Parenting tip of the day

This is for expectant moms and dads and parents with brand-new babies.

Once all the expectation and anxiety of waiting for baby to arrive has passed, new parents are faced with a metric they probably never contemplated before: monitoring their baby's "output."

Since it's impossible to measure exactly how much colostrum/breastmilk is going into your newborn, we use the rule "what comes out must have gone in" to determine if our wee ones are getting the critical early nourishment they need. Our attentions are now completely captured by how the baby is latching and what is going on the diaper -- the latter part, our gross new reality (don't talk about this with your childless friends).

But diapers are so absorbent it's hard to know for certain if your baby has wet her diaper. A kind woman from La Leche League shared this bit of advice with me when Cameron was just a few days old, and it proved very reassuring:

Place a tiny square of toilet paper of paper in the diaper right over the critical parts. When you check it, you'll know your child has peed if that piece of tissue is soaked. And if it's not, and it's been a while, you'll know to ask your midwife, doctor or nurse for advice.

Comments

[Alexis]

Or use cloth diapers - with cloth we could always tell if there'd been any "output". Grin.

[Annika]

Alternately, you can always tell how wet a cloth diaper is. And they're cheaper, too.