One of the questions we are asked most often at our popular Cloth Diaper 101 Workshops is “How many diapers will I really need?” And what surprises most new parents is that they’ll need to count on using about ten diapers a day in the early newborn days. Yes – newborns pee and poo that many times each day! The old adage about “what goes in must come out” really holds true… So, what do diaper changes look like in those early days? Since you’ll be changing your baby often – including when you’re groggy in the middle of the night – it’s important to have plenty of diapers and covers on hand so that you don’t have to spend time scrounging up what you need right at diaper changing time or run short just before laundry time. It’s really a pain to have to hand-wash a cover in the middle of the night or have to dig through the diaper bag to find that one last clean diaper while your baby is crying on the change pad. Have everything ready and at hand and the experience will be a downright pleasant one. Also, your midwife, family doctor, or pediatrician will likely want to know how many times a day your baby is peeing and pooing. These are indications of how your baby’s system is settling into life outside the womb and can be important indicators of how well your baby is feeding. Since disposable diapers absorb and wick away your baby’s pees, it can often be difficult to tell when your baby has voided, but with cloth it is much easier to know, so one could even argue that cloth diapers contribute to the health and well-being of your infant! We also recommend (read: highly recommend) using liners for your newborn, especially in the first few weeks of life. Newborn poo, as well as meconium, can really stain like the dickens, so in order to keep stains to a minimum, just line your diapers with fleece or silk (or even an extra cloth wipe if you’re in a pinch).  And if you do have some staining after your routine washing, remember that the sun will do wonders at removing bio-stains! We hope your journey through the early days of babyhood is a joyful one – and even more, we hope your choice to cloth diaper makes the experience even more satisfying. Let us know if there are any ways we can help you through this time of change and discovery! For more tips on diapering your newborn, check out what we used with our first child.

CHANGING A NEWBORN :: YES, THAT MANY TIMES!

One of the questions we are asked most often at our popular Cloth Diaper 101 Workshops is “How many diapers will I really need?” And what surprises most new parents is that they’ll need to count on using about ten diapers a day in the early newborn days. Yes – newborns pee and poo that many times each day! The old adage about “what goes in must come out” really holds true…

So, what do diaper changes look like in those early days?

Since you’ll be changing your baby often – including when you’re groggy in the middle of the night – it’s important to have plenty of diapers and covers on hand so that you don’t have to spend time scrounging up what you need right at diaper changing time or run short just before laundry time. It’s really a pain to have to hand-wash a cover in the middle of the night or have to dig through the diaper bag to get the one last clean diaper while your baby is crying on the change pad. Have everything ready and at hand and the experience will be a downright pleasant one.

Also, your midwife, family doctor, or pediatrician will likely want to know how many times a day your baby is peeing and pooing. These are indications of how your baby’s system is settling into life outside the womb and can be important indicators of how well your baby is feeding. Since disposable diapers absorb and wick away your baby’s pees, it can often be difficult to tell when your baby has voided, but with cloth it is much easier to know, so one could even argue that cloth diapers contribute to the health and well-being of your infant!

We also recommend (read: highly recommend) using liners for your newborn, especially in the first few weeks of life. Newborn poo, as well as meconium, can really stain like the dickens, so in order to avoid using copious amounts of stain remover and to keep stains to a minimum, just line your diapers with fleece or silk (or even an extra cloth wipe if you’re in a pinch).

We hope your journey through the early days of babyhood is a joyful one – and even more, we hope your choice to cloth diaper makes the experience even more satisfying. Let us know if there are any ways we can help you through this time of change and discovery!

For more tips on diapering your newborn, check out what we used with our first child.

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