Diaper Changing Tips You Didn't Know from Pediatrician Dad

If you've never changed a diaper before, this episode is for you. Or even if you've changed hundreds, we've got some great tips about how to maybe get not peed on when you're changing the diapers and also a great pediatrician approved tip about decreasing the chance of getting diaper rash. If this is your first time meeting us, I'm Kurt. I'm a board-certified pediatrician and now dad of three little ones. I'm Sarah. I'm a board-certified OBGYN and mom to those same three. And we are So the key to success here is really where preparation meets opportunity. So as you can see, we absolutely have our opportunity here. The indicator stripe is blue, says the diaper's wet. And also because of sounds, this guy is just made. We know he's got some poop in there too. And so then the preparation comes. So again, think about all the things you want to have. I always get my diaper out. I find it really helpful to open the diaper up first and get these things stretched out. Again, we're going to have an undiapered kiddo. And just as it turns out, pee accidents happen. And so the less time that they're exposed is the less time you're going to have pee all over your changing table over them and maybe avoid needing a new outfit. The other thing I like to do before I get started is I get a wipe out. This pack of wipes has been awesome in terms of not only does one wipe usually do the job, but it easily comes out just one at a time, which isn't the case with all wipe brands that have loved these. Okay. So I've got my wipe out, got my diaper open and ready. One other little trick, because I've been peed on so many times, sometimes if you take this little wipe and just wipe the skin above their diaper, if they've got, if they're getting close to being ready to pee, that'll just stimulate them to pee. And if you'll do that, whether boy, girl, whatever, sometimes this just helps say, oh, I've got to pee. It makes them their pee. And you just wait an extra five seconds. And sometimes you'll, they'll pee before you take the diaper off. And so that's good. Then it's time to do the business. Of course, we're going to show you this on a, on a doll too. Am I getting this out? One thing that some people will think about is how do you reduce stress on their back? You definitely can just pick up on the legs and wipe here. Some people really like to go to the side. I know some of our kiddos who have chest issues or whatever, we think about just rolling them to the side to clean, but definitely most of the time, I'm just lifting up here, being gentle on their back while I'm wiping, getting everything clean, getting all the nooks, crannies clean, clear. If you've got a girl making sure you're wiping front to back too. Okay. So we're all set up. We've exchanged real baby Hank for baby doll, Lisa here, who's been well loved in our family already. We've got the clean diaper out. I like to open this up. As I said, getting it ready to go, having the ruffles on the outside, and then actually putting this clean diaper underneath the baby's bottom. I've got my wipe all set to go. And then I've done that little trick of using the wet wipe and wiping at the bottom of the belly to try to get them to pee before I take the dirty diaper off. Then as I undo the dirty diaper, gently lifting on the legs, I actually use the inside of the top of the diaper here to actually do a lot of the cleaning for me, wiping down any poop that's there, getting that good and clean before I then reach for my clean wipe to finish up the cleaning, getting all the nooks and crannies, making sure you're wiping from front to back. You can then kind of roll that dirty wipe up in the dirty diaper, getting that out of the way. We've already got the clean diaper here, ready to go. So we've got our diaper in place already for boys, pointing the penis down. So it's not pointing up, makes a big difference in keeping them from peeing out of their diaper. Using one hand to hold this in place now, I've already got the wings spread out. I'll use my other free hand to grab the little tab, bring this around to the center, got it nice and snug around the hip, and making sure that the back is unfolded. I've got all the ruffles unfolded, and then bringing this around too to make a nice snug hip. Again, the key here is that I don't have places where it's going to leak. It's not so tight, it's cutting off the blood flow to their legs. I have all these little ruffles actually on the outside, helps prevent leaks. And then these diapers have this little notch cut out for the dry belly button cord here too, the umbilical cord. If you've got bigger diapers or ones that don't have this convenient little cutout, you can just roll the top of that down to keep it from rubbing on this. You want this area to stay dry and clean. And then you can always roll them over, check, make sure you've got everything in good position, make sure it's nice and high, tucked up, and then everything is perfect and ready till the next time. This episode is brought to you by Honest, which we are excited to share with you because they are one of our first real sponsors for our channel. Yeah, which is cool because we actually buy these products and use them for our own children. We do. A successful diaper change requires great diapers and wipes that just work, and so for us that means we choose Honest for our little baby, and now the Honest Clean Conscious diapers are even better. These Honest diapers have a comfort dry technology that absorbs wetness in seconds, while also being plant-based, hypoallergenic, and fragrance-free. They are designed to protect that precious baby skin, keeping them dry, while they're also super stretchy and have soft sides for this irritation-free fit. Yeah, now each size specifically designed to meet the needs of your baby as they grow. Sizes newborn and one have this umbilical cutout that you saw in baby Hank to keep the diaper away from baby's healing umbilical cord. Sizes one and two have these double poo pockets that catch all of those extra messy situations, and then sizes three to seven have super stretchy sides to provide a ridiculously soft but strong flexibility that gives the perfect diaper fit for our growing baby on the go. Honest Thick and Durable Clean Conscious Wipes also love Game Changer for our family. They are just awesome. They are great at doing the dirty work of getting baby's bottom clean, while also being incredibly gentle on that delicate skin. Yeah, now you can find Honest diapers and their amazing Thick and Durable Clean Conscious Wipes at Walmart, Target, Amazon, and on ominous.com. So this episode was inspired by um one of my good friends who was having their first baby this year and she goes yeah my husband is googling how to change a diaper and I said we need to make an episode for that. And which I think was even me when I was a pediatric resident for the first time I hadn't changed a diaper in real life until I was in medical physician in the newborn nursery and like you'd open up a diaper and you if you find a poopy diaper you have to change it. Um some like really good parenting things things like whether you're the partner or support person I always thought it was great like as dad to like try to change as many diapers as possible. One of our echo stenographers at work today actually was saying like oh he's trying to change all the diapers he's new dad like what a great support that is if you're the support person trying to be the diaper changer in the middle of the night like mom's doing all the feeds you're changing all the dirty butts great do that. I did promise a tip about decreasing the risk of diaper rash. A big thing with diaper rash is just your baby sitting in moisture. Now like new diapers they're so absorbent especially these honest diapers we used for this episode we found are really absorbent but still like over night time or especially if there's poop like just like the skin gets kind of soggy sometimes. It's just damp. Damp. It's just damp. And so helping the skin dry out helping it be able to do its normal functions and so something that we learned with our first baby was we called it windy bottoms. Okay don't judge us too hard for that. We'd take a diaper before we change and just like make some wind on the bare bottom of our baby. Like airing them out even if they have a little rash I think the benefit of like some diaper free time and to let their little buns air out and be completely dry. But even as little as five to ten seconds at a time of every diaper change just helps their bottom get dry before you put on that new dry diaper and for us made a huge difference. Now this is what our Hank is wearing now six months as compared to where he was at for the video that you saw recorded here when he was just eight days old. So little tiny butts. Six month old butts. So any other like in real life tips about diaper changes for new expecting parents or care providers helpers? You know having a good light in the middle of the night for middle of the night changes. But like not too bright. Yeah so like we had like a red light or like orange light that was kind of dim but like allowed you to see what you're doing. Yep. So that you aren't like waking the baby up in the middle of the night for those changes. Having a great changing pad place table has been a game changer for us too whether you like you know our one dresser has a little place to change or we bought a specific high changing table for us. A wipeable surface to be doing some of these on a changing pad or something that is wipeable. Now most of those wipeable plastic things are chilly in the middle of the night so what we usually do is put a little blanket or a thin receiving blanket that like hey like this is going to get dirty that's okay you throw it in the wash but it keeps them from having to put the baby on something cold and plastic in the middle of night and get some angry so that they can you know changing a happy baby is easier than changing a screaming baby. But if they also pee all over everything or you happen to get poop on something you just wipe it up with the blanket we're ready to go. And so that's as opposed to I remember like at my mom she has one of those old like changing pads that's like this thick foam pad it has this cloth cover that we take off every time. It's just a big pain. It's just a thing. I would say also we mentioned it I mentioned in the video great wipes like just have a good wipe like like scent free, dye free, fragrance free like really helps but like like we truly really enjoy these honest wipes. We buy them for ourselves in bulk for our own kids. You should pan over to the shelf. Yeah um and just like you know they're great great wipes like we've used other brands in the past that have been totally fine but like these wipes have been worth it because I can often get away with using one instead of using two of the other brands we're using before so. I also think it's worth saying we buy all our honest diapers and wipes. We could buy whatever we want and this is what we use for our kids because we think they're really great. These nice diapers on their little buns and their wipes are awesome for toddlers and babies and like yeah. So anyway also hopefully you've been following along with our newborn series. We've been going kind of week by week and then month by month following through like as our third baby now You may also catch a bunch of our pregnancy tips um thinking about parenting toddlers, potty training, all those things. Check out our channel if you're new to us. Make sure you're subscribed and we will see you guys next time. We're doctors but not your doctors. Anything we've said in this video is for education or entertainment purposes only. It is not medical advice. Any specific medical questions you have should be directed to your provider.