Message text written by "Graham Barden" >I find that delayed separation of the cord is most often associated with the freq use of alcohol on the cord to "clean" it. I recommend that parents use alcohol more in the humid summer to keep it from smelling terrible - but in the dry winter, not at all or just once daily.< Wish I could remember where I saw it, but there was a study about two years ago that directly compared the time it took for the umbilicus to fall of when alcohol was used or when nothing was applied. The cords actually fell off faster when nothing was applied. Infection rates were similar. The study was limited by its small size (I recall it looked at about 50 kids total). Nonetheless, it's started me recommending to parents that they apply nothing. The hospital already applies an anti-infective at birth. Leave the rest to nature. Christine B. Myers, M.D. Internal Medicine & Pediatrics