Apparently Keeping Your Baby’s Belly Button Stump Is A Thing

hilary duff baby lucaHilary Duff gave birth last month to baby boy Luca Cruz and she’s been tweeting up a storm/doing the media circuit ever since. Her latest revelation? She’s keeping her baby’s umbilical cord stump. Yup, she’s sealed it up in a Ziploc for safekeeping. As Duff tells People.com:

”You know what was a big milestone? The belly button falling off. That was a huge one. And then I wanted to keep it but my husband was like, ”˜No, that’s gross, you can’t keep it!’ I’m like, ”˜I’m totally keeping it,’ and I secretly kept it… But now it’s not a secret anymore. It’s in a Ziploc bag in the back of my makeup drawer. Luca’s going to think I’m a freak!”

The news comes just weeks after a video of Alicia Silverstone baby bird-feeding her child went viral, followed by January Jones‘ grand proclamation that she ingests her own placenta. These are revelations that make some people gag and others breath a sigh of relief that they’re not the only ones. In Duff’s case, it turns out she’s not alone in preserving her precious one’s umbilical cord stump (we’re talking about that crusty piece of “skin,” around the size of a dime, that looks a bit like bloodied, dried up boogers).

Many people will remember the scene in Sex and the City when Miranda freaks out after little Brady‘s stump comes off and the cat begins to play with it. “It’s gross, Steve, it’s gross!” she says mid-breakdown. That scene had me howling, and I can remember when my eldest one’s stump came off and I was half fascinated, half grossed out (in the end, I threw it in the diaper genie along with his dirty diaper; I think I may have shown it to my husband first).

Anyway, Duff can do what she pleases with her baby’s belly button remnants I’m not judging but what blows my mind is that apparently preserving this crusty matter is a thing. It really is! Commenters have weighed in with tales of their own parents saving theirs some of them 24 years ago! and how they themselves have kept their own child’s stump and included it in the family scrapbook. Who knew?!

So tell me, readers, what do you think? Beautiful or gross? Have you kept your baby’s umbilical cord stump? Or does the mere thought of it make you gag?

(Photo: twitter.com)

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