Belly Button Scab Any Ideas?

My DS constantly has a yellow crust/scab that develops over his belly button. It breaks up and rubs away or I clean it off in the bath but it comes back. I asked the nurse at his 2 month check-up about it but she didn't know what it was. She said to use methylated spirits to dry it up but my hubby is a nurse and he said not to.
I took DS to the GP last week as his belly button had started to smell and was surrounded by redness, he gave me an antibiotic cream which has taken the redness and smell away but the scab keeps coming back again and again.
Has anyone else had this problem?
Is there anything you can do to make it go away?
Thanks
Jenny
Mum to Jack 2 years and Ashley 2 months

Hi,
My daughter had a Granuloma which are some cells of her umbilical cord that were left behind. I was told to gently clean it every day and keep it dry. When it didn't disappear my paediatrician burnt it off and all is well. Be advised that this procedure stains clothes - wish I'd been told in advance!
Good luck.

My sons paediatrician gave us some alcohol swabs which dried the scab out and it fell off never to return again. I think you can get alcohol swabs at the chemist? You just dab on the scab a couple of times a day..

Hope you find something that works!

i used baby methylated spirits... it was fantastic. it kept it clean all the time and dried it out very quickly.

just for interest why did you hubby say not to??

if you are interested, i used gold cross specially methylated spirits.

Hi Jenny,

My son also had the same problem, I had heard about granulomas and was told that they do eventually dry up without treatment. Apparently the crust comes from a discharge from the umbilicus which hasn't healed properly. My GP referred us to a pediatrician who put him on a course of antibiotics which in our case cleared the problem up as he had developed a mild infection. In some cases (I assume where no infection is present) they apply copper sulfate solution to help dry it up. I would keep it as clean and dry as possible and see your GP again rather than apply anything at home.

AJ

My daughter has a small umbilical hernia (a little red cherry that pokes out of her button), she gets the yellow scab around that. My doctor advised me to just keep it clean with alcohol swabs. My local chemists had 100 pre-injection swabs for $6.95. Clean during every nappy change.

My DS had much the same thing when he was about 5 weeks old, it almost looked like a bit of the umbilical cord was still attached or something. My paediatrician actually told me to use salt, yep normal table salt, and sprinkle a little on it once a day. I thought "WHAT?" but I kid you not, within 3 days it was gone and never came back! I thought it would sting him, but it never seemed to bother him at all when I sprinkled it on. Not sure if what your DS has is the same thing, but might be worth a try. Good luck!

I used either breastmilk, or medihoney (available in a health shop) and both of those things worked well.

All the best smile

Update....
Ashley is now nine months old and I think his belly button has finally healed (I hope).
He has been to the GP so many times and we have tried so many different treatments I was losing hope of fixing the problem. Some would work while he was taking them like antibiotics but as soon as he stopped the scabs would return. His belly button looked completely normal except for the scab that was there every morning and sometimes the skin would become red so I would take him back to the doctor when that happened.
The third Doctor I saw prescribed a cream that is for ears and said if that didn't work he would use silver nitrate to remove the top layer of his skin.
The cream worked and so far the scabs haven't returned.
I just can't believe that it took 8 months and so many hassles.
Jenny

Hey Jenny,
What was the name of that cream if I may ask??
gasp)

Hi,
The cream is Otocomb Otic Ear Ointment
His belly button still looks ok. If it looks a bit pink after his bath I put some on but there have been no more scabs.