Believe it or not, there's no need to wake your baby every time they wet their diaper a little. Many of today's diapers are so absorbent that your baby may be able to sleep through the night, or as long as they're capable, even if they've wetted one.
With super-absorbent diapers, it is probably okay to leave a wet diaper on for a little longer, especially if your baby is sleeping through the night; there is no need to wake up your little one to change a wet diaper. But in general, if you spot a wet or soiled diaper, it is time to change it.
How often you should change your baby depends on how frequently they soil the diaper with urine and bowel movements. Typically, a baby needs a diaper change every two to three hours.
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.
After the first week, your baby is well hydrated if they have at least 6 wet diapers per day, with no more than 8 hours between wet diapers. If either of those conditions is not met, your baby may be dehydrated.
Leave Wet Diapers Alone
Again, you can leave a wet diaper alone during the night, waiting until morning to change it — unless your baby's diaper is soaked through to their pajamas.
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.
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.
How often should you change the diaper? Keep that in mind that babies often urinate more than 20 times a day. Hence, it is important to understand that you may need to change the diaper every 2 to 3 hours.
You can give two minutes a week, two hours a day, or whatever amount of time you're comfortable with. And it doesn't need to be a huge time commitment. Try taking off the diaper for a few minutes while you're already playing together, and just paying attention to your baby.
One way to find out whether a diaper is full, without having to actually feel inside of it, is to hold your hand over the front of your baby's diaper and jiggle it a teensy bit to see if it moves.
If you're changing your little one's diaper during a nighttime feeding, either do so before you feed them or halfway through their feeding. If you wait to change their diaper until after you feed them, you might risk waking your baby up, which is exactly not what you want to do at that point!
Baby pee can smell strong without any issues. But if your baby's pee smells particularly strong or foul, it could be a sign of a UTI.
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!
Your baby's genitals are very delicate, so cleaning this area needs special care. Try to balance keeping your baby clean with not washing and wiping too often, as this can irritate baby skin.
Your Baby Will Get A Rash
Whether it's a poopy diaper or just a wet one, either one can irritate your baby's delicate skin and cause a rash, according to Baby Center. Creams and gels can offer some protection. But in my experience the best safeguard is always a clean and dry new diaper.
Diapers should be changed every 1 to 2 hours during the day to prevent rashes and irritations, according to St. Louis Children's Hospital page on diaper rash treatment. This can mean supplying 12 plus diapers per day for these kids.
Sometimes, your little one will start waking in the night all because of a diaper. The diaper will be overly wet, making your baby uncomfortable and unable to sleep. This can happen even in the young newborn months.
Nappies need changing after every poo. You don't need to change your baby's nappy after every wee – rather, change the nappy just before or after a feed (but keep an eye out for nappy rash or skin irritation). There's no need to wake your baby at night for a nappy change.
Designed to keep your baby dry for up to 12 hours, overnight diapers are extra absorbent, often with around 20 to 25 percent more capacity than regular diapers.
8. Change Poopy Diapers Immediately. While it is ok to leave a slightly wet diaper on overnight, poopy diapers must be changed immediately. Not changing soiled diapers can cause infections.
Although all the sensory systems start developing in utero; but the development of the sense of smell predominates in early fetal life. Babies recognize their mother's scent even before they are born. Your baby is biologically and genetically programmed to connect to you through your unique smell.
Here's a wild fact: Your days-old newborn baby will be able to recognize you, Mom, simply by the smell of your skin. What's more, the foods you eat while you're expecting can affect not only your developing baby's sense of taste, but also her sense of smell.
To feel what a sufficiently wet diaper is like, pour 4-6 tablespoons (60-90 mL) of water into a clean diaper (if baby wets more often, then the amount of urine per diaper may be less). Diapers may be wetter in the morning, especially with older babies. Urine should be pale and mild smelling.
Babies need frequent nappy changes. Babies have very delicate skin so their nappy needs to be changed as soon as they wet or poo themselves, otherwise their skin becomes sore and red. Changing your baby's nappy as soon as possible after they've done a wee or poo will help prevent nappy rash.