Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Can I use diaper for newborn in India?

My husband and I were physically drained a week after our son's birth. A good part of this was attributed to the exercise of changing his cloth nappies every 10 minutes. I am not exaggerating at all. Since the digestive system in new born is not fully developed and is highly immature, they tend to urinate and poop a lot. It got so taxing in the nights, that we would subconsciously change his Nappy and just throw it from the bed into the dustbin. Over days, we had perfected the art of throwing into the dustbin :)

Anyways so we asked the Doc if we could use diapers. He recommended against it. This is largely because of the climatic conditions in India. Being a tropical country wherein most houses are still not equipped with an a/c, the baby can develop rashes easily causing him discomfort. So cloth nappies are the best. Arrange for someone to do the laundry atleast twice everyday so that it doesn't pile up.

However, you might try this. On some rough nights, when the baby hasn't slept through the day , you might want to use a diaper in the night. This will give him a undisturbed night of sleep. And you also need not be worried about your baby sleeping in a wet bed. I found our son to sleep through the night when he wore a diaper. Apply a diaper rash cream the next morning. Similarly, when you are sick too, put a diaper on as a precaution even if you sleep and forget to check in intervals for a wet bed.

Similarly, when we take him out I put a diaper on. Check out Pampers' diaper for newborns.