a simple baby change table
In my attempts to maintain as much physical and visual space in our home, I’ve decided to forgo the traditional trolley-style baby change table. Granted, somewhere to change baby’s nappy is necessary but as most parents would agree, it’s a task that can (and will) be done just about anywhere.
I realise that a traditional change table is a very practical item to purchase in preparation for a newborn; it offers safety for baby and plenty of storage for nappies, wipes, creams and clothes. But generally they’re quite cumbersome and I know from my experience with Poet that they definitely aren’t essential – any flat surface will do just fine.
For a simple and portable change station, all you need is:
– a change mat (and if you want to keep things even simpler, a travel mat will do just fine).
– a change mat cover – I’ve had my econino one for four years now and it’s still in fabulous condition (currently on sale)
– nappies and wipes
– your preferred cream (I swear by Tui Balm)
– a small toy for baby at 3+ months (because hands down there make for a very messy and slightly stressful time).
I’ve placed all my necessary items in a basket that will sit quite happily in the corner of the bedroom. When I’m not using it, the change mat will just slide under the bed.
disclaimer: whilst I recognise the economic and environmental benefits of cloth nappies, I am most definitely not a cloth nappy mum. I have tried them in the past and I found the entire rigmarole of soaking, washing and drying to be a lot of work. Sure, it felt good to know I wasn’t making a significant contribution towards landfill but the entire task induced far too much anxiety for my own good (especially when deadlines were looming and clean nappies were nowhere to be found).
Dear Jodi,
I am a cloth diaper mom but one of the laziest kind: we only use AIO's ( all-in-one's). I most definetely understand that it's to much work and causes anxiety especially with a newborn (and two more kids!!). Also, I think there are wonderful eco nappy options available that use almost only recyceld and/or natural materials. Anyways, that's not really what I wanted to comment about! We found that normal household olive oil worked best for baby's nappy area as long as it's a fairly acid free (which is what we purchase anyways). It's all natural, provided a perfectly moist oily layer. Just a small tipp!
Sorry, typed this on my phone, so many mistakes + auto corrects!
Hi Sarah – I'm about to have my 2nd baby and I'm planning on having cloth nappies this time round – it's good to know even lazy mamas [waves] can manage with cloth nappies. Good tip re the olive oil, may I ask if this affects the effectiveness of the cloth absorbency or stains at all?
Oh, and Jodi – if you have a prewash cycle on your washing machine you shouldn't need to soak before washing – so I'm told 🙂 We never bothered with a change table either – far too many flat surfaces waiting for a wriggling baby in our home to justify bringing in a table specifically for the job 🙂
I just typed out a lengthy reply only to delete it by accident…so, here we go again 🙂 :
Dear hello poppet,
It took us a good long while to really get on board with cloth nappies, to feel eniretly comfortable and trust that they are just as good and easy to use as normal nappies. Now, after we've been using them over 8 months we love them and it feels great not to have to buy piles of plastic only to throw it out a very short while later. That being said: there is a definetely a learning curve, there will be frustrating moments and yes, a lot more time spent with washing dirty, hanging wet and putting away fresh laundry. But! No, there usually is no soaking, at least with the kind of cloth nappies we use. Also, as soon as your kid (sorry can't avoid certain terms) starts pooping more ehm..solidly (?) you can use a kind of special fleece (it's paper really) that you just throw in the toilet once the diaper is full.
Anyways, rambling again. Yes, olive oil does stain the nappy but it washes out perfectly,. It doesn't affect the effectivness of the nappy though, as far as we can say. Samuel (almost 10 month now) has never had a rash which I think both the cloth nappies and the olive oil are to thank for. Two more things: we only use the olive oil when there is a bit of redness, it goes away immediately. Otherwise Sam's bum stays entirely cream and oil free. Secondly, do use specific cloth diaper washing powder! It's really worth the extra pennies. Done! Congrats on the pregnancy!
I love the simplicity of this, love your uncluttered room, love the basket and colours. I too tried the cloth nappies, especially with my first, and for about 1 week with my second, but when they started piling up on the floor because the nappy bucket was already full that was the end of them. You do what you can, but in the end it comes down to survival. Look after yourself mumma. xo
I'd love for our house to be as pretty. But the reality is I love my change table! Hidden in the nursery with pretty baskets on the shelves it's not too much of an eyesore and it saves my back and the sides help with a very rolly baby!
I really wanted to be a cloth diaper mom, but I had the same experience as you.
We did something similar with our third baby – we have a changing table in the nursery but as his big sister was still sleeping in the cot when he arrived we needed something for night changes so a big travel mat and a basket of nappies sat on my bedside table and I changed him on the corner of our bed when he was really tiny!
As a mom of an only, many were surprised at the things we didn't buy when we had our little man, a change table was one of them. Everyone thought we needed every baby thing created, but we chose to keep it simple. We did exactly as you are doing for changing diapers, and it worked out perfectly.
haha we ended up going one step further and getting rid of the cover because when it got dirty it needed laundering while the plastic change pad can just be wiped.
I love your disclaimer – I went thru the same thing with cloth diapers and found my life alot simpler with disposables – I just try to get them out of diapers earlier, I figure that is doing my part for the environment. Can't wait to meet that sweet new baby of yours! Hope everything goes swimmingly.
I love this, so simple and makes perfect sense. It's true, you really need so little for a new baby.
Hi there, I cloth diapered our twin girls as soon as they were big enough to fit into AIOs (about 2m). We did disposables at night. I dry pailed them. No soaking required. Once you start it really is quite easy. I used bumboo + never ran out of nappies (I had 20 each) and they dried quickly in our climate. And, we also changed our girls anywhere- usually on the floor.
I like this idea and would like to do it, too. how is the height of your bed? dont your back hurt then, if its too low?
where do you keep the clothes of your baby? so far, i kept it in the dresser under the change table.
I'm totally with you on jettisoning all unnecessary baby paraphernalia. But my back really takes a beating with frequent bed-top changes, and once my babies start to play wriggle games, I really start avoiding the bed for changes. Instead, we keep the top clear on our regular (as in, adult-aesthetic) waist-high dresser, put up the changing pad, and conduct all diaper and clothes changes there. It's worked well enough and long enough that my three year old still likes getting put up on the dresser for dressing. Love your baskets!
While the simplicity is lovely, just looking at that photo of the change may on your bed makes my back ache! We put our change pad on top of the dresser drawers in our baby's room and filled the top drawer with nappies, wipes, etc as I didn't want an extra piece of furniture. When he is out of nappies it will just be a plain old dresser again. Please be careful of your back with the constant bending over the bed, I did it for a week while staying with friends and it really caused me a lot of pain!
I won't be bending over the bed, I'll be sitting on it x