Nappy change: before or after?

[S082018]

My little one is 10 days old today so I'm still trying to get to grips with this whole new mum thing!

I'm really undecided about the "right" way round to change his nappy - before or after the feed?

If I do it before, it means I can soothe him afterwards (he hates nappy changes and screams the house down) with a change and I can then let him fall soundly asleep once fed.

If I do it after a feed, this will wake him up from his sleep and he'll be distressed and I'll have to settle him all over again.

Only problem is when doing the nappy change before, he quite often but not all of the time, does a little fart (with a poo!) soon after his feed so I'm having to change him again within a short period of time.

I know there's no right or wrong answer, but I'd be really interested to hear everyone else's thoughts?

I quite often do it in the middle of a feed that way they are settled from a feed and not starving and you can soothe them with the rest of the milk after

We used to do dds before. It started like this because she was hard to rouse to get her to feed. The nappy change would wake her wake her a bit.

As a newborn we did it after a feed and winding because mine seemed to poo within minutes!

With that said during the night with #2 I realised that they don't actually need changing at EVERY feed so learnt to check through the leg elastic - if it was clean and not too squishy we skipped the change.

Baby night gowns were amazing the early days too as changes could be done without rousing them too much as it was open at the bottom.

In the middle or after as my daughter gets upset before but can after a feed so it just depends what works for you.

My babies always did a poo after a feed. Every single time. Like 10x a day.. so it was always after for us.
Just do what works best for you.

My DS often needs changed either before and during, or during and after. He’s four weeks old now so we have a bit more of a routine going on- and he makes sure we know when he wants to be changed!

He also screamed the house down for the first two weeks every time he was changed - nappy or full change- apparently being naked makes them feel really insecure and uncomfortable when they’re first born. Now we have chatter and LOTS of wriggling instead of the screaming. He will calm down.

Before as often fall asleep uring/ager feed.

My eldest 2 I changed before a feed. My youngest was after because he would always without fail poo after a feed. There is no right or wrong way.

Honestly? Save yourself the trouble OP and only change him if he's got a dirty rather than wet nappy. Disposables hold an incredible amount of water and for us it just wasn't worth the aggro to change him if he hadn't pooped. He only went once a week so we soon realised that not changing a wet nappy at midnight was not the way to go!

Agreed with Sansarya
For DC1 I felt like I had to change nappies at night or I was a bad mum, but it was so disturbing for us all. For DC2 I was too tired to make a fuss and wouldn’t change at a wee only nappy night unless it was at capacity! Soooo much easier to settle back to sleep.

Yes, that! When they poo, especially at this age when they poo all the time.

In hospital they had us on a 4 hour routine so I did it before but when we got home and demand fed the nappies seemed to work better on a demand basis too. Once they get a bit older and the poos spread out their naps are often spread out too so I change before and after the night time sleep and then before or after a nap unless a poo has happened shortly before. Some days we'll only use 3 nappies in 24 hours.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts! I guess it's just trial and error and figuring out what works best for us. I did do two changes after feeding last night and he was considerably calmer! Then it was just a matter of soothing him back to sleep again.

Thanks again all!

I do it before at night (so can soothe back to sleep with bottle) and after in the day (to wake them up). Congratulations on your new baby!

Heya we have a 3 week old and he hated getting his nappy changed too.... discovered it was the cold changing mat and wipes. Maybe try putting a towel or blanket under them when changing and leaving wipes on the radiator worked for us.

Made the when to change question easier as he was calmer.

I used to do one boob then nappy change then the other boob; could do the same with a bottle just taking a break half way through. To do it after would wake my DD up but doing it before she was really hungry

Feed one boob, nappy change, feed other boob if needs settling. Also they feed so regularly at this stage it won't be long before you can change him again. :)

Ikea do these really good change mat covers that are soft and warmer. Or put a muslin or towel done. Poor things aren't use to all these scary feelings and cold is one of them.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I have started to change the nappy mid-feed and it is working pretty well... aside from the odd time little man decides to do another pop after the second part of the feed and I have to change him again 🤣

Poo not pop!

Mid feed but if we use warm water for the change and lie muslin cloths on the mat then she doesn't mind it anyway.