While you may think that boys pee more than girls during diaper changes, Segura says this is not the case.
Whether you're bottle-feeding or breastfeeding, your newborn should be settling into a feeding pattern and eating well by the second week of life. You should see at least six to eight wet diapers each day,3 but your child could have up to 10 or more.
If they aren't letting you know when they have to go, you should begin to recognize things like crossing legs and fidgeting as tell-tale signs that your little one is holding on to the urge to pee.
Absorbency is one of the main differences between boy and girl diapers. More specifically the location of the absorbent material. Boy diapers typically have most of the absorbent material concentrated in the front, while girls' have it in the middle/bottom.
There's no real need to wipe your boy down after a wee. Modern nappies are highly absorbent to quickly soak up most of it, while urine rarely irritates their skin even if it does come into contact. Always wipe after a number two though.
Do you need to wipe a baby girl after peeing? No. Even with a baby girl, you don't need to worry about wiping after they pee. This is because urine doesn't normally irritate the skin and most nappies easily absorb it anyway .
The most common cause of leakage is fitting your baby with the wrong diaper size. So start by checking if the diaper size is right for your baby. Note also that the amount of pee increases as your baby grows. By the time your baby is 12 months old, the amount of pee discharged in a day will be twice that of a newborn.
Avoid cold air
The main reason baby boys pee when they're being changed is because cold air hits their lower belly and makes them urinate. By avoiding changing in cold rooms, you can avoid that to a degree.
If it seems that your baby is peeing a lot, that's usually a good thing and typically means they're getting enough to eat. In your baby's first month, if you are breastfeeding and your milk supply is well established, six or more wet diapers a day generally indicates that your baby is getting adequate nourishment.
Amongst exclusively breastfed neonates, 59.0% passed urine eight times or more per day while 14.5% passed urine less than five times a day. The comparative figures in partially breastfed neonates were 55.8% and 12.8% respectively.
Crying during urination. Cloudy, foul smelling and/or bloody urine. Irritability with no clear cause. Vomiting.
Oh, the peeing
While you may think that boys pee more than girls during diaper changes, Segura says this is not the case. Because urine tends to go up and away, boys will just surprise you more than girls.
Newborns pee around every 10 minutes, all the way up to 18-month-olds, who go around every 90 minutes. Some of you might have babies who are holding it for four hours at that age - rare, but definitely a possibility.
For most people, the normal number of times to urinate per day is between 6 – 7 in a 24 hour period. Between 4 and 10 times a day can also be normal if that person is healthy and happy with the number of times they visit the toilet.
They are simply discovering and exploring their world — including their bodies. Studies have shown that genital touching is common in early childhood. Sometimes kids are so interested in their bodies that they want to show off different body parts.
You Don't Have to Change Every Wet Diaper
Newborns poop lots, and you don't want to have your baby's cute little tushy sitting in that. But for pee diapers, you don't have to change the baby every time they go.
During nappy changes and bathtimes, wash or wipe around your baby's genitals and bottom to clean away poo. Always wipe the area from front to back. You can use a clean cloth or cotton pad with either water, or water mixed with a little mild soap-free baby cleansing liquid (Blume-Peytavi et al 2016).
Experts recommend that you change your newborn's diaper every two to three hours, or as often as needed. Why? Your little one may urinate as often as every one to three hours, and have between two and five bowel movements a day.
Little ones tend to move around a lot when they're sleeping and even the most well-fastened diaper can consequently slip and cause diaper leaking overnight – this is especially true if the diaper is a little bit too big for baby.
Wiping your baby after pee is not necessary unless you want to freshen up your baby's bottom after a soaking wet diaper, and not doing it might in fact save your baby's skin from getting irritated from excessive wiping.
Newborn girls will often still have vernix (the white sticky coating on the skin) still in the vulva between the labia. Do not try to scrub this coating out; it will gradually dry up and come off when you wipe with diaper changes. Newborn girls may have a slight vaginal discharge, which may be tinged with blood.
Wipe And Clean
It's important to get your baby's bottom squeaky clean when you change a poopy diaper. Letting them sit in a dirty diaper too long or leaving them with a dirty bottom can set them up for skin irritation and diaper rash. This is why wiping and cleaning their skin thoroughly is so important!