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We treat the wound with a salve we make ourselves:
Ingredients:
1. Medical grade manuka honey from New Zealand (one nurse got really weird and said we should use American made honey one time)
2. Pure tea tree oil
3. Potassium alum, food grade
We mix 1/8ml tea tree oil with a squirt of the honey, get that well-incorporated, then add a GG energy scoop’s worth of alum to the mixture, which results in a pretty thick and granulated paste once combined. The alum treats granulated tissue, a common g-button symptom, and the tea tree & honey have a range of antimicrobial & antifungal properties. Pure tea tree oil is much too strong, but the honey dilutes it, and the alum is the core ingredient of the mixture.

Sometimes we add a bit of Cerave baby cream around the site after applying the alum mixture. The goop can be a bit sticky & messy but we just change her blankey regularly, and it washes off her skin and the button with a baby wipe or in the bath with some warm water.

We try to really get the salve under and around the button itself if possible, unless the granulated tissue is really popping out.

List of Affiliate Links for Salve Ingredients

Granulated Tissue

So this is a common issue, and the above salve is a great treatment. We apply it once, twice, or none per day, but we do apply it most days. Sometimes just before bathtime, sometimes just after, it really depends on how the tissue is presenting.

It tends to grow out and scab up. It can turn into quite a large chunky hunk of mess, but this typically means the alum is working. Eventually, it just sort of cracks off, keep applying the salve until this happens, and then still after it comes off, but you can probably use less when there is much less visible granulated tissue.

Update: we are consistently applying it about an hour before bathtime only, and it is working very effectively to eliminate and mostly prevent granulated tissue from developing.

Infection

Keep an eye on infection, the site will be red a lot, but it sort of pulses a bit, the redness dies down to just around the button area, and then grows a little bigger, this is totally normal.

What you should be worried about is a red line forming from the button towards your child’s heart. A very tiny one may form on the regular, this is okay if it doesn’t progress much before receding, but any significant red line on the baby’s skin from the button towards the heart signifies a pretty serious infection potential, and you should seek medical assistance.

We regularly jiggle the button, spin it around, shake it, gently flick it, and stuff like that to see if it causes her any pain or discomfort, and it never does. Irritation on the wound-site is another sign of infection.