didn't cry once!

Nov 13, 2009

We had this happen too!
by: Melissa

My son has this too! His cord stump fell off really fast and didn't have enough time to heal so there is a bit of skin in his belly button that is missing the top layer of skin. So it leaks and bleeds. That's how my doctor explained it. It's not a granuloma because the skin isn't dead. It's just missing the top layer. We were just at the doctors today and he treated it with silver nitrate. Hopefully we won't have to go back but i think it may take a few treatments.

Mar 03, 2010

belly button didn't heal
by: Anonymous

my son is now ten months old and we have tried silver nitrate four times for his "granuloma" but its more like his umbilical cord never healed. the silver hasn't worked yet and it still bleeds when he screams or cries. after reading the previous comments i am planning to try that salt trick...i will let you all know how it goes!

Apr 21, 2011

Baby Belly Button Red
by: Deborah

My son too had the same problem the doc told me to keep rock salt for 2 mins and throw the salt 3 times a day it fell off in 2 days. it really works try it....

Nov 02, 2011

im 30 years old living with grabuloma
by: Anonymous

im 30 i went to so many doctors i went to er but finelly almost 31 years they going to do something about it really painful for me does anybody else has that around my age is there any advise that could help me

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