Should I wake my baby to change her diaper?

[LilacMama]

She's two weeks old and her little buns are a bit red -- there's a rash threatening. I'm using prefolds and herb based diaper ointment. A lot of the time she'll fall asleep and THEN I'll hear her soil her diaper. I'm worried about her skin -- I've tried changing her diaper quickly and gently but it DEFINITELY wakes her up.

What do I do? How long can I go without changing her diaper (she eats every 3 hours or so)?

Also, do you use wipes with pee or just with poop? Thanks.

[rmzbm]

IMO - ALL diapers (wet or dirty) should be immediatly changed. If baby wakes up, so be it. Especially is they are already red.

[aris99]

I would change her at every feeding and use cream after a change if you see a rash. Make sure you're using enough cream to act as a barrier. I also had good results using claymazing powder (a clay powder w/no talc or cornstarch).

I use wipes w/poop only esp. if there's a rash...wiping can be irritating and painful

[EmmalinesMom]

If I know the diaper is wet/dirty, I change it, even if teh baby is asleep. I use a wipe with each change, too.

I hope her rash gets better quickly!

[LilacMama]

Well, I tried waking her up to change her diaper and she just got so fussy/mad and was so hard to get back to sleep that I'm not sure if it's worth it. Her butt does look better today. Thanks for all the replies.

[Ruthla]

I would wake a baby to change a poopy diaper, but not a wet one. IME, leaving a baby in poop ALWAYS lead to a rash, which led to worse sleeping and extra fussiness for the next day or two. I'd rather have a baby fussy for the next half hour than fussy for the next 2 days.

Staying in a urine-soaked diaper a little too long never caused rashes like that, so I'd only change wet diapers when the baby was already awake.

[tropicalmom]

With DD I would change every time she woke to nurse. I would just talk to her and tell her I was changing her diaper. As she got older she would already be back to sleep by the time I was changing the dipe since she was into the routine.

[CathToria]

I only woke it it was a poopie dipe. but with a rash, I might try to change even wets when sleeping. Have you tried cornstarch for a rash?

[samikashi]

This:

Originally Posted by rmzbm

IMO - ALL diapers (wet or dirty) should be immediatly changed. If baby wakes up, so be it. Especially is they are already red.

It normally doesn't take long before changes go completely undetected anyway. Concerning wipes, we occasionally used them for pee but not everytime.

[Michigan Mama]

I tend to only change at night for poopy diapers, unless there's a rash.

Have you tried putting a fleece liner inside the pf? Some babies just struggle with having any wetness against the skin, and sometimes it isn't always possible or practical to change them immediately. The fleece wicks the moisture away - it helped my ds a lot.

Microfleece is nice, but you can use regular fleece from joann's or whatever. 4x10 or 5x12 are good sizes, based on baby's size.

[lifeguard]

I've always been of the mind that you never wake a sleeping baby. But my guy doesn't seem to struggle with redness often. When he does I try to give him more naked time for a day or two & that seems to help it out.