Does anyone know anything about a belly button not healing property?

My son is only 6 weeks old; his umbilical cord fell off when he was 9 days old, but still has drainage. The doctor put some sort of acid on it today b/c she said it isn't healing, and said that if it doesn't work by next week, he'll have to have surgery! Has anyone heard of this, and if so, what was the outcome. Was surgery always the outcome? Please let me know! Thanks!

Does anyone know anything about a belly button not healing property?
My daughter had a slow healing belly button as well. It did not have to be cauterized with silver nitrate (the "acid" your doctor used) but we were about a day away from needing to do it. Silver nitrate is a drying agent that helps speed the natural "drying" process of the cord stump healing.





In our case, it was her diapers keeping the belly button area raw and open. Make sure you aren't letting clothes or diapers rub against the cord stump area, as both can keep the area from healing entirely. If you can leave baby's belly exposed to air, that'll help speed the healing process. Many brands of diapers will rub the cord area - opt for the more expensive Huggies or Pampers Newborns that have a cord cutout area - at least until it heals.





Alternately, and common, is a condition called an umbilical hernia. These usually heal on their own if they are small, but sometimes larger ones have to be surgically repaired. This may be what your doctor was referring to for surgery. It is a minor procedure that can be performed as an outpatient, but might require a short hospital stay if they wanted to help you keep an eye on the baby.