How many times a day should my newborn be soiling his diaper?

How many times a day should my newborn be soiling his diaper?

Scott Cohen (Pediatrician, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) gives expert video advice on: What is the best type of diaper for my baby?; How many times a day should my newborn be soiling his diaper? and more...

There's no exact number of times a day your newborn should be spoiling their diaper. Books will say, "Oh, your child should poop this many times and pee this many times, they have to feed this many times or that many times", but you really shouldn't get caught up in numbers as much. Just look at your child, and see if they're doing the things that they're supposed to be doing and that they look good. So usually, especially breast-fed babies should poop a lot in the first couple weeks of life. I'm talking every feeding, so it could be that they poop 8 to 12 times a day. And peeing is sometimes hard to tell because it gets mixed up in the poop, but it is also very frequent. An interesting phenomenon happens, especially in breast-fed babies, around two weeks of age where pooping slows down. They may poop 10 times a day, they may poop once or twice a day, or they may poop once or twice a week, and it is absolutely normal. Your peeing is your sign of hydration, and we'd like to see that your child is peeing about 3 times or more in a 24-hour period, and then you know that they're probably staying hydrated.