Belly buttons, soft spots, and private parts: baby's precious places and how to care for them

A great deal of the apprehension that accompanies new parents' first days with their newborns pertains to the care and handling of the personal, fragile, and unfamiliar parts of their babies' bodies. Feeling timid or fearful that they may inadvertently harm their baby, or worse possibly, invade her privacy, is a normal but unnecessary accompaniment to parenthood. The new person a mother so intimately tends to, after all, is a person whose body requires love and respect and the careful ministrations of a parent who is secure in her tasks. Luckily, as delicate as babies appear, they and their special places, like their navels, fontanels, and genitalia, are actually quite sturdy. There is little wrong a loving and informed parent can do when attending to her newborn's special needs.

Belly Buttons Aren't Always Cute

Whoever coined the phrase, "as cute as a button, couldn't have been talking about the belly button of a newborn. Many new parents are surprised when the sweet little protuberance they expected to find hiding beneath baby's diaper is actually a withering stump that may linger for three weeks or longer after birth. When the stump, or umbilicus, finally drops from the skin, what's left is a pink or red raw spot that can take days or weeks to heal.

The navel marks the spot where the mother and child were previously attached via the umbilical cord. The blood vessels in the umbilical cord furnish the baby's nourishment while she is in utero. At birth, the cord is cut and usually fastened with a plastic cord clamp that is removed around 48 hours later.

At home, the navel should be kept clean, dry, and germ-free both before and after the umbilical stump comes off. Dressings or bandages aren't necessary, but diapers should be kept below the line of the navel until it has completely healed. Some doctors advise parents to wait to bathe their babies in bathtubs until after the navel has healed.

It may take longer for the navel to heal in some babies than in others. and for those babies, the navel tissue may be lumpy and granulated. That kind of reaction is normal and no cause for distress. However, there may be cause for concern if a parent notices excess redness, a bad smell, moisture or a discharge around the baby's navel, in which case a physician should be contacted right away. Extra care should be taken to keep her navel dry, and cleanse it several times a day with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball or gauze. The doctor may recommend an antiseptic powder or cauterize the dead skin, painlessly, with a chemical known as silver nitrate.

Occasionally, a baby's movements or clothing will pull at the unhealed navel and a drop or two of blood will appear. While alarming to the parents, there is still no cause for concern.

For a few babies, the healing of their navel may leave a small ring-like, skin-covered opening in their abdominal muscles against which their intestines strain whenever they cry. This is known as an umbilical hernia.

In the old days, parents often taped a coin over the hole to try to constrain the bulging. Parents now know not to worry if they or their physician find an umbilical hernia on their child. There is no reason to bind the hernia or to try to keep the baby from crying. If the bulge is still there at age 6 or 8, doctors often suggest surgical repair. But in most cases, the hernia heals on its own, sometimes in weeks or months, sometimes in a few years.

Soft Spots Not as Delicate as They Look

That bulging, down-covered area crowning every newborn's head has been cause for more consternation than the national debt. Parents' fears about their babies' vulnerabilities often converge on their babies' soft spots. causing the protective parent to guard the area with body and soul.

A soft spot, or fontanel, is the pliant and somewhat mushy area on the top ofa newborn's head where the four bones that will make up her uppermost skull have not quite grown together. Newborns have two fontanels; a larger one in the front on the skull, the anterior fontanel, and the smaller posterior fontanel. Fontanels come in all sizes from small to large and all are as normal as the nose on baby's face. Some soft spots close over in as few as nine months, and others remain soft for two years or more.

The surprise for most parents is that they need to be no more protective of baby's soft spot than they are of any other part of her body. The membrane that covers her fontanel is as sturdy as sailcloth.

Parents shouldn't worry if it bulges when she cries or pulses when she sucks: it's supposed to. Baby's head should be washed with a soft cloth and the same care as on her face or tummy.

Private Parts - There's No Need to Blush!

For many new parents, the care and handling of their infant's genitalia are cause for awkward anxiety. If the baby's sex happens to be opposite of their own, some feel they are venturing into new arid unfamiliar territory. Some very typical occurrences may cause needless alarm.

For example, baby girls may have a slightly bloody or mucous-like vaginal discharge soon after birth. The discharge is usually due to her mother's fluctuating hormones prior to delivery. Those same changing hormones can cause the breasts of both boy and girl babies to swell after birth. Again, there is no need for treatment or concern. The discharge and the swelling will go away on their own.