Changing the baby -explain to me please

[Bejeena]

Ok so I am expecting my first baby in August, not long to go now so I have started to set everything up and make sure all the stuff is in place.

What I am wondering is why everyone is looking at me like I am a complete nutcase when I say that I plan to change the baby's nappy in the bathroom? Everyone looks at me as if I have two heads but for the life of me I don't get why?!

We hope to use cloth nappies if this makes any difference and will have space in the bathroom for a changing area perhaps we are lucky our bathroom is so big?

For the life of me I can't understand why folk think it is so odd, to me it would be the most normal place to do it if you had space. Or have I totally missed something here?

"My favourite easy wipes are the packs of thin terry baby flannels you can get from poundshops."

Dave I totally agree, I found fleece a bit rubbish for cleaning poo, then I bought the Cheeky Wipe kit and found them too small
Sainsburys and Tesco sell terry face flannels that are the perfect size and material.

Never had a problem getting up to the bathroom to change DCs (or down for that matter - when DD2 was small we lived in an upside-down house). For me it just felt more hygenic.

Tbh, most people looked at me like i had two heads when i said i was going to use cloth nappies. They thought i was being silly, and would soon switch to proper ones

We're still in full time cloth at rising 8 months, including dp being in hospital near his family for a week when he had a stroke. It's much much easier to bung a load in the machine then on the line/airer (two 5 minute jobs) than lug a screaming baby round a supermarket (an hour or so) then baby+massive box upstairs then find a place to store all the nappies, including smelly used ones!

Don't even start me on the assumptions about my parenting style based solely on my choice of products (slings and reusable nappies) :o

It is unusual, so I'm not surprised people have shown a bit of well, surprise :)

Most people want the change station near where they/the baby sleeps and where the baby spends time in the day, neither of which are in the bathroom :)

In the night (especially in the winter) most people wouldn't want to be treking into a (chilly) bathroom to change the baby after feeding them.

However, it's not like you are getting a custom made unit to go in there - just a change mat - so you can move it about if it doesn't suit you there :)

One other thing I'd say you'd need to think about is the steam/damp/humidity if you are storing the nappies in there.

There's a pulldown change mat which could go over the washing machine - its Ikea. Will try and find a link.

Genius though - dirty nappies straight in the washer :)

Here

m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/art/80141708/

We used Cheeky Wipes. They send you about 20 wipes with two boxes (one for clean and one for dirty wipes) and scented oils. Then bung everything into the washing machine with the nappies.

Oh - we changed DD1 on top of a changing mat on top of the washing machine in the bathroom! We also lived in a one bed flat the time. Although we quickly adjusted and changed her anywhere convenient, with the help of the nappy bag and portable changing mat!

I'd love to be able to do nappy changes in the bathroom (I also use reusables). I never had lots of changing stations either - never seemed like that much work going to the changing mat.

My DC2 is also due in august and we'll be using cloth and also changing nappies in the bathroom, we did nappy changes in the nursery with DD1 as no room in that bathroom and loads of people said to me "oh you won't be bothered with going upstairs every time you have to change babies nappy" but I always did for every nappy change, it never bothered me.

I wouldn't let it bother you what other people think, your baby, your house, your way.

I have a fold up changing mat in living room and 2 changing tables. One in washer room and upstairs bathroom.

I also have antibacterial gel all over.

All my DC were/are in Gdiapers. So disposable for the newborn stage and out and about and then inserts for home etc.

It is so good to hear other people's experiences also with the cloth.

Robotbananas I fancy that changing fold down thing but problem is our bathroom is fully tiled and we cannot drill into them to put it up.

So now I am also thinking of going back to the nursery changing idea as I saw in nappy lady's (thanks for that tip too btw whoever it was) that she uses an ice cream tub to put dirty nappy and wipe in and then just takes ice cream tub into bathroom to empty into nappy pail and (I would assume) consequently washes hands. Or we do also have guest toilet next to nursery that can be used for hand washing and possibly even storing the nappy pail. This might work and well more than anything will mean I don't get odd comments from both my DM and MIL (these were the main two who thought bathroom changing was odd)

Oh yes I have also had lots of comments about wanting to use cloth mostly saying 'good luck' 'it'll be messy' 'all that washing' and so on. Luckily my husband is totally on board with the cloth an we are determined if we do give up it won't be because it is too much work (let's face it putting a load of nappies on every 2 days and hanging up to dry takes up just as much time as going to shop to buy disposables) or because of the mess (we can deal with that) but if we do give up the cloth it'll only be because they don't suit the baby, nappy rash or whatever, not because they don't suit us