Diapering in the Spica Cast

Diapering has not been nearly the ordeal that we thought it was going to be.  We had read a lot of stories about people and their struggles with diapering and keeping the cast clean.

We are fortunate in that I think our "diaper hole" in the cast is much larger than a lot of other ones we have seen.  Mackenzie was wearing a size 3 diaper before the cast and we are able to fit a size three diaper on her pushing it up into the cast in the front and the back.


**I have taken off the pictures showing what Mackenzie's cast looked like due to inappropriate comments being made.  If you have questions or would like to get more info please let a comment with an email address I can contact you. 

We are using either the Pamper's Baby Dry diapers in size three or Pamper's Swaddlers in size 2 inside the cast.  I also had Pamper's Cruisers in size three on hand, but they are bigger than the Baby Dry ones in the same size for some reason and are more difficult to fit inside the cast - as I learned the hard way during a mid-night diaper change.

I cut (or rip) off the tabs of the diaper that goes inside the cast because they are unnecessary and I feel like they are adding bulk and could get scratchy for Mackenzie inside the cast.  I usually start by pushing the top of the diaper up in the front of the cast.

Step 1: Push the top front of the diaper up into the cast

Then I pull it around and sometimes I can get the back tucked in by just turning her slightly on her side and without rolling her over.  Otherwise I roll her over onto her stomach so that her weight shifts off of the back of the cast and then push the back side of the diaper up in to the back of her cast.

Roll over and do any extra wiping that may be required

Step 2: Push up the diaper into the back of the cast.

We then layer a larger diaper (size 5 is what they gave us in the hospital and that seems to be working well) over the tucked diaper and do it up on top of the cast.  I make sure the "ruffles" of the diaper are next to her skin and not resting on the cast for extra leak catching protection.  We reuse the large diaper for as long as it holds up and doesn't get spoiled, usually one whole day.

As you can see in the pictures we have a folded up towel on top of her change pad to help support her head and neck when she is on her back on it.  Very high tech!

Dad practicing his "spica tricks",  but a good view of the larger diaper

We are only about a week in but so far we have had no leaks into the cast and no accidents at all.  Again, I think we are probably lucky in that Mackenzie's bowl movements tend to be quite solid.  Pre-cast we never had the dreaded "poo-spolosions" that a lot of parents talk about.  Our hope is that we don't start now!   Mackenzie is also not a heavy wetter.  We have never had any issues with leaking though a diaper at night and that continues to be true.  When she does wake up in the night I will occasionally change her diaper if it needs it, but quite often she goes 12 hours overnight in the same diaper with no problems.