Best Way To Change Your Baby’s Nappies



Whether you choose terry nappies or disposables, don’t leave them on your baby too long once they’re wet and especially when they’re dirty. If the skin is the slightest bit sore, nappy rash begins all too easily. Some mothers like to use a waterproofing cream, such as zinc and castor oil or a silicone-based one, on their baby’s bottom before they put on a clean nappy. This protects the skin to some extent. If the skin looks reddened, let your baby spend as much time as possible without a nappy on to let light and air get to the skin. Lay a young baby on a double terry nappy, but make sure that the room is warm enough. Change the nappy more often than usual and consider using a one-way nappy liner to keep the skin drier.

Washing your baby’s bottom

When you’ve taken off the old nappy, the best thing to do is to wash your baby’s bottom with plenty of warm water, then pat it dry with a soft towel. If his bottom is soiled, use soap as well, as long as the skin isn’t too sore or dry. If soap would sting or dry the skin too much, clean his bottom with a cream or lotion.

Baby’s Nappies Best Way To Change Your Baby’s Nappies

Even a task as routine as changing a nappy can give you the opportunity to play with your baby who will respond gleefully to your attention.

Bowel motions – A young breastfed baby may pass bright yellow liquid motions at first. The motions tend to become much less frequent and more formed as he grows older, and they have a distinctive, sweetish smell. Early on, you may see a daffodil-yellow stain on every nappy. A bottlefed baby passes much bulkier and more smelly motions.

Once you start your baby on foods other than milk, you’ll notice that the motions change. They become bulkier and contain particles of undigested or partially digested food, especially vegetables. This is quite normal. As your baby grows older, he’ll become more able to digest many of the foods that at first seem to pass right through him.

Potty training

Perhaps the only real problem for children when it comes to potty training is if you are too eager to do it and attach too much importance to what is after all just a natural stage in develop­ment. At one time, mothers used to try hard to ‘train’ even young babies to use the potty by holding them on it after a meal. This may have saved some washing, but couldn’t be said to produce true self-control. It’s better – and just as easy – to wait until your child is ready to let you know when he wants to open his bowels or empty his bladder before you encourage him to do so on the potty.

Baby’s Nappies 1 Best Way To Change Your Baby’s Nappies

A child who is clean and dry at an early age isn’t in any sense ‘better’ than a child who achieves this later – he’s just different. Children vary in the age at which they are able to learn, but most are ready to start practising before their second birthday. Being clean usually comes before being dry.



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