Parents of newborns have been trying to stump me with their questions about how best to care for their baby’s belly button or umbilical cord stump.

Let me try to clamp off anyone’s concern and provide some information on this topic.

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Belly Button 101 tips

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­- The quickest way to have the cord stump fall off leaving a nice new belly button is to have it dry out. That happens by exposing it to air as much as possible.

– Swabbing the cord stump with alcohol may actually irritate the skin and slow down healing and drying.

– The best way to speed up the drying process is to sponge bathe your baby rather than submerge the baby in a tub of water. Then, dry the cord stump with a clean absorbent cloth or fan it with a piece of paper.

– Keep the diaper folded below the cord stump to keep urine from soaking into the area.

– When the stump looks ready to falls off, you should let it do it on its own and not pull it off. Once it comes off, you can then bathe your baby in a baby tub or sink.

– It may take a few weeks for the cord stump to fall off and when it does there may be a few drops of blood, which is normal. If the cord does actively bleed, then further medical attention is needed.

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Pay attention to your baby’s umbilical cord area

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There could be a reason for concern:

– If the umbilical cord stump starts to turn red at the base

– If your baby cries when you touch the cord area or skin next to it

– If there is a foul-smelling yellowish discharge from the cord stump.

These could be signs of infection and medical attention is warranted since infection of the cord stump, or what we call omphalitis, is a medical emergency.

If the cord has not fallen off in 4-6 weeks, please let your baby’s health care professional know.

In this instance, they may use a chemical called silver nitrate to speed the drying up process along and also make sure there is no problem with your baby’s immune system that could prevent the cord from drying up.

Hopefully, tips like these will put you in the inny crowd so you are not left outie in the cold — or cord — when it comes to knowing what to do to help speed up the drying and falling off of your baby’s umbilical cord stump.

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Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.