If you are a young mother or planning to be a mother soon, one of the things that you have to budget is your baby’s diapers for years. I heard mothers and fathers complaining about how expensive it is to have a baby because of their diapers.
A healthy baby can use about five diapers or more in 24 hours. It may become less as they grow up, but still a lot of money and a heavy burden when our income is not steady or when the salary is just enough to buy food. I know because I experienced it, I am just blessed with a wife who knew what she was doing in order to lessen our expenses on diapers.
My wife taught me how, actually, I learned by observing her.
When we had our first child, I thought I was going to spend a lot on diapers for at least three years, and also laundry soap to wash his nappies. I was just happy my wife is a firm believer of breastfeeding, so, I didn’t have to worry about milk.
On the first day to two months I was buying diapers and to control using much of it, we had to use nappies during the day and use only diapers when we go out.
At night, we get up to change wet diaper at least two times.
Then on the second month, I was amazed that my wife was getting up not to change diapers but taking the baby in the washroom and had him empty his bladder. I asked how she knew it’s time for the baby to urinate. She told me the baby give signs which she learned by observing the pattern of his waking up, the noise or movements he did to signal he was about to urinate.
But how did she know the baby was not asking for her milk? Well, that’s another sign – the baby will automatically move his head and look for his food. But before feeding him, she would bring him first to the washroom to relieve him. However, that doesn’t apply to his emptying his bowel until he was five or six months old, and completely no more diapers when they were already 10 months old.
We have four children. All of them were trained the same thing, though the youngest, who is now two years old was trained when she was four months old, and she is no longer using any diaper at all. Our friends and neighbors, who have the same age or even older child than her, are amazed when she would say “Pee-pee” when she needs to urinate or “Pooh-pooh” when she needs to empty her bowels.
Well, this one was an old traditional way of mothers in the old days to start disciplining their children. It only changed when new things were made to make life easier – or should I say in the contrary because one must work harder to meet the modern needs of life today.
