I never used one because at a certain point they can roll off. I’m with the changing pad crew.
We use a set of Ikea drawers, which I have built a top for - this has a section for the curved change pad, and then little baskets for nappies, wipes, spray bottle and snappy holder. Works well and everything’s to hand, with the drawers being used for clothes, additional nappies etc. When she’s out of nappies we can bin the top and she’ll still have a nice set of drawers as she grows up.
I also have a travel pad which I use when we are out - but the house is so small that we go to her room to change her always.
We used a portable crib similar to this one instead of a regular crib for the first couple of months. It is so much easier changing diapers at regular standing height than having to get down onto the floor several times each day.
I just made one, as I am too cheap to buy dedicated short term use furniture and I am also too small for most changing tables. I padded the center top of a long, low cabinet with a pillow and covered the whole top with flannel, securing it near the pillow with roundhead tacks and on the back side with velcro so the pillow could be removed for washing. Scotchguarded the whole thing and we were good to go. It never needed washing as it turned out but I didn’t know.
It had no raised sides or belt, both kids made it nevertheless. But since I made it myself, I made it so that all the diaper stuff was easy to reach. Still, you can always change baby any old place, the only real reason for a changing table is to have all that stuff in one place and out of the way.
Thanks to all – this is exactly what I needed. I think we’ll be going with a pad. One thing that attracted me most to the idea of a table (other than comfort for backs) is the convenient storage thing, but as has been pointed out, you’ll end up wanting to change the baby wherever the baby is anyway, a lot of the time.
If you free-range diaper, do you just scatter clean diapers and wipes at strategic locations around the house? Do you carry a diaper bag around with the baby at home? Do you end up trekking to the diaper pail afterwards, or do you rely on a convenient spouse or partner to deliver the used goods for you?
In the end this comes down to philosophy; change in situ or change in the designated area. My wife and I went the changing station route. I find changing on the floor is awkward and uncomfortable. (I was 40 when Little Miss was born. Kneeling 6-10 times a day to change diapers on the floor, low table or couch didn’t sound like fun) Plus you need to have a fully stocked diaper bag with you and then dispose of the diaper. We found it easier to take Little Miss up to her room and change her. All supplies in place along with the diaper genie and clothes.
You should know that for a while, especially during growth spurts there will be ‘blow outs’ requiring a total change of clothes and possibly a wipe down with a warm wash cloth. Also beware of the “Tinkler” (aka the “Sprinkler” if you have a boy) You will have just about finished the diaper change when you find that the new diaper, your little ones’ clothes and the diaper pad a soaking wet. The Tinkler has struck yet again. (This is why a cloth pad for the contoured changing pad is a good idea, it will absorb most of the flood).
Very slight hyjack, congrats and good luck and welcome to the Forty year old First time Fathers Club.
We bought a chest of drawers from IKEA and put a pad in the top. We now have a great set of drawers that is most useful. We hardly used it as a changing table though, prefering to move the pad downstairs and change on the table when we were there, or putting a towel on the bed and changing there.
I found the top tip to be: have the clean nappy opened and in place UNDER the dirty nappy so you can whip one away and have the clean one ready SAves a lot of cleaning up!!
If you’re worried about your back when changing on the ground, do what I do. I sit on my bum with my legs out in front of me and spread apart. I rest my back against a couch or something convenient, lie the baby on the mat and pull the mat up so it, with the baby on it, is right up in between my legs. Then I can comfortably change the nappy without bending down or stretching anything awkwardly.
I always kept a stocked diaper bag (including changes of clothes) in the living room (where we mostly were) as well as a supply in the nursery. Our house at the time was small so it wasn’t terribly inconvenient to dispose of the diapers or soiled clothing, and the diaper bag was ready to go if I left the house.
I don’t remember ever having a problem with diapering because things weren’t where I needed them or because it was difficult to get to anything. Babies are very portable, so after the diaper change it’s easy to scoop up the little one and carry him/her with you to the diaper pail etc. if necessary.
We got a cheap changing table from Ikea. When he outgrew it, we got rid of it. We change him on the couch or the bed using a towel. You can do just fine without one.
We got (and still use with our 20-month-old) something very similar to this dresser/changer combo. We went with the combo unit because of space limitations in the apartment we lived in when she was born, but even now that we live in a house with much more room I find it works well.
Normally we take her in there (it’s in her bedroom) to be changed because that’s where the diapers, wipes, and Diaper Genie are, but we have changed in situ on occasion. We live in a single-story house, so no stair-schlepping is involved either way.
We have one of those curved pads, and I really like it. The belt, like others have said, seems ridiculous - we’ve never once used it. It would seriously impede the diaper-changing process, and doesn’t seem like it would help anyway. If Kiddo flipped off, the belt would just mean she’d take the pad tumbling to the floor with her. I think the pad came with a way to screw it to the furniture, but that seemed equally silly. The belt gets in your way, and doesn’t really permit you to be any less vigilant - all cost for no benefit.
We just keep a plastic 3-drawer storage thingy next to the couch and one next to our bed. They hold diapers, ointment, wipes, and a couple of extra outfits in case of a blowout.
We have a dresser/changer combo like the one brad_d linked, and we always use it for changes at home. Sometimes it’s annoying schlepping the baby upstairs, but it’s not that big a deal, really, and the 20-month-old can get his own self up the stairs now, anyway. We also have a curved pad on it, and don’t use the belt. We do use the cloth covers that they sell for the pad - it’s much easier to deal with the occasional leak/blowout. We also keep a few cloth prefolds around that go under the baby’s butt during changing, and get washed more frequently.
The recent baby I’m most familiar with, they got a dresser with a pad on top for the nursery. The top drawer held changing supplies, the other drawers hold clothes & such. It will be all clothes once she finishes toilet training.
I never saw the girl get belted in, but they never stepped away either. They always took her in there for changes at home. They also had a diaper bag with a fold-out pad for changes away from home. These were late-30’s parents, so they were happy with something tall enough to save their backs.
Now that she’s too big for the changing station (2 1/2), they just put her on the floor, with a towel if needed. She’s old enough that there’s no longer the worry about surprises, she’s just not quite made the jump to toilets yet.
The newest baby I know, I think they just have the roll-up waterproof pads. The nursery is upstairs and they didn’t want to trek up and down all the time. They keep a diaper bag downstairs with supplies. In fact, we got them a second diaper bucket thingie for the downstairs as a baby gift and they were very happy. They’re early 20s, though, so the backs are still in good shape. That baby is only a few months old, so he’s pretty stationary - free-range diapering isn’t an issue yet.
Pad–when in the bedroom, toss it in the crib so no explosions get on the bedding. When finished, stick it in the corner.
I had the luxury of having a big kitchen in a two story house during infant time. We left the “pack and play” open in the kitchen all the time and kept the diaper changing station there. It was helpful to have somewhere to stash the babies when cooking/cleaning. Both mine were didn’t want to be put down until they could scoot on their own.
Better than the foam pad is the 12 by 24 rubber pad with flocking on it. You can have a few on hand and they can be washed and bleached.
The deal with 1st babies is it’s so fun to get all the “stuff”. Resist the urge till baby arrives. Every kid is different. The swing, the bouncy seat with straps, the jungle gym–they were all a waste at our house.
If you want even more opinions–there are entire forums devoted to just diapering on the parent boards-beware the time suck!
Best wishes for your family.
I used an official changing table for both my boys, and it is convenient to have a clean place to change and dress the baby that is high enough to stand (as opposed to laying him on my bed or on the floor). And, it’s convenient to have all the supplies right underneath on the shelves, it prevents you from walking away to get more wipes, diapers, etc. (I never used the belt, either, but I never had to step away). And it already had a vinyl pad for easy cleanups, I didn’t have to go find a towel to place under him, etc. I used it to store everything for diaper changes until they were out of diapers (about age 2 1/2 - 3), even though I wasn’t always using the top to change him.
That being said, I also changed the kids plenty of times on the floor, sofa, picnic table (not during a picnic), ladies’ room changing station, etc. The important thing is to have everything you need close by; you don’t want to be fumbling for a fresh pack of baby wipes in the middle of the night AFTER you’ve opened the poopy diaper on a squirmy baby.
If you can find a way to keep everything close to the dresser-top (maybe shelves above, or the top drawer), a changing table is NICE but not REQUIRED. The key is to keep your supplies within reach, it doesn’t matter so much WHERE you keep them.
Oh, regarding the baby-wipe warmer: I always felt like a mean mom if I put a ice-cold wipe on my son’s unsuspecting tush - YIKES!! I would not want anyone to suddenly stick ice cubes down my back, and I thought it was cruel to do it to a baby! So I did LOVE the wipe warmer and thought it was great. If I could not warm the wipe, I would warm it in my hand or against my own chest before I put it on the baby.
We have one of the curved-side pads on top of a dresser. The pad is screwed down on one side, so it cannot slide off. We have a few covers.
What we do, however, is leave one of the smaller size "Chux Pads on top of the cover for when we change her. That way, if there is a little mess that escapes the diaper, we can just chuck the Chux, and not have to wash the whole cover.
We put a contoured pad on top of the babies’ dressers. It’s served us well for three house monkeys so far.
on edit: we put some non-skid shelf liners under it to keep it form sliding.
That’s what we’ve done, as well. I have a few thin pads of cloth-covered vinyl that I use when we’re out of the house, but generally it’s worked out far better for us to have one designated changing place and the dresser has been perfect as far as height.
I tried changing her “in place” on the floor or couch a couple of times and it was just a lot harder since she wanted to squirm away, the dogs kept wanting to investigate, and my back didn’t care for it.
I also never used the belt and always kept a hand on.
The belts make me laugh. I have a 5 year old and one still in diapers and many friends of baby-making age and I don’t know anyone who has ever once used that belt. Sometimes you have to practically hold the baby upside down to clean him off (how does the poop get all the way up their backs like that?) and how are you supposed to do that with him strapped in? Just don’t leave the baby alone on a table (although if he does fall off, also rest assured yours is not the first one to do so. )
I like having everything in one spot, I think it is easier to bring the baby to the stuff than to bring all the stuff to the baby so I have always used a changing station. Our house has built-ins everywhere so we just stuck a contoured pad on top of a built-in desk. It was too low so my husband mounted it to the wall at the height that worked better but if we didn’t have that I would have bought a dresser that could be used later.
One thing nice about the contoured pads is we take them with us when going on vacation, I like them a little better than the ones that come in diaper bags (although those work too) and they are still very portable.
I think I am the only one who got a diaper genie and still likes it enough to buy the refills. It seems to keep his room from smelling like diaper all the time. I think I figured out a refill lasts about a month so it is like $5 a month. Otherwise you are buying trash bags anyway.