Be Prepared
If you are out and about on the move with your baby, there is every chance that you will need to change their diaper at some point – it is not ideal, as anyone will tell you, to change a diaper in a setting that is outside your home, but sometimes it is simply unavoidable. In this respect, you will need to be prepared. Any trip that you make out of doors with your child will need to be planned with a good deal of awareness of what it takes. The first thing to be aware of is that you will need to take quite a few things, but they need to be easily portable – so taking just the right amount is crucial.
Firstly, you will obviously need a clean diaper. Ideally, before going out you will have changed your baby to put on a disposable diaper. The reason for this is one of disposal, as throwing away a soiled cloth diaper means you have one less in your rotation, but carrying it around is of course less than desirable. Also for disposal, you may want to carry a bag – not indispensable, but nicer for whoever has to empty the garbage pail in which you dispose of the diaper. As well as this, some moist wipes will help with cleaning your baby’s affected area. A change of clothes is also advisable, in case the old diaper has leaked and soiled the outer clothing. The change should, of course, take place in a public washroom for reasons of privacy and practicality.
As your baby grows…
Initially, your baby will want to feed between eight and twelve times a day. This is because it has a very small stomach and can only eat a small amount at a time and – as you will become aware very quickly – it will process the food very quickly into its diaper. As he or she grows, however, so will their stomach and the time between meals will become longer. As a parent, the most welcome effect of this is that they will begin to wake less often in the night wishing to be fed. However, real life is never so simple, so you may have a few false starts before you eventually reach the stage where your child is not waking you most nights.
Part of this process is weaning your child. There will inevitably be some resistance from the baby in this respect. They have become attuned to being fed at a certain time each night, and a change in this routine will be an unwelcome one – they are babies after all, and the concept of change is in a lot of respects a completely alien one for them. Sooner or later it has to happen, and the best way to ensure it is a success is to schedule things so that they are fed shortly before you go to bed for the night – thus hopefully encouraging them to sleep through to the morning.
As your baby grows, you will find that they can eat more at one sitting, so take advantage of this by making each meal time more thorough and letting them eat their fill each time.