In a better universe, everyone would have to spend a month doing nothing but changing diapers.
All day long. 24/7. People would get over their Poopophobia then, I ween.
I learned when I was a little kid, being the oldest of 6. Cloth diapers, pins. It did not warp my character, nor did I die of disgust.
Sure, it’s not “nice” to have to change a poopy diaper. So what? Will the world end?
Someone changed yours, O Poopophobe.
16 months later, and my husband still gags at poopy diapers.
The fun part, however, is that my son now imitates him to make fun of him. 
I was always kind of squeamish about bodily excretions and fluids, but for some reason it just didn’t bother me when it was my own babies.
And/or develop really fast reflexes with getting your hand over the danger-zone in a nanosecond, once Baby Boy starts fountaining. Yeah, you get a drippy hand but that’s better than drippy wall, shirt, ceiling… Dweezil only fountained a handful (heh) of times so I got lax about the pee-cover, but I found I had really good reaction times 
The bit about being done pooping - yeah, been there, done that. My son briefly had the title “Crown Prince Of Olympic Projectile Pooping” from several incidents in which, well, it was a very good thing all nearby surfaces could be cleaned easily. And you don’t always know when they’re done; often (especially with breastfed babies under about 3 months) they poop, rest, poop, rest, poop, rest, poop, rest, poop… over a period of 30 minutes. Several times with Moon Unit, I’d wait a few minutes, thinking she might go some more. And she would. So I’d wait a few minutes more. Ultimately this resulted in some spectacular “containment vessel failures”.
Oh and with the OP: I learned when I was 13ish, and starting to babysit. Baby’s mom showed me how. She didn’t let me know about the “emptying the dirty cloth dipe into the toilet” trick, unfortunately!
Well, it’s a lot easier if you kept the receipt. Oh, wait, that’s exchanging a baby.
Ain’t the web grand (or something)! Who on earth takes a photo of a dirty diaper! :eek:
I honestly don’t remember those first couple of diapers with either kid (with Moon Unit, this was because she was in the NICU and didn’t pass it for a few days, then there were professionals available to do the deed… including the day she wound up soiling herself from HEAD TO TOE). I do remember Dweezil’s third day of life where, as Bill Cosby said, “God put smell in the poo poo”. Satan and all his unholy minions must have visited that child’s bowels that day (and most likely ran screaming from the stench) :eek: .
I think I learned in a Red Cross babysitting preparation class. But I’d always diapered dolls and watched my littler cousins be changed, so I wasn’t coming into it with zero knowledge.
My husband had rarely held a baby, and certain never changed one, before our son was born. I was kinda laid up after he arrived. One real benefit to that is that I was out of the picture when it came to Remedial Baby Care 101. The NICU nurses showed my husband all kinds of things related to the little nipper.
I think it would have been different coming from me, with me established as some kind of “expert” out of the two of us. But as it was, husband ended up being taught by real experts without me around, and it put us on a wonderful, equal footing when it came to diapers. And forever after, my husband was always the better swaddler.
Apart from the dire first nappy, I remember we were asked to show the nurse on duty Rosa’s nappies to make sure she was… well I can’t actually remember, just had to show the contents to the nurses. A new nurse came on duty just as a nappy was soiled and I brought the nappy to her (as a small boy would bring something nasty to a teacher or parent) and offered it to her saying, “this is for you”. She gave me a bemused look for a few seconds before I realised that there probably wasn’t a hit list of nappies to look out for on the wall
You mean you didn’t have two other guys over an the three of you didn’t
Flail
Open the diaper and then all of you recoil with a horrible face and threaten to throw up
Put the diaper on backwards and then have it fall off
?? Does this mean Hollywood has lied about other things?
Yep. I made (okay, asked) the NICU staff to teach my husband, so I didn’t become the know-it-all.
Here he is changing his first ever diaper! She was 2 days shy of 2 months old at that point. He was scared speechless.
Oldest of nine. I cannot remember not knowing how to change a diaper. (With pins. Ouch.)
That could be me. Only I can suppress the retch, out of habit.
Both kids now well out of diapers, and that’s just great.
I was a teenager and I was babysitting as a favor for some people in our neighborhood whose house I cleaned twice a week. I had never babysat for a real baby before. During the evening the baby started crying and would not stop. I was freaked out. Nobody told me that I might have to change his diaper or something.
I finally figured out that was why he was crying. I just kind of winged it: took off the old diaper, wiped the kid’s butt, powdered it, put on a new diaper. Disposables, of course. Luckily it was just pee.
That was enough for me, brother. That was the first and last time I ever changed a diaper. I mean, I felt sorry for the kid and all, but gross.
I started babysitting when I was about 10 years old, so I don’t remember not knowing how to change a diaper.
But here are some instructions for you! It’s not hard. 
My first baby sitting job. Of course I was shown before hand, though on your own and all nervous. Afraid of the baby falling, etc. I think I went through 4 diapers before I got it on right and then tested it out by walking the baby across the floor to see it would fall off. It didn’t, so I called it good.
It helps to know that babies aren’t quite as fragile as you think. They’re also very bendy, so they don’t mind their legs being lifted up or their knees bent to push their legs back into their clothes, etc. I don’t mean rough the kid up, just that you don’t need to treat them like glass.
I’m self-taught. My current wife had me babysit her youngest (9 months old at the time) when she went to work. She didn’t know I had never changed a baby before. It wasn’t difficult at all, there’s really no trick. You just clean them off with wipes, then put a diaper on them. It’s pretty obvious how the diaper goes on.
There’s one brand (Huggies Pull-Ups) that makes a “Cool Alert” kind that gets icy cold the second it gets wet. So kid pees a few drops, and wham, off to the potty. Love those. They also have the velcro-like sides, so they can be unattached and removed like a diaper, if need be.
Pampers makes a version called “Feel ‘n’ Learn,” or something like that, that allows the kid to feel when wet, but they don’t have detachable sides. Useful, but less convenient.
Some thread topics never go out of style!
Boy, does this older topic ever bring back memories. Couldn’t help but chime-in…
Oldest of 5 – baby siblings wore cloth diapers and rubber pants. Was changing diapers at age 8.
Babysat TONS as a teen – cloth diapers, pins, rubber pants (mostly)… Pampers (rare occasion).
The more you do it, the more efficient you get.
yeah, but can you beat this mother ?
