Umbilical cord care

palesarah · Nov 4, 2003

the hospital I did my OB rotation at in school didn't use alcohol on the cords, they said the research didn't support it... my facility does still do alcohol twice a day to the cord. Not sure how/why they came to that teaching.

I'm curious to see what others have to say on this-

sbic56, BSN, RN · Nov 4, 2003

Where I work we are still teaching alcohol for cord care, but I have heard it makes no difference if allowed to merely air dry. I did a google and found that many references still advised use of alcohol, but there was some information as below indicating it was not necessary.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9836156&dopt=Abstract

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Nov 4, 2003

Nope. Unless the kiddo has umbilical lines we put nada on there. You are killing off the natural flora that would help it to dry up and fall off.

AlaskaKat · Nov 4, 2003

Thanks for the quick replies! Any one else have research for me? I'm going to need to convince the docs...

Kiekuh · Nov 4, 2003

We no longer use alcohol on the cord-just clean around the cord and dry after cleaning. All these years, we have been using the alcohol etc.. and telling these parents not to submerse their infant until the cord stump drys and detaches-Now we have just started to implement full baths, and telling the parents it is ok to soak the babies in tubs, just to make sure to dry around the cord when done.. I dont know, but I feel like an old dog-finding hard to do the new trick!

SmilingBluEyes · Nov 4, 2003

where i worked before, there were still ped's requiring triple dye to all cords due to an oomphalitis study they had read...plus there was one really bad case in the ER where the baby was critically ill and became septic!!!!!!!!!!!

we are still required to use alcohol on all cords where i work now....and teach this care to all parents.

L&D_RN_OH · Nov 4, 2003

We are still using alcohol, but I know another facility in town does not. They recommend cleaning with water and drying thoroughly. Personally, I put nothing on my daughter's cord and it fell off quicker than the boys's cords, which I used alcohol on.

RN,@yourCervix · Nov 4, 2003

For those who don't use alcohol on the cords....then do you just leave the cord clamp on at discharge? Seems like the cord is still too moist at 24hrs of age (most are being discharged at this age) to take the clamp off.......just wondering...

panda_181 · Nov 4, 2003

That's right...alcohol was thrown out the window here because they found it took less time for the cords to fall off if they used plain water. And we don't tell them to sponge bath anymore either...just dunk 'em right in!

Amanda :)

kastas, BSN, RN · Nov 4, 2003

As far as discharge goes we haven't seen any problem w/ removing the clamp at that time. We don't triple dye or alcohol our cords. I haven't yet seen any that we couldn't remove.

Mimi2RN, ASN, RN · Nov 4, 2003

Our order is to use alcohol q 8 prn. As I don't consider it necessary, I rarely use it. Maybe I should try to get that order changed, too.