How to Clean Your Belly Button

Gather your supplies. Of course, you'll need a few cotton swabs. But other than that, there's no go-to set of ingredients that people use to clean their belly button . Rather, they use a whole host of items. Experiment for yourself what works best on your body. You can use:

• Water
• Baby oil
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Rubbing alcohol
• Another kind of astringent, like witch hazel

Dip one head of the cotton swab into whatever cleaning solution you want to use and start poking around in your belly button. Gently work your way around the belly button, being careful not to rub inside the navel too hard.

Discard old swabs and repeat the process if your navel is still dirty. You should only need one or two takes and you're good to go. When you're done, take a clean swab and gently clean out any remaining cleaning solution still present in the navel. Make sure to get as much water, baby oil, hydrogen peroxide, or rubbing alcohol from your belly button as possible.

• If your belly button is dry, use some Neosporin and you work your way around your navel. Use a slow, circular pattern and get right in the middle before removing the cream entirely with a swab.
• If caring for a piercing, make sure to soak your belly button in salt water. It's a bad idea to take your piercing, if you have one, out every once in a while, because that is when most bacteria and other infection-causing things get in. Also, it can take as little as ten or fifteen minutes for a piercing to start closing up! Even if it isn't completely closed, it may be too painful for you to re-insert it. Do not remove a new piercing until you are sure it is fully healed, and there is no blood or pus coming from it, or crust on the jewelry. If your belly button is pierced, move it as high up as possible, soak it, then as far down as possible. Make sure you de-crust it, using a clean paper towel soaked in the saline solution, because it can cause pain if you try to slide it when there is crust present. Make sure you use SEA salt. Iodized (table) salt will do nothing for preventing infections! If you have an infected piercing, do not take out the jewelry. This can cause it to close with the infection inside, and it is not pretty. See a doctor.
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