Normal for daycare to change diaper only every two hours?

[kboswell]

I just returned to work and my four-month baby girl has started her first week of daycare--this may just be the new mom in me, but I'm having a really difficult time transitioning to the new world of daycare. My main concern is the fact that they only change her diaper every two hours. I know my baby goes through more than one diaper in a two-hour period and she also happens to be the sort that doesn't like a wet one. She may be little, but she already has her little opinions and whenever she has a wet diaper she starts to babble more and then moves into crying. The first day only increased my paranoia--she pooped through her diaper and on to her pants (which I understand can happen) but she came home with poop still stuck to her little bottom. I talked to the providers about that issue, but am I supposed to just get used to the two-hour-wet-diaper rule? Am I supposed to force my baby girl to accept the same? Any thoughts...am I overreacting? Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Really? Unless my child was soaking, every 2 hours is really sufficient.

[Anonymous]

It's been a long time since I was a mom to a newborn. But after three kids having gone through daycare, what I found is that unless there is a poop, changing is done on a schedule. Same thing happens when they toilet - they all line up and go at the preset time. My guess is that if she really hates it and cries when she is wet, they will change her more often. But, even from a very young age, kids behave differently in daycare than they do at home.

[Anonymous]

I see no problem with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's been a long time since I was a mom to a newborn. But after three kids having gone through daycare, what I found is that unless there is a poop, changing is done on a schedule. Same thing happens when they toilet - they all line up and go at the preset time. My guess is that if she really hates it and cries when she is wet, they will change her more often. But, even from a very young age, kids behave differently in daycare than they do at home.

I agree with a lot of this. If your child is in discomfort, they will/should change her. Every two hours is generally sufficient, but if yours is bothered, they should do it more frequently. I'd be on the lookout for rashes, though.

[Anonymous]

I think every two hours is great. It's better than what we do at home.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is also four months old and has been in daycare for about a month now. Our daycare changes diapers as needed, but as other commenters have said, they also change on a schedule to be sure the babies are in a clean diaper most of the day. That seems really strict if your daycare isn't also changing on an as needed basis.

Did your daycare ask you for any feedback on your child before you started? I know we had to fill out a sheet on our daughter's likes/dislikes/preferences, and since she rarely fusses when she's in need of a diaper change we made sure to note that so her caregivers would know and could perhaps check her more often rather than waiting for her to fuss and let them know she needed a new diaper.

[Anonymous]

When my kids were infants I felt the exact opposite way. I thought they changed the diapers way to frequently . They reported changing the diapers like 6 or 8 times a day and that drove me nuts - diapers are expensive and bad for the environment. Yes, a poop needs immediate attention, a little urine does not. Those diapers are very absorbant.

[Anonymous]

this is how mine does it as well

[Anonymous]

I think mine does it this way too, except in poop situations. she probably gets changed at daycare more often than she does at home - I pretty much do it when she wakes up and then whenever we're leaving the house or she's going to bed or whatever, and she's occasionally in a diaper for 3 hours if she doesn't seem uncomfortable. (and if you think about it, they're in the same diaper all night!)

there were a couple of times that she was sitting in a poopy diaper when I went to pick her up, and I felt really bad for her. But that hasn't happened in months. if she's consistently not being cleaned properly (i.e. if that's happened more than once), you should bring it up to someone, as that can cause diaper rash, I think.

[Anonymous]

They change my DS every 2 hours at his daycare also.

Honestly, even when we're home with him, I'm not sure that we even do every 2 hours! There have been times when we're out and we go 4-5 hours just because I don't want to have to schlep him over to a changing station.

And, yes there have been times where DS has had a little poop on his butt, leading to diaper rash, but I know that DS can be a little crazy during diaper changes, so I haven't made an issue of it. I guess if it happens all the time, I'd be a little worried.

[Anonymous]

This is one of the prices of using daycare unfortunately. AFter spending all of my maternity leave making sure DD was changed immediately after every pee and poop, the idea of changing on a schedule seemed shocking. But I totally understand that with several babies to look after, they can't be as vigilant as I am one on one.

If you really feel strongly about more frequent changes, you can probably get them to move to something more like a 1 and 1/2 hour schedule for the first month or so when she is really young. but I think 2 hours is very reasonable.

but one thing I did was ask them to use diaper cream as a barrier at every diaper change.

[Anonymous]

You can do that, but they'll laugh at you when you're not looking.

[Anonymous]

On pooping through her diaper - in my experience with my children, they all started having blow-outs right around the 3-4 month mark. I don't know if it was something with their digestive system developing or what, but like clockwork they all had a period of blow outs at that age. I wouldn't necessarily attribute it to something your daycare is doing wrong.

If she doesn't develop a diaper rash, I'd say they are changing her often enough.

[kboswell]

Thank you all for your responses. I spoke with my daughter's daycare and asked for them to check her more frequently if possible. They were very responsive and the next day's report showed that she was changed more often. I think it will help us make the transition to daycare with a little less worrying.