Nappy

[Husbandno4]

My wife and I are disagreeing about when is appropriate to change our new baby’s nappy.
Is it normal to change it every time they have a wee?
Or AIBU for us to change it only when they have a poo. (Currently like every 3 hours, sometimes more frequently than that)
I don’t like the idea of the kid sitting in its own wee? But there is quite absorbent stuff in there so I don’t imagine it’s all that bad.

I mean, why don't you wet yourself @Husbandno4 and see how long you like sitting in it.

Change your baby everytime they've soiled their nappy, it's not that difficult.

Is this a real post?

I changed my sons first thing In the morning and just before bed. It worked fine for us and saved loads of money

Wow wow hold on. People are actually suggesting to change a nappy on a newborn with every pee? That is ridiculous. You’d get through 20 nappies a day and you’d never sleep!!! I always change immediately after a poo, but I would never wake my sleeping baby to change him (and he typically pees alongside a feed and promptly falls asleep). As it is, we get through ~8 nappies per day and they feel like plenty. My midwives specifically told me it’s fine not to change the baby overnight as long as there are no leaks and no poop. I have three DC and they’ve always been totally fine with that, and have never had nappy rashes except for when teething.

We changed with every wee at first - went through about 15 nappies a day!

Now at 10 months we do every 3ish hours in the day (and 10 ish overnight).

I don't think it's an unusual thing for new parents to be confused about!

No, you don't need to change them after every wee.

How would you even know?! The whole point of a nappy is it absorbs it. Are you constantly putting your finger in to see if it's wet?!

You change immediately after a poo. And if no poo when the nappy looks/feels like it needs changing (it will look a bit bigger/heavier).

@UpToMyElbowsInDiapers

Wow wow hold on. People are actually suggesting to change a nappy on a newborn with every pee? That is ridiculous. You’d get through 20 nappies a day and you’d never sleep!!! I always change immediately after a poo, but I would never wake my sleeping baby to change him (and he typically pees alongside a feed and promptly falls asleep). As it is, we get through ~8 nappies per day and they feel like plenty. My midwives specifically told me it’s fine not to change the baby overnight as long as there are no leaks and no poop. I have three DC and they’ve always been totally fine with that, and have never had nappy rashes except for when teething.

Thanks, this is helpful.

@NuffSaidSam

No, you don't need to change them after every wee.

How would you even know?! The whole point of a nappy is it absorbs it. Are you constantly putting your finger in to see if it's wet?!

You change immediately after a poo. And if no poo when the nappy looks/feels like it needs changing (it will look a bit bigger/heavier).

There’s a yellow strip in the front that turns blue if it comes into contact with a chemical in the wee.

Good lord!

Ok

It's not JUST the wetness. It's the bacteria and fungi (yes fungi!) that then thrives in wet, warm areas leading to nappy rash. Especially when they're awake and mobile which even newborns are, kicking legs etc that means friction too

Your aim is to prevent rather than have to treat nappy rash because by the time they have that (or a worse infection!) they are in constant burning pain.

It can take weeks to treat fully.

3 hours is too long during the day.

I mean, why don't you wet yourself @Husbandno4 and see how long you like sitting in it

And see how the nappy rash feels! Especially if where you are right now is experiencing hot weather!

Another reason to change regularly is so that you can note approximately if the nappies are wet enough and colour of fresh urine because again in this hot weather babies can be at risk of dehydration and again it's better to prevent based on early indicators than wait until there are serious symptoms

I would say no longer than 2 hours in the day as a rough guideline but also heed baby's cues, they'll fuss if they're uncomfortable and you definitely shouldn't delay if that's the case.

If you are going to change a nappy after every Wee, then you may as well wrap pound notes around the baby's bottom.

Do you realise how many Wee's a baby does?

I've raised 5 children and my 13 year old is still in nappies and even I don't change her nappy after every wee. She doesn't sit in full nappies , you know by looking when it needs changing.

Nappies are made to hold a few Wee's, jesus the nappy makers will love you changing nappies every hour or less.

Christ, we just used the indicator on the newborn nappy to gauge how wet he was.
If I changed him after every wee I’d have never have slept…

I used to change immediately after a poo. Every 2-3 hours during the day if no poo. Only change at night if poo.

Thanks, this is also helpful
our baby hadn’t really cried a great deal (so far, I’m sure it’s coming) every time they do we check and change their nappy. But if they arnt crying and are pretty chilled, you suggest we should be changing then every 2 hours rather than every 3 as this will make a significant difference to them developing nappy rash.
Can I ask, why is that different in the night? Cause our one doesn’t sleep through the night? In which case should we be changing them every 2 hours at night too? In fact ours seems to be more awake at night and more chilled in the day.

@HeReWeGoAgAiN1112

I changed my sons first thing In the morning and just before bed. It worked fine for us and saved loads of money

Surely not??

Re the nappy rash issue. You will learn soon how baby’s skin goes. I changed dd’s nappy halfway through each feed because that’s when she did her poo. I used a silicon cream as a barrier and only had a bit of redness a couple of times. Others in my mother’s group were dealing with terrible dermatitis.

Also, skin problems may show if you eat something that baby doesn’t agree with.

I always changed DSs before every bottle which was usually 3 hourly, immediately after a poo and use the nappy cream as well.
They only seem to get nappy rash when they have diarrhoea.

I had no idea people didn't change their babies after every wee. That's why there's a colour changing line on the outside of the nappy. Size 1/2/3 nappies are relatively cheap so surely not a massive hardship to make sure your kid isn't sitting festering in its own piss? (clearly this doesn't apply to people who are destitute, but I'm sure the majority of people on here are not!)

Is this a joke post ??
Just when you think you have heard everything 🙄

Modern nappies are designed to keep wetness away from your baby's skin. (This is why average age of potty training has gone up.)

Smaller sized nappies like a PP said have a colour indicator and when that changes colour change the nappy. However be aware if the nappy is nearly full it is better to change the nappy then suffer leakage.

If your child poos change their nappy immediately.

Some babies/toddlers are more prone to nappy rash than others. My DD didn't start getting nappy rash until she was teething at about 11 months and eating more of a variety of food.

Unless obviously very wet we changed just before every feed but every poop straight away. We found the blue indicator would change as soon as we put a new nappy on where DS would 'dribble', we'd have been changing constantly for every bit of wee

If you really hate the idea of them sitting in wee have a look at Elimination Communication, it's possible to learn when they need a wee and offer somewhere to pee other than the nappy. No you don't have to do it full time.

A disposable nappy will feel very dry to the touch btw, cloth nappies are more variable.

In fact ours seems to be more awake at night and more chilled in the day.

What time of day were they born? Babies born during daytime hours, who then sleep for a good while as being born is pretty exhausting! Then tend towards having an upside down sleep cycle, when they're a little older you can rectify this gently

My own dd was born just after 1 pm and we had this to deal with too - not fun! Thankfully we had a great midwife who was able to advise us on how to gently adjust things.

In terms of nappies, less urine tends to be produced/released at night, generally speaking. Plus it's a case of balancing needs, sleep being vitally important

Also, skin problems may show if you eat something that baby doesn’t agree with.

Omg yes I had that too! Meant I couldn't eat flipping ketchup the whole time I was bf cos dd would come out in hives. Took me a little while to figure out exactly what the trigger was too.

I don't really wan't to answer this, as I would expect parents to have some natural instincts about nappy changing.

I am not the best person to ask though, as my two children were born in the 1970's era,and we mostly used terry towelling nappies, which I seemed to be changing a lot, as I liked hang them all out in a row, on the washing line after washing them. all white, and blowing in the wind !!

Gosh I can't remember now. After every feed and poo and when he woke up springs to mind. About ten nappies a day for the first while? But they pee loads when they're tiny, the cynical old part of me wonders if the helpful blue strip has been put there to encourage more frequent than necessary changing.

You do realize that nappies absorb wee and the baby does not feel wet?
For a newborn it would still be ~8-10 nappies in 24 hours as they can poo so often. But to change after every wee is purely bonkers.