how often do nurseries change nappies??

[workinggally]

I am thinking of sending my ds to a nursery, haven't visited them yet but I am thinking about what questions I need to ask. I have heard that some have set times for changing babies. If there are 3 babies to a staff member what happens to other babies at this time?

Also I have typically changed my ds's nappy everytime it is wet at all if I have noticed it so not sure how he will cope if he is only changed at set times. Would I be able to ask he is changed more often if there are only set changing times?

Having worked in a nursery this excessive changing would not be possible at a nursery as they would have to keep checking his nappy and I think this would interrupt his day terribly if every 20-30 mins someone was having a look/ feel!! It would make him worry no doubt!

As a childminder now, I still do not think it is appropriate to change a child every time they wee - depending on their age and the amount they drink this could be an hourly thing and in my mind that is not workable. However, poo is always changed straight away to prevent rashes. Hope you manage to find the care you are looking for.

My 9 month old can spoonfeed himself if the staff load the spoon for him, so you can consider that too.

workinggally - are you already looking at any particular nurseries? You seem to have a bit of a metal picture of a stark, institutional place where babies are "warehoused" during the day while their parents are at work. Nurseries come in a wide spectrum of quality and there are some that are not so great, but then there are others that are really wonderful. If you're able to go and actually visit a few to get a real face-to-face picture of what the management and staff are like, what sort of environment they offer and what the children are up to then that might help to set your mind at rest.

Alternatively if you don't like the idea of a nursery have you considered a childminder? That's someone who looks after children from their home - they have to be Ofsted registered, they would only have one baby (under 1yo) at a time - unless they care for twins or some other unusual exception - and are limited to set numbers of each age group so no more than 3 under 5yo's including one baby. Again there is a wide range in quality and some are better than others, but you can find some who offer a very homely environment, others that are set up more like mini nurseries, some who are of a grandmotherly age and demeanor and others who might have trained as teachers and now childmind instead while they raise their own children. There are lots of possibilities out there.

Have you not considered a childminder?

10 nappies in a day is obsessive imo.

ilovedora - would you consider mentioning to your nursery about the excessive changing? All institutions should really have some form of eco-awareness and the mountain of wasted and, by the sound of it, clean nappies being thrown away is awful! Also the cost of them in the first place and the cost of extra rubbish removals, which will be being passed onto the customer.

Workinggally, I think you need to go and visit some nurseries and ask THEM, tbh.

What parents want I suppose and we dont pass on the cost to the customer. We only charge 30 pounds a day for all nappies provided, 3 home cooked meals and 10 hours care.

We try not to throw clean nappies away but we do change every couple of hours and that is a lot of nappies when there are many children. Its what parents want and they could come in and any time and we dont want them ever going home at all wet if we can help it.

10 changes a day seems a lot. Our nursery did three changes I think plus as and when needed. That was fine.

10 a day?! My youngest charge is in re-useables so needs changing more regularly otherwise they leak and I don't change her anywhere near 10 times a day!

"not as often as a parent would, obviously

they have lots of kids to look after, yours will just be one in the crowd "

What a ridiculously unhelpful comment!!

10 a day

I use reusables (which generally need changed more often) on dd and don't use anywhere near that many. Disposables don't even feel wet so I doubt your ds would even notice.

At 10 months his mealtimes should start to get a bit quicker as the teeth come in so I should think he would have plenty of time to eat.

Workinggally you sound really anxious about returning to work. A good nursery will want to hear about your routine at home and will do their utmost to make sure your baby is happy and his needs are met promptly. No one would leave their babies at a nursery if they thought the staff were likely to leave them wet and hungry.

If the nursery choice is making you this anxious is it worth looking at childminders or a nanny share instead? We use a childminder and she is lovely and has a wonderful relationship with our DD. I'm not anti-nursery at all, but one bonus of having a childminder is that you only have to trust one person to do their job, not 3 or 4. That is also a disadvantage - but where it works well it is brilliant.

My 9 month old gets his nappy changed probably 4 times a day, but he hates having it changed with a passion so it's unbelievably stressful. And the little bugger does 3 poos a day - he's not bothered how wet or dirty he is either strange child!

Every 2-3 hours ime. Which is way more often than I (the parent) would change them; I found every 4-5 hours fine. DC were in cloth and the cloth nappies often came home nearly dry, even when they were under 1yo. To save money I asked if they could be left between changes a bit longer, but nursery was adamant that they couldn't possibly leave it longer than about 2.5 hrs.

At home I change when dirty, and before naps/after naps (if long) at that age.

10 nappies a day - yes when they are 2 weeks old.

It is completely unnecessary to change nappies so regularly they don't feel the wet in disposable - maybe you should experiment with a glass of water and a nappy and that will be a far bigger problem.

Your baby will not comfortable and fed at nursery - whether they will be stimulated and taken out and about and loved, thats what I would be worried about. I think you are focusing on entirely the wrong stuff.

Crikey - not a question I thought to ask when my 2 Dc's were at nursery. They never had any problems with nappy rash to I assume they were changing nappies as necessary.

Makes me think of the time my DH had to take a day off to look after DD when she was about 9 months old - he fed her lollies and ice cream all day and hadn't even thought of changing her nappy - when I came home from work she was starving and the nappy was hanging below her knees!!

Mine gets a new nappy way more often at nursery than at home!
At home it's first thing, pre-nap, late afternoon and then bedtime. Obviously I change him as soon as he's pooped.

At nursery it'll be about 3 or 4 between 8.30am and 5pm.
I do not change him every time he's wet.
working, are you using disposables? If so, then you're totally wasting your money if you're changing every time its wet.

Right now at just turned 2 he's showing some interest in toilet training, so they take him off to the loo instead of the changing area. He's getting through the same amount of nappies though.

I am not sure why this would be a make or break issue for you. Can you explain why it's so important to you?

Nappies aren't a big worry - honest! He will be changed when he needs changing.

BLW on the other hand is something you need to talk to them about. Check if they already have any BLW'ers there. My friends DD has just started nursery and they said they were fine doing BLW but clearly they aren't really. She's only getting about 15 minutes to eat her lunch and they are feeding her stuff she couldn't eat by herself (soup/puree etc) and they know she doesn't use a spoon yet at home. They 'slip' as well saying x fed z at lunch today and she loved the soup/puree etc. Now it wouldn't worry me because I think a mix of feeding is fine and babies will let you know when they don't want something, but it's really upsetting my friend who does not want her daughter to be fed at all - just to have food provided and given time to eat it - but they really don't seem to either understand or care - she's not sure which. It's making her return to work a bit stressfull when her DD is coming home tired (she's not getting her 2 sleeps either) and HUNGRY - she's now crying when left as well :(

However, all nurseries are different and it's just a matter of finding the right one or a child minder - but then with childminders lots of them are doing school runs and a lot of parents don't want their babies doing that (I find that a bit precious too mind as if they were at home with a sibling they'd be doing them and it's only either a ride out in the car or a walk in the pram).

No matter what you choose, even a nanny, your DS will be looked after in slightly different ways - you have to get over this & accept it or returning to work will be a nightmare for you.

It might be not that they don't understand or care - just that they don't have the time to let her take an hour over lunch.

my dd sometimes takes that long as well. at my nursery the staff are willing to just let her get on with it. she sometimes is left on her own at the table, but as the table is within the room and staff ar around I 'm fine with it.
chippin I think your friends needs to talk to them sternly. this is quite sad :(

BLW can be a bit problematic in the nursery environment if it's very different from what the other babies are doing/being fed. We did BLW with DS1 and tbh it was just one of those things I had to chill out about when he went to nursery. He was about 16 months when he went, so he was feeding himself everything he could. They did spoon feed him soup though.

As for nappies, I agree that every 3h is standard unless dirty or obviously heavily wet. I only had an issue once when DS1's bottom look a bit red and it never happened again. I think they are more fastidious than me tbh.

You have to find the right nursery tbh. As with everything some are better than others. It's also a matter of opinion too. I know people who chose not to send their DC to our nursery for precisely the same reasons we love it!

Please don't take this as a criticism at all but do you think it's possible you're just trying to find reasons not to return to work? I agree with the other posters that have said 10 nappies a day is a bit and I just wonder if you're trying to justify not returning to work to yourself by building up your standards high enough that no nursery will meet them?

Again, please try not to take what I've written as a 'dig' of any sorts....just wondering if it could be a contributing factor?

You've probably had all the answers you need but I thought I'd chip in anyway!

My dd was 2 in Jan and has been in nursery since last Sept. When I collect her, I am given an A5 sheet with a column down one side which tells me what she's eaten for snack and her meal, and there is a space for the keyworker to list the activities she's been involved in during the morning and afternoon (very useful when she's chattering away telling me about it and I can't follow her conversation!). And there's a space at the bottom for nappy info - what times she was changed and whether each one was wet or dirty, and whether or not they applied cream. Looking at this, she gets changed twice between 8.00 and 1.00, on a routine level. However, if she needs more, then she gets changed more, especially if she's dirty. My dd has toddler dire-rear (no, I know that's not how it's spelt but it is so accurate!). Basically, there's nothing wrong with her apart from the fact that she never ever does a solid dirty nappy and the GP has said that because she's otherwise extremely healthy, she doesn't think it's worth putting her through tests (for things like colitis) - she thinks dd will grow out of it in a couple of years! Apparently this is quite common. However, it is likely to make toilet training hard going, and it also tends to be pretty caustic so if she is left in it for more than about 10 minutes she starts to develop terrible nappy rash. Nursery know this, and I have yet to collect her and see any evidence of nappy rash so I assume they are on to it pretty quickly if they can smell her (sometimes she tells us she needs other changing, other times she doesn't seem to realise she's dirty).

Ask your nursery, but I doubt they would leave your child dirty. They just have set times to ensure that nothing and no-one is missed. And although my dd has a key worker, she spends time with all the adults, it's just that there is one person who has overall responsibility for making sure that I have a sheet to go home with that has the right info on. She is also the person that I know my dd is more likely to go to if she's upset as the nursery wait to see who the child gravitates towards and assign that person as the keyworker. This means that is there has been a particular upheaval at home (as when my dh goes away on a business trip) I can discuss it in a bit more detail with this one person, knowing that if dd is feeling fragile this is the person she is likely to snuggle up to. But if she's not around, or dealing with another child, I can talk to anyone. It's not particularly rigid. Ask your nursery what they do and how it all works.

My DS 14 months has a new (disposable) nappy after breakfast, one before his nap and one before bed time. that's it unless he poos in between. So about 4 nappies a day. We use cheapy own brand ones. Rarely had nappy rash. 10 a day is crazy wasteful! You sound a bit anxious OP, and really the best thing for that is a very frank discussion with the prospective nursery, don't worry, they won't think badly of you, they have these conversations every day.

10 nappies a day?!?!?!! For crying out loud. What a waste of time, money and landfill space.

DDs nursery change 3-4 times a day I think. I probably change about that or maybe slightly less at home.