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Busy Bee Daycare Guidelines: Diaper Changing
One thing all staff at the Busy Bee Daycare are responsible for-from the headmistress all the way down to our local volunteers from the highschool- is the changing of diapers. But we have very specific âDoâsâ and âDo Notâsâ here and itâs important to follow them.
Before you even start changing a diaper, youâll want to make sure that all your charges are properly accounted for. Sometimes one baby boy or girl will use a classmate getting changed as an opportunity to escape.
This is why many of our teachers choose to make diaper changing part of their scheduled routine where they can have their whole class line up or sit in plain sight while they change everyone. Thatâs not a hard and fast rule, however. Sometimes a diaper REALLY needs changing, if you know what I mean. Ha-ha!
What IS a hard and fast rule is that before you start to change a diaper, make sure you have another adult in the room with you. Make sure you have another set of eyes just in case one of the little ones get bit by the mischief bug. It also helps to have a witness in the unlikely event that a baby boy or girl accuses you of something you didnât do and their parents actually believe them.
No matter what, have someone else nearby. If no one is around, call for help and wait. Itâs better to make a little one have to wait an extra five minutes to get changed than it is for something awful to happen.
So letâs take a quick survey. Iâve got my assistant, Miss Kotack, here holding the camera. Iâve got our volunteer to practice on. And all the other kiddos are being supervised elsewhere. Not gonna get any safer than that.
The coast is clear, itâs time to change the baby. What do we do first? We tell them of course! The first thing to do when changing a little oneâs diaper is to announce it.
It can either be because itâs time to change everyoneâs diaper as scheduled, or it can be because one of your charges really needs it and isnât going to make it until the next scheduled change. In this case, since we just have our special helper, weâre going to assume this is an impromptu change and not a scheduled pit stop.
Youâre going to approach them and get their attention. You say âJohnnyâ, or âSusieâ or whatever their name is and then âLetâs go change your diaper.â Some people like to check their diaper by slipping in a couple fingers or by patting them down and seeing how much crinkle the diaper has left, but honestly after a while some people can just tell by sight or smell. Either way, call them by name. Let them know that YOUâRE talking to THEM.
You might want to act like youâre surprised and say âUh oh! Johnny! You need a diaper change!â It doesnât have to be. Little ones often donât know when they need changing and so echoing their surprise often brings a sort of comfort to them. They didnât notice. Neither did you till just now, so they donât feel so bad.
Some experts warn against this because it might incentivize the babies to think they can grow up or that theyâre adults. They start to think that if they discover it before you do, it might be seen as a sign of improvement or something. Others say that babies sometimes mistakenly equate surprise with shock or disappointment in them, and we want to avoid that too.
Remember what we said in our last module: Being a baby isnât a punishment, because all punishments are supposed to end.
Iâve nothing against the âfind outâ method, but I personally prefer to just announce it. I say âCome along baby, Susie. Itâs time to change your diaper,â and I guide them by the hand or pick them up and move them to the changing area.
Whatever you do, you DONâT want to phrase it as a question. You donât want to say, âAre you ready to have your diaper changed?â or âDo you need a change?â. You donât want to give them the idea that itâs up to them or that they can say ânoâ. At best, youâll end up with babies who are constantly running up to you and demanding they be changed when theyâre just a tiny bit wet. Usually though, youâll just reinforce silly ideas like that theyâre the adults they still think they are.
When it comes to deciding when to change them my philosophy is âTheir diaper isnât their problem, itâs your problem.â So itâs ultimately your decision when to change them. I do like to add in my own little joke that SOMETIMES itâs their diaperâs decision. Leaks happen, donâtcha know?
Usually at this stage, a lot of our newer charges will insist that theyâre already potty trained or donât need to be changed. Thatâs really just them stalling. They want to keep playing or whatever and in their silly minds they think delaying things somehow means theyâll get to play longer when itâs quite the opposite.
Donât argue. Thereâs no reasoning with them. If you HAVE to tell them something because the little boogers are just tugging on your heartstrings and their so precocious, just tell them that their potty training is up to their Mommy and Daddy.
Itâs not your fault. Itâs not your decision. Youâre not here to debate, youâre here to take care of them until their caregivers come and pick them up. Simple as that.
After you transport them over to the changing table, there are two things that youâre going to want to do very quickly: Make sure their extra clothing is out of the way, and make sure theyâre secure. That means you hike up their dresses, unbutton their onesies, pull their pants down, the whole nine yards. You want anything that might get wet or messy when you open the diaper to be out of the way.
Thatâs why I personally love onesies. If theyâre wearing pants, you might have to tug the whole thing off and then have to put it back on after the change. Itâs not school policy, but I tend to nudge my chargeâs parents to put them in clothes with snappies. Babies have big imaginations, but itâs harder to pretend when their clothes donât look quite as much like a grown-ups.
As soon as the babyâs got their diaper uncovered youâll want to secure them to the changing station. Pull this strap right over their chests, nice and snug so they canât go anywhere while youâre cleaning them up. Sometimes they get a little frisky and start exploring below the waist, so if your little one canât control themselves, youâll want to use the wrist restraints too. No need to scold them; but touching ourselves isnât something that we do here.
Now that the baby is secure, make sure to get everything youâll need for the diaper change. Put on your gloves. Get out the cream and the powder. Make sure you have enough wipes. And of course youâll want to get the new diaper.
We keep all our chargesâ diapers in separate stacks and little caddies right underneath the changing table, so itâll be easy to find and keep track of how many diapers a little one is going through in a day. I like to use the few seconds it takes to get the fresh diaper as a way to remind them who they really are.
Iâll say âHmmmâŠwhereâs Phillipâs diapers? I see Bethanyâs diapers. I see Mikeyâs diapers. Oh! Hereâs Phillipâs diapers!â I let them hear the names of their classmates and little friends, so they realize that wearing diapers is normal for them.
At first, they might start making up ridiculous stories about how theyâre actually adults. They might start saying ages or professions that they heard on the television. They might try to convince you that their pretend play is the real thing. Once again. Donât argue. Donât listen. Just start changing their diapers.
Because funnily enoughâŠthey tend to go quiet once you open up their diapers. Itâs hard for them to pretend when the truth is right there.
To help with that truth and to let them know that their safe, narrate what youâre doing at every step. âIâm wiping the poopy off your bottom, Cindy.â âThatâs a lot of pee Jakey.â
Some teachers like to sing little songs or play games with it, and thatâs okay too.
If they seem particularly upset or in denial I like to give them tiny little reminders to help cut through the pretend silliness. âIâm wiping your poopy bottom, Brian. If you were a big boy, youâd wipe your own hiney, wouldnât you? And thereâd be a lot less to clean up because youâd have gone poopy in the potty.â Or âYouâre diaper was super wet, wasnât it Mary? If you were a big girl youâd have made a puddle all over the floor and ruined your pretty dress!â
Make sure not to miss any spots when youâre cleaning up and put all the used wipes in the old diaper. Then you just ball it up and toss it into the diaper pail, like this. âIsnât that neat, baby? All gone! Now you get a nice, clean diaper!
Oops! I almost forgot. Most babies donât really understand the difference between a big kid and an adult. They just see someone not wearing diapers and think theyâre both the same thing. Theyâre not adults, not even close. Donât even entertain that thought. If youâre going to do a compare and contrast, compare them to big kids.
If you can get them to start insisting that their big kids instead of adults, youâre over halfway there. Weâll cover that more on our classroom management.
Once youâve wiped them and applied cream and powdered them, all thatâs left to do is to pull the front of the diaper up and to tapeâŠitâŠon. There!
No matter what though, you want to phrase the change as a positive. Definitely hammer it home that theyâre the babies everyone says they are, but thatâs okay. âThere we go! All clean! I bet that feels so much better! If you were a big boy or a big girl youâd be soooo embarrassed, wouldnât you baby? All your friends would laugh at you and your Mommy and Daddy would be soooo mad. Good thing youâre not a big kid! Right? Right.â
Then all you need to do is get their other clothes back on them. Remove the restraints. Snap everything that needs to be snapped, cover everything that needs to be covered. Then set them back down, and let them go back to play or nap time or whatever is next for them.
So? Any questions? If you do, feel free to ask your supervisor for pointers. If you have any worries orâŠletâs just say âsecond doubtsâ about whether or not this is the right career field for you, please let us know that too! Weâll be happy to help!
That part of the training video still lives rent free in your head. It haunts your nightmares and if not for your binky youâd wake up screaming every night.
You never watched that part of the trainee video. You were the âspecial helperâ in it. They reshot it just for you. Your actions forced them to.
Now every time thereâs a new daycare worker at Busy Bee Daycare, they recognize you and tell you so, just before they reenact that change beat for beat.
Thatâs also how you typically find out when one of the newbies was almost an employee. They see you and their jaw drops open, like they canât believe youâre really real. The first thing they do is ask what your real name is.
Youâre not the first person who had their adulthood stolen by that place. Just the first that had second thoughts about doing it to somebody else.
You donât know if itâs comforting or not that you were in no way the last.