How you long to give your baby a real bath and that umbilical stump just won't cooperate. I get questions like "Why hasn't it fallen off yet?" all the time. So often, in fact, this weekend I got an email from a mom that just said, "My baby is almost 4 weeks old and her stump from her umbilical cord has"

That was all she wrote. I guess mom hit the send button before she'd finished. I took a chance and replied with, "has not fallen off yet?" Even though the answer could have been "has a funny smell" or "has a bunch of goo around it." It seems that smell and goo happen a lot less often than the darn cord just wanting to stick around.

Sure enough, my guess was right and that's one more baby who's going to have to wait for a soak in the tub. (Boo, Hiss!)

Learn more about:

• Cord Care
• What's Normal
• What's Not