How do you tell if baby has soiled nappy?

[Duv]

I'm continually worrying that we don't change LOs nappy enough compared to the standard advice.

My LO is 8 weeks old and has been a pretty good sleeper from maybe 3 weeks - able to sleep long stretches (4-7hrs) without feeds. Therefore from early days we have been extra reluctant to wake her for night nappy changes unless necessary as it really disrupts otherwise good sleep.

I've found a lot of advice online that says it's fine to go longer between changes as long as you change after every poo - but how oh how are you supposed to know if they've done a poo? Particularly when she was a newborn I found this advice perplexing as she gave no indication. Now she older I will often hear rumbling or gassy sounds suggesting a poo - but about 40% of the time these are just farts. I can't smell it either - she is EBF and I don't find her poos smell - just her wees really.

Also does it matter that much anyway if she isn't getting leaks or a rash?

For context I use cloth nappies if that impacts anything.

Sniff test?

Absolutely sniff test

The smell.

But newborn poo doesn't really smell??!

The soul-crushingly horrible smell?

I can smell my 3mo poo. It has a sort of sweetish smell, unmistakable!!

It doesn't smell horrible but it isn't completely odourless.

(Mine is BF too)

Or you can peek in the side of the nappy

Slip one leg out of babygro and peep in the side.

I found Ds very rarely pooped when sleeping. So generally would only poop on waking ie you change soon after.

We used cloth nappies and I generally just changed every 3 hrs daytime if he hadn’t pooped. Sometimes that would mean 1 hr after if he pooped, And if I was going out 2+ hours after changing I would just change anyway also so he was clean leaving ( and if I was only out 2-3hrs didn’t need to change again unless he pooped).

Sniff their derrière

i never changed my breastfed cloth nappy baby in the night,
I just assumed that if it wasn’t waking her up then it didn’t need dealt with
never had any issuess either (although she wasn’t a night time pooper so it was usually just wet)

Were you always able to, I'm wondering if her poos are just not big enough to smell?

Potentially also being in a cloth nappy masks the smell more (they are much much bulkier than disposables) although I wouldn't say her poo smells that strongly when I have her nappy open. It's the wee smell that I really notice because that smells like adult wee.

Breastfed baby poo does smell. It's a sweetish smell, not nearly as rank as the smell after they start solids. But I could always smell it.

I have a 10 week old and I just make sure I change her nappy every couple of hours during the day, and don't worry about it if she's sleeping at night - I just change her when she wakes up now she's sleeping 6ish hours in one go. She hasn't been sore yet, and more recently she's been letting me know if she's uncomfortable (it didn't seem to bother her up until this week!)

I'm so jealous. My son is 4.5 and the smell of his baby poo nappies still haunts me.

I remember being at a baby group and someone's child had clearly had a poo and almost simultaneously we all picked our babies up and smelt them and I had to wonder what had become of my/our life 🤣

sniff or peak in the side, but if she’s sleeping a good stretch and isn’t wildly prone to nappy rash I’d just leave her be. Put a good layer of sudocrem on at her last nappy change of the night. If you find that when she wakes up it looks like she’s pooped during that long stretch and it’s irritating her skin, you can reassess.

FWIW both of mine usually woke up if they’ve pooped in their sleep

Smell or check through the side? I don’t really understand the question tbh!

That uses clinches it for me as I usually manage to poke my finger in it at that point 💩

How often does she pop? Can you not smell it because she hasn't done one? At that age EBF DC1 only did one pop a week.

When she was a new newborn and I had her in disposables I did used to peek through the leg, but now she is in cloth nappies I can't do that. Unless it's leaked, it wouldn't be possible to see into the part that catches the poo without basically completely opening it up, which would be as disturbing as just changing her nappy tbh.

We got into a nappy changing routine so roughly changed him first thing in the morning, before or after a feed, before or after a nap, before we went out, before bed. We'd also change if it had roughly been about 3 hours (during the day) and nursery change every 3 hours unless they've had an obvious poo.

Mine was formula fed though so poo nappies were very obvious and it's easy to peek with disposable nappies too.

The smell...

My formula fed baby and bf baby's makes smelled just as vile.

I was promised sweet smelling non gross poo for breastfeeding. It was a lie.😭