3650 nappy changes: make the worst the best

I read somewhere that you can’t consider yourself a true mummy blogger until you’ve written about poop. So here goes!

By the time your baby is two years old you could have easily changed their nappy 3650 times. That’s a lot of nappies and let’s face it, poopy nappies aren’t one of the perks of being a parent. My suggestion this week, thinking about giving your baby a great start in life, is to re-frame how your view nappy change time. How about having 3650 occasions when you can gaze into your babies eyes and really connect with them? When you have some one-to-one language tuition or help them learn to count?

I think especially when you have more than one child in your family, or when you’re childminding or working in a setting with several other children, changing a baby’s nappy gives you a valuable time to focus solely on them. Here are some ideas you could incorporate into your changing times this week, helping them develop language, maths and more, simply as part of your daily routine.

• Make eye contact and chat together. Give a running commentary on what you’re doing, ask your baby’s permission before you touch them and pause to give them the opportunity to respond. This helps your baby’s language development and teaches them that you respect them. One day soon they’ll start to answer you back.
• Count their buttons and poppers as you undo and fasten them, and look forward to the day when they join in with you.
• Sing a song. Your baby will love the sound of your voice (even if it’s as tuneless as mine!) and the rhythms of traditional nursery rhymes are well suited to learning your spoken language.
• Pull funny faces as see if you can make them giggle. This encourages them to focus on your face and begin to understand how different expressions convey different meaning.

All of these are such simple ideas and so easy to incorporate in your routine but over those 3650 occasions they can make a real difference. I think adopting this more mindful approach to nappy time makes changing time much nicer for us too, as we are conscious that the care we give to our baby is part of how we educate them too. What are your tips for nappy time?
Our SUPERbaby play series focuses on simple, playful ideas you can use with the youngest of children to have fun and encourage them to develop important early learning skills. The emphasis is on ideas you can easily fit into a busy week, using materials you’ll have around your home. View all our SUPERbaby ideas here.