Baby Diaper Changing Tips

During the first year of our little one’s life, we spend so much time changing diapers. In early childhood centers, this is considered a perfect opportunity for some quality individual interactions with a baby. It’s such an easy few minutes to spend time with your child since they already have all your attention. You might as well use this time for learning. So what can families do to make diaper changes more fun?

Prepare for Diaper Changes

Start by having the area prepared for diaper changing. Be sure to have diapers, wipes, creams/ointments, and a change of clothes close by. Having everything prepared helps you to focus on your little. It also makes the diaper changing so much more efficient. No more leaving your child because you need to go grab something.

To make the diaper changing even more efficient, have the diaper open nearby and have the wipe container already open with wipes out. Even though you may not need it, it’s best to have any creams, ointments, or powders set out too. This way if you discover your child needs one, then you’ve got it. And if you don’t need it, no big deal, just put it back into your basket.

We contain all our diaper changing needs in baskets near our diaper changing area. If you use a changing table with drawers or hanging baskets, this is a great option for storage too. Whichever you choose, be sure it’s easy and has room to grow with your child as the size of their diapers grow.

How to Actually Change a Diaper

Just in case you are a new parent and diaper changes are feeling stressful, let’s review the basics of changing a baby’s diaper. I’ll put the steps in order and try to make them as quick and easy as possible. Changing a baby’s diaper should take you between 2 – 5 minutes depending on your child. This 10 step process, walks you through each step and even includes the why we do things a specific way.

Before your Begin the Diaper Change

Step 1: Set everything up as per the above section.

Step 2: Let your baby know it’s time for a diaper change and bring them to your diaper changing area (or at least where you decided to set everything up this time). This can be as simple as saying, “It’s time to change your diaper,” or “Let’s get you a fresh diaper.”

Step 3: Lay your baby down on their back. If you are changing a toddler, you can learn about standing diaper changes but save these until your little one can stand well.

The Quick Diaper Change Steps

Step 4: Open the velcro latches (or pins or snaps) on the diaper and pull the diaper open. This depends on the type of diaper you decide to use. If your little one is wearing clothes, you will need to open or remove them to be able to get to the diaper.

Step 5: Wipe from the front to the back. Use as many wipes as you need to thoroughly clean your child. We wipe front to back to prevent infections. This is especially important for little girls. Place the used wipes in the dirty diaper.

Step 6: Remove the used diaper by picking up your baby’s legs and sliding the diaper away. Fold the top of the diaper over to contain the mess inside so your little one doesn’t touch the dirty diaper. All the used wipes will be inside the dirty diaper too. We try to keep the diaper to our side and a little behind us to keep it out of reach of your baby.

Step 7: Slide the open new diaper under your baby’s bottom while you have them up. We do this quickly in combination with step 6. Use one hand to hold the baby’s legs. The other hand slides out the used diaper and then slides in the new diaper.

Step 8: Fold up the new diaper and fasten the velcro latches. We do this before fastening and cleaning up the dirty diaper to try to prevent our little one from making any kind of new mess. By getting the new diaper fastened into place quickly, your baby can go potty while you clean up the diaper changing area and you don’t have to worry about anything.

Final Touches on the Diaper Change

Step 9: Fasten the dirty diaper for disposal. With all the used wipes inside of the diaper, fold the top of the diaper folded in half down to trap everything inside. Then fold in each side and fasten the velcro latches to contain everything. Place the dirty diaper into your choose garbage so that your little one doesn’t find it later.

Step 10: Finally, wash your baby’s and your own hands. We love to end with a good handwashing to help keep everyone healthy. Even if you know your little one didn’t touch anything during the diaper change, they have been touching things while awake. Plus, many babies suck on thumbs or fingers, so keeping their hands clean is especially important. And of course, redress your baby in their clothes. Snap buttons or put their pants back on.

Diaper Changing Routine

Have a diaper changing routine for your little one. A routine is so important to help your little one understand what is expected while changing their diaper. We started by telling our baby it was time to change their diaper. Once in the diaper area, we played a little game/sang a song with our little one. Bicycle their legs or clap their hands. Just a little something to prepare your little one for what is to come. Then change the diaper quickly and efficiently while talking to your child.

This is a great time to describe what you are doing. Go ahead and tell your child each step in the diaper changing process. This does two wonderful things. First, you are occupying your baby so they are less likely to need to touch their used diaper. Second, you are helping your little one to build their language skills.

Once the diaper is changed, ask your little one to help put their clothes back on as much as they can. Maybe you ask them to kick their leg or stand up while you hold them. Afterwards, have some way to finish the diaper changing. We liked to thank our little one for letting us change them, have them help us throw away the diaper and wash their hands. Be sure to let your baby know that diaper changing is all done too.

Diaper Changes are Learning Time Too

Throughout your child’s day, there are a few dedicated times when your attention is solely focused on your child. We have found it best to use these times to engage with and really focus on our baby. For us, nothing was better than those diaper changing times. Bath time is another great time and once your child starts eating solid foods, meal times work well. Take these short child-focused times and turn them into learning times.

Talk with Your Child

Use baby diaper changing time to talk with your little one. While changing their diaper sing a song, talk about what you are doing, or even share a favorite story from your day/life. Letting your little one hear your voice tends to keep them more calm, still, and happy throughout the diaper change. Plus, it’s a great way to build their language skills.

If you happen to speak another language, this is a great time to remind yourself to speak to your child in a second language. And if you don’t know one but want your child to learn another language, use diaper changing times to both work on your language skills together. Translate a few key phrases or songs and try to use these as often as you can with your little one.

This is great to talk about learning skills too! We loved to count buttons, describe items we see in our environment and even talk about family members too. Taking a moment to count with each diaper change can help your child develop their counting skills, even if you are just counting the 3 buttons on their onesie. Describing words and colors is wonderful too. The more language your baby hears, the better for developing their own language and vocabulary. If you really want to go above, you can decorate your child’s diaper changing area with vivid pictures too.

Keeping Little Hands Busy – Developing Motor Skills

Finding a way to keep your little one’s hands busy is crucial during diaper changes. It’s always the worse when you little one gets their hands into the diaper. Just a mess and so much more to clean up! We have found it better to prepare for your baby’s hands during each diaper change.

When your baby is still too little to control toys, roll their hands into their shirt or pajamas. This effectively keeps their hands away from anything you don’t want them touching by limiting their range of motion for those more reflexive movements. As your child’s coordination grows, planning for baby diaper changes takes a bit more work.

When your little one can reach for and grasp toys, it’s time to develop a plan for diaper changing. You can give your baby a toy or book to hold (just be sure it’s soft). Lights or mobiles hanging over head give your little one something to reach for and look at too. You can also clip toys to the side of the changing table to encourage your little one to reach for these or lay toys around your baby. Use your words to encourage your baby to point at or grab different toys or pictures while changing your baby’s diaper.

After the Diaper Change

After the diaper change, encourage hand washing. With your infant, this might start as a wash cloth with some kid soap and water. As your baby grows, you can bring them to the sink and assist in the hand washing there too. Mine always loved to play in the bubbles from the soap after we washed our hands. Not only are their hands getting clean, but they are also having a little fun. Be sure to roll up sleeves and teach about how to turn on and off the faucet as well as how much soap they really need.

If you are worried about using soap with your little, use the same soap that you use during bath time. We bought a small bottle to keep by our bathroom or kitchen sink, wherever you will wash your baby’s hands. Then just use this when washing hands after each diaper change. If your preferred brand of soap doesn’t make a small bottle, you can pick up some 2 oz pump bottles. These are great because they are small enough to back if you travel with baby too.

We’d Love for You to Connect with Us!

As your little one grows, read our Making Diaper Changes Fun for Toddlers and learn more about standing diaper changes. These are a game changer when it comes to toddlers. If you have any concerns about your baby’s development, don’t miss our Early Intervention series. We’ve had 2 of our 4 use this service and just wish we had known more about it sooner. We got a few other great posts to help new parents or parents with a new baby. Some of our best include Newborn Sleep Schedules, Making a Tummy Time Plan, Breastfeeding Must Haves, and Reading with Your Baby.

Got more tips for diaper changes? Loved this post? Ready to tackle baby diaper changing and add in some learning time too? Drop us a comment below and let us know. If you liked this post, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter below for more practical solutions to real life problems and a few freebies thrown in from time to time. Welcome to our family.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.