Nappy changes leading to bankrupcy

[BigNoseBaby]

We have a new 2 week old.

She wouldn't finish her bottle and was losing weight so we decreased the amount and increased the feed times to 8.

This worked (hurrah!) but there is another issue. Basically she just poops and pees endlessly and it's causing me intense frustration. I'm looking for help.

The pattern goes like this.

1. Check her nappy and change her
2. Feed and burp
3. Nappy check - usually a poo or at least a wee.
4. Change nappy and swaddle
5. Oh she pee'd again when we put the new nappy on.
6. Change nappy and swaddle
7. Oh she pooped again in the new nappy.
8. Change nappy and swaddle.
9. She is drifting off to sleep (little angel)

10. Oh no! Crying again, what's wrong? 11. Oh she peed again - new nappy.

Etc etc

I'm getting through between 4-5 nappies every feed! She feeds 8 times a day. This is unsustainable. I dunno what to do. I tried putting her on an absorbent matt and moving her around after every incident. It worked great but! BUT! She's not swaddled and so can't go to sleep.

I don't want to leave her in a dirty nappy (she cries anyway) but at the moment she literally seems to time her next bowel movement for the second we get a new nappy on. I'm at my wits end!

I'm confused - are you changing her every time she wees ? Well, no wonder you're bankrupting yourself. Nappies are absorbant and they're not supposed to be changed for every wee. For a poo, yes, or if they're very full of wee. That's it.

If she cries when she has a poo in that's normal. If she cries after one single wee in a clean nappy that is not normal. I would :

• make sure she doesn't have a rash (is her bum very red ?)
• Try to change the nappy brand (buying a decent brand is usually worth the cost)
• Make sure she's not crying because of something else and try to comfort her through other means rather than automatically go for a nappy change.

You don't need to change her nappy after every pee, nappies are designed to withstand a few before they need changing. Poo I'd different and you should change after each one. Have you tried cloth nappies?

I never changed nappies just for a pee. Obviously I would for a poo. But a tiny blue line is really no big deal. Nappies are designed to be absorbent, and babies are designed to pee in tiny trickles at will (I.e., in small frequent amounts, versus holding on until we have full bladders like most adults do). My midwives always set the expectation that we should be changing about 6 nappies per day. In contrast, my newborns would usually feed 15 times per day!

The blue line is a scam. Nappies hold loads.

Ah thanks for all the advice. I'll try not to change her for a small wee. She does seem to cry and fuss when she has even done a little wee though.

She does have nappy rash. We are suing barrier cream now and washing her rather than wiping her. The MW said it is getting better.

The blue line is a con huh? We'll consider me well and truly conned

I'll just add as a note she tends to do a little poo, then 10 minutes later more poo. She poos at least once after a feed. The doctor is concerned she might be lactose intolerant.

If she typically poos twice in a row maybe you can try to not change her right away but wait a couple of minutes for the next poo ?
If she is lactose intolerant that may explain the crying related to bowel movement.

The blue lines are useful to see if the baby is weeing, so I remember saying to the midwife I wasn't always sure if I could tell a wee as they are so small at that age and she pointed out the blue line!!

Yea cmpa babies poo often, thats really unfortunate and I hope you get that sorted soon. Renemver the crying might be from a sore tummy too if they have food allergies.

Couls ahead be fussing because she is being changed all the time?I mean some babies don't like being handled all the time ,undressed etc.
Put nappy rash ointment (not cream ) on and change nappy when it's full or there is poo.Her sleep must suffer with all this changing

I don't know if it's recommended now, but I put a thin layer of vaseline on the baby's bum so help prevent nappy rash. It does sound like she is having problems. What did the doctor suggest about the lactose intolerance? Have you tried changing formula brands? Some brands just don't agree with some babies, so maybe just try a few different brands and see if it helps.

As others have said you don’t need to change the nappy every time she pees! Unless he has done a poop id simply change her nappy every couple of hours. If she has nappy rash you need to use an ointment until it clears and then once it is better use a barrier cream to stop it happening again.

I have a 2m old. My babies have all pooed all day long. If it’s not urgent to get her to bed, I would wait 10 mins after a little poo then change, and when changing put a wipe on top of the dirty nappy and clean her slowly, rotate her legs around a couple of times- there’s often follow up poo and I do try to avoid two nappies per nappy change! So do all the wiping and cleaning etc and add the new nappy last thing.
with the rash, clean skin, fresh air and nappy free time is the key plus a barrier cream each change to protect the skin but if it looks angry and red and isn’t going away it might be fungal and you need daktarin cream instead.

now mine is 2m old and sleeping better (I’m not smug, my first two never slept at all), she rarely poos overnight and I change nappies as little as possible during the night- they can get quite bulging and heavy. I’d change them if they pooed though.

Another one to say you don’t need to change after ever pee.

I wouldn’t say the blue line is a con - it helps me measure how much he’s peed, and whether or not I need to change the nappy. But I don’t change whenever the line is partly blue.

And agree, poo is different. If she poos shortly after another poo, maybe wait a little while to see if she’s done. Things will settle down though - I remember DS regularly shooting out poo when we changed his nappy in the first couple of months, no matter how much we waited!

So 8-16 bowel movements a day? And sounds like quite a tearful baby?
Sounds like there is a possibility of Cows milk protein allergy. Lactose intolerance is extremely rare in babies. It is much more likely to be an allergy to the protein in cow's milk. Lactose intolerance only occurs in one of two circumstances; 1) baby has had a bad bout of sickness and diahorea and lactase enzyme has been stripped from the gut, in which case within 2-3 weeks should start tolerating lactose again. Or in rare serious conditions like galactosemia...is baby breastfeeding or formula feeding? Has Dr advised you to cut cow's milk and soya from your diet? Or prescribed a specialist formula?

Swap to Aldi nappies. Half the price of Pampers. And I thought they were better.

For the nappy rash, make up a jug of cooled chamomile tea and use that to clean her. It’s very gentle and worked brilliantly with my babies when they were suffering.

My baby did this and we eventually worked out he was lactose intolerant. We changed formula and it stopped

Omg feel your pain with the nappy changes!

We use Lidl but the premium ones, which are still cheap compared to brand ones etc. although they say “up to 12 hours of dryness” I had to laugh DS would not put up with that 😂 I don’t have the heart to keep him in a wet nappy either when he’s obviously so uncomfortable and distressed 🥺

Solidarity with the fussy nappy babies ✌🏻 xxx

Nappy free time is important for dealing with rashes

I'd say try a different nappy brand, pampers made my baby sore and the smell when wet was horrible. Everyone finds different ones work for their baby's body shape and skin though, so you might want to try a few and you'll probably find you need to swap brands again (not just go up a size) as she grows.

I'd say getting cross or crying before a poo can be quite normal at this age, feeding stimulates their bowels and gets everything moving. It may take a couple of months for her to "grow into" her guts and be more able to fart and poo without assistance, and the number of dirty nappies varies so much between babies, so don't immediately assume it's CMPA, it may just be how she is at the moment - she's still very new!

I'm thought you weren't supposed to concentrate feeds? Or has that changed since I looked at formula?

At that age, all of my babies fed and pooed constantly. I have no experience with cmpa as mine were bf but maybe talk to your health visitor as it sounds like it could be a possibility.

I changed baby before each feed and also when pooped.

I highly recommend Asda's Little Angels (https://groceries.asda.com/product/little-angels-nappies-newborn-size-0-1-2/asda-little-angels-newborn-size-0-nappies/1000195942893?&cmpid=ppcghsgooglegle----dskwid-s927000703635147988dm&skwcid=AL!11432!3!459891151407!!!g!1329222764353!&dssrl=1254319&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzMnm2Lau9wIViK3tCh3k4w-eEAQYAyABEgLEfPDBwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) 89p for a packet of 24. They were recommended to me by a few nurses in the NICU my daughter was in.

Before settling in the Asda nappies, I'd used pampers, aldi, Morrisons and Lidl brands. I honestly found the Asda for newborn the best. I use lidl premium now baby is bigger.

Thanks to everyone for all the advice

We had terrible trouble with nappy rash and eventually the Dr rang the children’s continence nurse at the hospital and she recommended an equal mix of the yellow metanium, Vaseline and orabase. You have to get orabase from a chemist then just mix it up yourself. It’s a miracle combination when nothing else was working.