How often did you change your babe's diapers? plus CDing question

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little_flower_1

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So I’m gonna sound really dumb here (I just realized I have less than 100 days til I’m due and I’m little freaked at the idea), but:

I’ve never changed a diaper in my life. I’m the youngest in my family and all the kids I’ve babysat have been old enough to be toilet trained. I just read that newborns urinate every 10-20 minutes and kids, by six months, can only be expected to go as long as an hour. Is this seriously true?? I’m not expecting to never have to change a diaper, but dang, every 10-20 minutes? By the time I get him changed, I’m gonna have do it all over again.

How often did all you parents have to change your kids diapers?

Also: I plan on cloth diapering with prefolds. I know I’ll need about 3 doz of the prefolds, but how many covers should I get? I’ll need doublers of some sort too, right? any recommendations?

Thanks all!

edit:

whoops, I meant to post this in the parenting section, sorry! I don’t know how to move it?
 
Ah, don’t worry. You’ll figure it out. I’d never changed a diaper, either, before my first was born.

How often you change their diapers will probably depend on how sensitive your baby’s skin is – does he break out in a rash at the slightest wetness? With our babes, we didn’t change their diapers every single pee-- heck, I don’t think we knew about it every single time they urinated. If baby seemed unhappy or the diaper felt full, we’d change. How often was that? I don’t know, really-- every couple of hours, maybe. When they’re newborns, they seemed to poop with/after every feeding, so that did keep us busy for a good part of the day!
 
It was not every ten minutes!!

There were times however, that he went, I changed him and the next minute I was changing him again…

I would say though that on average, it was about once an hour… but the times got farther and farther apart as he grew… and that was quickly.

You will do fine… don’t panic… your baby will let you know when he/she needs to be changed.
 
I was also the youngest and never babysat.

The first diapers are changed in the hospital so the nurses are there to help. You’ll be a pro at it after the first few times.

When the diaper starts getting hard to change, then its time to move to the next bigger size!
 
Diapers are a snap. I learned in the hospital. You’ll be able to do it one handed - with blindfolds in a few short weeks after your sweetie arrives. yeah…no joke! 😃

And trust that you will know when to change the diapers.
You’ll be just fine.
 
Hun, I am experienced at cloth diapering and can I just recommend that you NOT cloth diaper your newborn at first? Since you’ve never diapered a baby at all, starting with cloth could be really difficult! Especially with prefolds, which takes a bit of skill to get just right without leaks. If you are concerned about the environment and what’s best for baby’s tush, I highly recommend Seventh Generation disposable diapers which do not contain any harsh bleaches or chemicals and actually work very very well! Not too expensive either, if you buy them from amazon.com under their subscribe and save program. It’s always good to have a package of disposable diapers on hand even if you do cloth diaper 100% of the time, in case all of your diapers are in the wash or for long outtings, etc.

A newborn will go through something like 15 cloth diapers in a day. If you wash every day, you will still need about 20-24 diapers (depending on if you are going to machine dry or line dry your diapers). Most people will wash every other day though so purchase accordingly. I’ve found that Thirsties brand covers and Bummis brand covers worked the best for me.

If you want to move onto a simpler route of cloth diapering, consider pocket diapers that are one-size (meaning they snap up/down to fit newborns up until potty training) like Bum Genius brand. Those were my absolute favorite.

This is a good website for cloth diapering moms www.diapersswappers.com

And don’t worry, like pp have said, you will not be changing every 10 minutes! Typically you will change your newborn after every feeding, and if needed in between (like if she poops or if the diaper is wet to the touch.) More than likely it will be every 2 hours or so.

Good luck and congratulations!
 
10-20 minutes doesn’t mean full bladder when they do go.

I will say this since I’ve had four kids. BRAND NAME DOES MATTER!!! I have found that Pampers is the absolute best, and worth every extra dollar spent per box. You’ll have virtually no leaks, saving you pain, dirty laundry, and cleaning the carseat.

On average, I changed diapers every 3-4 hours, so 6-8 diapers per day. Also, someone let me know if this happened to you, but boys can go a little longer in between, because there is far less risk of urinary tract infection.

Breastfeeding also makes a world of difference. Keep the kid au natural as long as you can, preferably up to the first birthday. Infant formula wreaks havoc on a baby’s digestive system and can make diaper changing a nauseating chore.

Don’t worry about the how to. When they’re first born, they cannot squirm around, and over time, you will anticipate their movements. You’ll be waking up twice a night to feed anyways. Just change them at the same time. 👍
 
I will say this since I’ve had four kids. BRAND NAME DOES MATTER!!! I have found that Pampers is the absolute best, and worth every extra dollar spent per box. You’ll have virtually no leaks, saving you pain, dirty laundry, and cleaning the carseat.
Click to expand...
To each baby’s bum his own, I guess. I have found that brand name absolutely does NOT matter. We’ve used Target brand diapers for each of our four babies and have found them wonderful. No leaks and the cheapest I’ve found (including cheaper than brand-name diapers at the Big Box stores). In fact, the one time I did buy Pampers the diaper exploded on poor dd, leaving a strange gelatinous mess on her belly!
 
Although my boys are teens now, I remember those days quite well.

I would echo the earlier comments about quality brand name diapers. Pampers were always high quality with few if any rashes and quite excellent capacity! That capacity factor without leaks will kick in very quickly.

And, yes, there were occassions when immediately after changing them, they had to be changed again. There were times when they went again during the changing, too!

My boys were not fastidious. They could have sat and slept in full diapers day in and day out with out a complaint or tear. I understand girl babies are different and will rely on parents of girls to comment on that factor.

I don’t want to sound flippant but you’ll do fine. You will figure it out in no time and be amazed how you worried about lack of experience. 🙂
 
I was worried too when I first had to start changing babies. I started babysitting little ones when I was probably 16, and I remember being a little freaked out. It turned out to be very intuitive–open, wipe, re-diaper. They also taught us about basic baby care when we took the childbirth education class and the nurses watched us do it in the hospital, so by the time we took our son home we were old pros. That said, it took us some time to realize that you have to fasten the diaper snugly, but not tightly. We fastened it too loosely at first and it leaked. Practice makes perfect.

I definitely didn’t change his diapers every 20 minutes (not all the time anyway). Probably more like every hour during the day when he was a newborn and on down from there–basically every time he was fed. Youll get into a rhythm with your baby and you’ll be able to feel when the diaper needs to be changed.

I disagree with the poster who said not to use cloth diapers on a newborn, It only comes with practice, and it’s not really that hard, so you might as well start right away. Cloth diapers are also easier on the skin, which is good for the newbies. As far as supplies go, you probably won’t need doublers at first. I never used them at all. If the baby wets heavily at night, you can fold up a washcloth and use it for a doubler. Get the diapers and covers (not all-in-ones, they don’t wash well), pins, a stash of washcloths (cut-up old flannel shirts work great), castille soap (try Dr. Bronner’s lavender), a little lunch-sized cooler (to keep your washcloths wet and warm), cornstarch in a shaker and calendula ointment. You may also want to get a stash of disposable diapers for going out.

Congratulations and God bless you and your family!
-S-
 
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