Why is the baby's belly button red?

Many parents find that their baby’s belly button is red when taking care of their children. They are worried about whether it will cause harm to their children’s health. Experts say that most of the redness of babies' belly buttons is caused by inflammation, and timely treatment will not cause much harm to their bodies. Let’s take a look at what’s going on with the red belly button of a baby! I hope everyone can understand this issue through the editor’s introduction.

Once the navel is moist and oozing, it indicates that the umbilical cord is inflamed. The initial symptom of neonatal omphalitis is just some exudate in the belly button, which looks wet. The skin around the navel is slightly red but not swollen, and the baby does not have symptoms such as fever or aversion to milk.

If it can be discovered in time, pay attention to keeping the navel dry, and expose the navel to a clean environment to avoid local contamination, the inflammation will not develop further.

Dip a medical cotton swab or cotton ball in one of the following: 75% alcohol, normal saline, 3% boric acid solution, 1:1000 Sanisol solution, chloramphenicol eye drops, etc., and gently wipe the navel.

If the dry and blackened umbilical cord stump has not fallen off, it can be cleaned together.

What to do if the umbilicus becomes suppurative

When the skin around the baby's belly button becomes red and swollen, and you can feel a slight heat on the skin surface when you touch it with your hand, and purulent secretions with a foul odor appear in the navel, and the baby also has symptoms of anorexia, vomiting, and fever, it means that the baby's navel may have become festering.

You should take your baby to the hospital immediately.

The bacteria that cause omphalitis are mostly Staphylococcus aureus, hemolytic Streptococcus or Escherichia coli. They are deadly bacteria to newborns and must be treated with antibiotics. At this time, local disinfection alone is far from enough. If treatment is not timely, it may cause sepsis or peritonitis, which will be very dangerous.

What to do with umbilical granuloma

If acute omphalitis is not completely cured, it may gradually develop into chronic omphalitis and umbilical granuloma. It may also be because the umbilical cord falls off too early, leaving the unhealed wound exposed to long-term local infection or foreign objects (such as talcum powder) accidentally enter the navel. Long-term chronic stimulation may cause omphalitis to remain unhealed for a long time and form umbilical granuloma.

The symptoms are a small red protruding granulation in the navel, which secretes a sticky fluid.

You should go to the hospital and ask the doctor to treat it.

Since there are no nerve endings on the belly button, the baby will not feel any pain during the entire shedding process. The care of the newborn's umbilical cord should be divided into two stages: before the umbilical cord falls off, the area needs to be kept clean and dry, and the gauze should be checked frequently for bleeding. If bleeding occurs, it needs to be re-ligated to stop the bleeding. If there is no bleeding, just wipe the base of the umbilical cord with a cotton swab dipped in 75% alcohol every day and wait for it to fall off naturally. After the umbilical cord falls off, there will often be a small amount of exudate in the umbilical fossa. At this time, you can use a cotton swab dipped in 75% alcohol to clean the umbilical fossa, and then cover it with sterilized gauze.

If parents find that their baby’s belly button is red again, they should know what to do. I hope everyone can follow the above points and restore the child’s belly button to normal as soon as possible, so that worries can be eliminated. However, if you still don’t know how to do it after reading the above article, it is recommended that you send your child to the hospital and let the doctor take care of the belly button, which will give you a better guarantee.