How often do you change your baby's diaper? Should I feel guilty?

Question

A friend told me that she changes her baby's diaper every wetting (literally). I don't change my baby's nappy until its a little bit heavy or soiled (about 5-6 changes for a 24 hour period). Is it bad?

Answer 1

I think as long as your child is not breaking out it is up to each parent.  I do change my son at each wetting so that he would understand he should not walk around with a dirty diaper and he was showing signs of potting training at about 20 months and now we are 24 months and he is going potty from time to time just not every time.

Answer 2

it depends on how often your baby goes to the bathroom. as they get older its les often but more. when my baby was younger and didnt wet much i didnt change it every single time but wouldnt let it get too drenched. i change mines diaper about that many times and shes fine.  diapers now a days are so obsorbant that if its barely wet theyll be ok.  i dont think you should feel guilty.  

Answer 3

Honey, is that you??  (My husband and I debate on this subject frequently, lol.)

I change my son when he gets wet but that's not always possible.  

If you feel guilty, change her more frequently, plain and simple.

Answer 4

no thats about what I do maybe like 8 though. I would go through 26 diapers a day if I did every wetting. Who has time for that?

edit: I do not change my daughter's diaper every time she wets and at night she sleeps for 9-12 hours and doesn't get a diaper change, i'm not going to wake her up to change her, and she has NEVER had any diaper rash, and she is 5 1/2 months. Also I don't think i do 8 a day from today I do like 6...and my doctor says anywhere between 5-8 diapers a day is normal. You fine.

Answer 5

I usually do 6-8 changes a day. - I give baby every day about an hour diaper free time on a towel, so her little butt can dry and air out. For her, that helps better to prevent rashes than to change after every little pee.

Answer 6

Yes that is bad.  You should change the baby every two hours at the least.  You should not cut expenses from this area.  How about from other things.  You could buy second hand clothes, check out freecycle.com for things you might need around the house, and clothes for you and the baby.  You should always change her more than that.

Answer 7

I have a sensitive nose so I just change him when he whiffs! Probably about 10 times a day sometimes.

I leave him over night though (10 - 11 hours sleeping) but I apply a nappy cream to his bottom and p***s to stop the irritation which seems to work!

Answer 8

She must have a lot of cash, as diapers aren't cheap! I was like you. I would never let them get to the point of being too wet........ My routine before my children were potty trained was change at 7am, (woke up) then at 11:30 before lunch, then at about 4pm after  their sleep and afternoon tea, then at bath time at 7pm (then into bed about 8) (and obviously if they did poos)

When smaller, it was a little more frequent. But why waste money when you dont need too.

Its not bad at all, you sound perfectly normal.

Answer 9

your friend is correct you should be changing your baby with every wet diaper. if you leave a baby in a wet diaper for to long they will develop diaper rash which can be very painful for the baby  

Answer 10

If you are using disposable diapers and your baby has no signs of skin irritations....then you can change your diaper as little or as often as you like.

Answer 11

i have 2 kids and for my first child slept/ and still sleeps a lot, so what i would do is wait till he would get up from a nap to change him..even if he was wet while sleeping...besides that if he wuld cry and i new hew wasnt hungry then i would go and check his diaper and if thats why he was crying then id change him...now my son is almost 2 and when he has a dirty diaper he comes to me and tugs on his diaper in front of me to let me know he needs to be changed. (the doctors will always tell you if your child wants to sleep then to let them ya know)...and for my second child she doesnt sleep as much as my first, but once again i wait till she cries.

now my sister-in-law's child is a month older than my son and what she would do is constantly check her son and if he was wet (no matter if he was eating, playing, sleeping) she would change him...and now hw is almost 2 as throws a fit if he is not changed on demand!!!

Answer 12

I would not be obsessively checking to see if you need to change a barely damp diaper, but I would change it as needed. with disposable diapers you can tell when they are wet. I change my almost 3 year old about 4-6 times a day. generally he lets me know when he poops, but he does not care if he is wet or not. He will fib and tell me he is dry to avoid a diaper change!

Answer 13

If you are using disposable diapers, its ok because the diaper takes the moisture away from baby's body. If you are using cloth, you need to change after every wetting.

Answer 14

depends how old your child is, my son is just turned 2 and we change 6 times a day, but the younger the baby the more often I changed when he was an infant it was like 8-10 times a day

Answer 15

I think if we added it up it's be about 10 changes a day.

Answer 16

I changed my daughter and currently change my son when I notice that they have gone to the bathroom.  I never let them sit in it if I know that it is wet or muddy.

Answer 17

I change my daughters diaper every time she is wet. She cries when she is wet, and will cry until she is changed. I don't like my daughter sitting in a wet diaper for long because I wouldn't like to be sitting in pee for too long myself!  

Answer 18

You need to change your baby's diaper every 2 or 3 hours during waking hours.  

Answer 19

That is scandalous!

I feel sorry for that kid.

When the baby goes to college your just going to send it to mexico cause its cheaper!

Answer 20

How old is our baby.  My son is 7 months and I change him about 4-5 times a day as well.  If he/she isn't getting a rash, then you are fine.  We don't need all those diapers in the landfills anyway.

Answer 21

I change my daughter after each feed, so about 5 times per day, 1-2 times o/night. Of course if she's done a poo in between i'll change that straight away! As a newborn i was going thru about 10-12 nappies per day though!  

Answer 22

when she was newborn, yes. now i probably change it every 4 hours during the day (shes 8 months)

Answer 23

I change my son's diaper every 3 hours, unless he has pooped or I notice he is full, then I change it right then. Even if he is barely wet after 3 hours I still change him. At night, he goes about 11 hours without being changed because he sleeps all night.

Answer 24

Your not bad!  Most disposable diapers today are so absorbent that they wisp away the moisture from the baby's bottom.  I would just recommend letting your baby "air dry" a bit between changes.  

Hey--you are probably helping out the environment a tiny too:)

Answer 25

Medically speaking you should change the diaper every wetting, this will prevent rash and other problems with your child. However, econimics do not always allow this to be the case. I check the diaper about every hours or so... If it is wet I change it. There are times that your child may be in the same diaper for an extened period of time, in bed or on a car trip, but if that is the case you need to be using plenty of powder, wipe the are real well at every changeing and apply a rash crean to prevent any problems.

Answer 26

When my son was 3months old I was constantly changing diapers it seemed like, I would change him every 2-3 hours or if he let me know he needed a change. When he was little I would even change him during his sleep since he slept so much as a newborn, he wouldn't care.

He's now 61/2 months and I change him about ever 3-4 hours because he doesn't go as much, but since he's trying new foods he tends to have more BM so I frequenlty check his diaper. He sleeps through the night so from 10-6 he doesn't get a dipaer change but when I do get up to change him his diaper is full sometimes we have leakage problems.

So he goes less frequently now, but at night goes about 8 hours without a changed nappy, but since your newborn is going alot more and you change her every 5-6 i would try to change her at least every 4-5 if you couldn't do 3-4.

If you want to cut expensed I would just suggest getting cloth diapers then, for pee diapers you could easily handwash them, and for poo diapers it's not going to hurt throwing them into the wash.

Answer 27

when my baby was 3 months I changed her diaper about every 2-3 hours. you can't always tell when she pees, but, at that age, she was still pooping lots, and i never let her sit in p**p.   i tried not to let her sit in pee too long either. my baby is 8 months now and poops 1-2 times per day. i change her diaper about every 3-4 hours (except at nighttime).

i would try to cut other expenses if you can, you don't want your baby to get a rash or an infection.  

Answer 28

I also am a single mother who is short on money...

Birth to 6 months I changed my baby's diaper about 7 times a day.

6 months to a year, I only changed my baby's diaper about 5 times a day.

Then after that only about three times a day.

Answer 29

I am one to think they should not sit in it, if you know they are wet change them. Babies should not be going pee every 5 minutes, more once an hour is normal. I had twins and a limited budget but changed the second they got wet. They had skin problems and it was horrible we even had to see a dermo about it and get special treatment so I changed their diapers the moment they got went, so I went though a lot of diapers! I guess if they dont get rashes then letting the child go twice wouldnt be bad but you should not let  diaper get heavy.. urine contains bacteria that not only can cause skin rashes but can cause yeast infections, bacteria infections.. other infections that you may not see on the skin and that are not plesent for the child..

Honestly i will get thumbs down for this, but letting the diaper get heavy is waiting to long in my opinion.