Do you change your baby at night?

[odoole]

5 mo DS is decidedly a heavy wetter. Since I discovered wool covers I have stopped changing him at night. But 10-12 hours seems an awfully long time to go without a diaper change. I feel like he gets a bit fidgety in his sleep when he's super saturated. On the other hand, if I do change his diaper in the middle of the night, it's pretty much guaranteed that he will stay awake for at least 30-45 minutes afterward. What do you all do?

[dachshundqueen]

I have 2 kids, now potty learned, 4.5 and 27 months.

We always changed our children as soon as we realized they were wet - which was frequently, sometimes 20+ nappies a day, especially when they were tiny. At toddlerhood, I would suppose we were still changing 12-14 dipes a day, sometimes more.

Liz

[octobermom]

Mines 7 so obviously out of diapers but back in the days If I was awake enough to realize she was wet enough it was making her antsy then yes mine actually began sleeping long streaches at night pretty early so by 5 months it was rare because we all jsut slept.

Deanna

[treegardner]

We stopped changing DS overnight when he was about 6 months. We only change him at night if he's leaked or if he has a diaper rash. We stopped changing him because he was only waking up once or twice a night, and he was never fully waking up.

[odoole]

I should have clarified. Though he gets antsy, He never fully wakes up at night. I feel like if I were to change him evey time he was wet, we would change him every hour or two, and none of us would get any sleep. I so far have not fond a way to change his diaper and keep him asleep.

I guess I could try changing him at night again and see if that makes him less figity. I just dread the hour it'll take to put him back down.

[dachshundqueen]

I got so good at diaper changes I could pull the next prefold off the bedrail and change them in complete darkness then drop the pf into the bucket next to the bed (moved it during the day). DH could never do this and always woke the kid, because DH is blind without contacts.

You could always use some kind of fitted or something easy to do while night blind, unless your kid poops, in which case, turning on some lights is a must.

Liz

[tbone_kneegrabber]

after ds stopped pooping at night I stopped changing at night. Although I did also switch to sposies at night for that specific goal.

[cristeen]

Yes, it's a rare night when he doesn't get changed. Last night he got changed twice. But he still wakes up at least once a night for a feeding, I change him before I feed him, and the feeding puts him back to sleep. Night before last was a rare night when he didn't get changed in the night - I checked him and the dipe was still dry on the outside, so I left him in it. By morning he had soaked through his dipe, his wool sleep sack and the blanket he was sleeping on.

[LionessMom]

DD2 does not poop between 9 pm and 8 am. so i do not change her. i do use a fleece insert to help her feel drier. she doesnt get rashes or anything either. if you can keep the dipe from leaking then i would just go with a stay dry liner at night. might eliminate the antsy feeling and help baby sleep longer. DD2 sleeps 6 hr at night.

[tessie]

If she woke for a fed then I changed her. If she didn't wake then she didn't get changed. Never wake a sleeping baby is my motto.

[pumpkin]

If DD poops then he gets changed. She goes through phases where she always poops in the middle of the night. She cries like crazy. Big, hard sobs, because she just wants to go to sleep. Its awful.


So unless I have no choice like a poop or she soaked the bed (happened once before we switched to wool), I don't change at night unless she happens to be wide awake and playing at 3am.

[odoole]

Ok, good. Glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't change the baby. He never poops at night. With the wool covers, we don't usually have leaks but when there are leaks I definitely change him.

Thanks for the suggestion of the liner. I'll give it a try.

And that's a good idea to feed him AFTER the diaper change. That's probably pretty intuitive -- but I've usually been changing after the feeding -- probably because I don't usually recognize he's soaked until I've started nursing him.

[mamadelbosque]

I only change diapers at night if they are awake and fidgety and its to get them to go back to sleep. But they never get out of bed to do so (we co-sleep) - I keep a couple clean diapers & a pack of wipes in the crib thats side-carred to our bed so that nobody has to get up to change diapers, and thus they tend to go back to sleep quickly (I rarely even turn on lights to change a diaper)

[chely7425]

We also don't change at night once they stop pooping at night. My older son (21 months) sleeps from 7 pm to 8 am usually and I am not messing with him to change him. My 7 month old usually only wakes up once or twice to nurse... and we don't change him either. We use pockets on both of them.

[thefreckledmama]

We stop changing them at night when they stop pooping during the night. If/when they're awake at night for some reason, if they're wet, we change them. We have never woken up the kids to change them.

[coldandsleepy]

We don't change in the middle of the night. We used to when he would poo overnight-- but that stopped around 5 or 6 weeks and we've never changed a diaper overnight again.

It's been a bit tricky to figure out how to keep him dry, as we use cloth and he is (sometimes) a heavy wetter. But we have a system that seems to work now (one prefold applied normally, with a second one folded into a little rectangle as a sort of soaker) and we dress him in fleece as a backup, so he very rarely wakes up wet anymore.

[LionessMom]

Originally Posted by coldandsleepy

We don't change in the middle of the night. We used to when he would poo overnight-- but that stopped around 5 or 6 weeks and we've never changed a diaper overnight again.

It's been a bit tricky to figure out how to keep him dry, as we use cloth and he is (sometimes) a heavy wetter. But we have a system that seems to work now (one prefold applied normally, with a second one folded into a little rectangle as a sort of soaker) and we dress him in fleece as a backup, so he very rarely wakes up wet anymore.

this is exactly what we do. DD2 also quit pooping at night early. i also use a fleece liner. i havent had a nightime rash since.

[samikashi]

Originally Posted by dachshundqueen

I have 2 kids, now potty learned, 4.5 and 27 months.

We always changed our children as soon as we realized they were wet - which was frequently, sometimes 20+ nappies a day, especially when they were tiny. At toddlerhood, I would suppose we were still changing 12-14 dipes a day, sometimes more.

Liz

We do things the same way around here.

I change about 4 times overnight...
It keeps our bed dry and baby comfortable. He does not tolerate wet diapers, ever, and that's fine by me.

[junipervt]

I stopped changing at night when DD stopped pooping at night. Now I only change if there is a leak. We put her in a thirsties stuffable aio w/ a hemp insert. There is a lot of absorbancy & the diaper inner that touches her skin is fleece, so she does not feel wet.

[CookAMH]

I don't change my 8mo old and haven't for months. He's layered up thick and has a fleece liner so my sense is he's not bothered by it and we don't have leaks.