A diaper should close easily without having to tug and pull at them. Also, consider the rise of the diaper. A properly fitting diaper should come just slightly below your little one's belly button. If it's fitting a little more like a low rise, it's time to move on up!
Examine a diaper in the current diaper size to see how it fits your baby. If you notice red marks around your baby's upper legs and tummy from the elastic in the diaper, the diaper is likely too small. Additionally, if you notice that the diaper looks or feels too snug on your baby, it is likely too small.
With Tabs Fastened Easily
First of all, the diaper tabs go in the front, near your baby's tummy. They should fasten easily without having to tug them too much. If the tabs meet or overlap in the middle with no problem, the diaper might be too big.
Make sure that the diaper fits snugly around the waist and thighs by running your fingers around the edges and checking that there are no gaps. If you prefer to have a diaper that is loose-fitting, you may experience leakage as urine and poop comes out through the gaps before it can be absorbed.
If a diaper is too small, it will reach maximum absorption quickly and be unable to hold the amount of poop necessary. A bigger size diaper will allow more room for the poop and have more absorbent material. Constant blowouts are a problem as they cover your baby in poop as well as the area around them.
Diaper companies know this, so larger sizes are designed to hold more urine. By sizing up your diaper, you're basically increasing your absorbency. For example, a Huggies Size 6 diaper holds 7 to 13 more ounces than their Size 5 diaper.
It should not require too much pulling or adjusting to secure the tabs. On the contrary, if the tabs overlap toward the center of the waist, you need to go down a size.
We found out that It is not necessary to use wipes to wipe your baby down during every nappy change. Urine rarely irritates the skin and disposable nappies are very absorbent limiting the amount of urine that comes into contact with your baby's skin.
“There are very few circumstances where I'd recommend waking a sleeping baby to change their diaper,” says Mochoruk. Unless your baby has an open sore or serious diaper rash that requires monitoring, let them sleep, she says.
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.
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.
It's easy to overlook, but the leg cuffs, or ruffles on the edge of the diaper should be pulled out. Make sure to run your finger around these edges to make sure they are pulled out. This helps lock everything in, so there isn't leakage.
DIAPER TIP: The ruffles around the diaper leg holes aren't just for looks! They should always be visible on the outside and not tucked inside the diaper around the legs. They're specifically designed and engineered to prevent leakage.
If the tapes meet in the centre of 'the zone', or are still on the coloured part of the nappy, then you're spot on. Once they're moving towards, or are in the white area, it's time to move up a size and avoid - or at least reduce the chances of - those leaks.
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.
Back leakage
Nappy tends to go out of alignment due to your baby's active leg movements. (Fairly common for Small size users). Nappy is taped more to the front, leaving less coverage for the back.
You'll still want to make sure the diaper is fitting snugly around your little one's waist and through the legs, but a size up from your baby's daytime diaper size will give your overnight an extra boost when it comes to absorbency and ensuring maximum dryness.
You do not want the diaper to cover the cord area as air helps the wound heal and dry, allowing it to fall off. It is important to keep the belly button dry and free from urine and fecal matter.
By age four years, most children are reliably dry in the day. It's normal for night-time potty training to take longer. Most children learn how to stay dry at night when they are between three and five years old.
So during the day, keep an eye on your diaper's wetness indicator, if it has one (that's the little line in the front that changes from yellow to blue when there's moisture inside the diaper). Change wet diapers when you notice them, and try to avoid going for longer than three hours in between changes.
There are varying degrees of adult diapers for light to maximum urine leakage; some can hold up to a single cup of liquid while the others can hold up to 13 cups of liquid.
While you might not be too keen on it, you can leave a wet diaper alone through the night, and simply change it in the morning. The only need to do otherwise is if your baby's diaper is soaked right through their PJs. If they have had the 'full' toilet experience in the night, you must change it.
Even if your baby falls asleep, try burping them for a few minutes before placing them back down to sleep. Otherwise, they make wake up in pain with trapped gas.