Is This TikTok Pattern on Altering a Diaper Appropriate?

My son was born in November 2023, and to remain awake throughout late-night soothing or feeding periods, I typically open up TikTok. I already know what you’re pondering: Blue gentle, in the course of the night time? How dare you! With the entire chatter on-line about the right way to correctly mum or dad, it may generally really feel like I’m doing all the things unsuitable. 

My newest flub, in accordance with dad and mom on TikTok? How I modify my child’s diaper.

In a number of viral movies, dad and mom and chiropractors element how lifting child’s legs up throughout a diaper change could cause hip and backbone issues and make your child additional gassy. Their different technique is to roll a child onto their facet and alter the diaper from there.

I had a direct query when seeing these movies: how reasonable is this system for many dad and mom? I’m normally holding my son from reaching down there or kicking into his diaper whereas I try and rapidly change him. 

These movies have garnered tens of millions of views and counting, with many dad and mom flooding the remark sections to joke about how unattainable this could be with their more and more cellular child. A few of the relatable, hilarious feedback likened altering their little ones to an episode of WWE SmackDown! and “wrestling a wild boar.”  

However the dad and mom additionally share considerations that that is yet another factor so as to add to their checklist of errors. To not point out, this diaper altering type doesn’t appear possible after a main blowout.

Within the phrases of Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn’t assist however surprise…is that this an actual hazard to my little one or a TikTok development gone rogue? To research, I reached out to Liz Koren, MS, OTR/L, SWC, an occupational therapist and director of Pure Pediatric Remedy in Aliso Viejo, California. 

“Whereas anatomically which may be right, the quantity of pressure you’re placing in your infants while you’re placing on a diaper is just not sufficient to try this,” Koren says, citing potential considerations talked about in these social media posts, like subluxation of the backbone.  

Koren has a number of suggestions for fogeys, and that features shifting the place you stand whereas altering your child’s diaper.

“Loads of instances, we’re altering them from the facet,” she says. “It will be higher if you happen to’re altering them with their toes dealing with us.”

It’s additionally vital to contemplate the way you’re holding your child throughout adjustments. Koren says it’s greatest to roll child’s legs ahead in a “froggy” place, as a substitute of lifting them immediately up. To keep away from pulling on their ankles or toes, strive holding your fingers decrease down on their thighs. 

Koren provides that some dad and mom with fussy infants would possibly profit from turning them onto their facet, but it surely’s much less sensible for older infants and never a requirement for all dad and mom. 

“The roll is price making an attempt if you happen to do have a child that cries throughout diaper adjustments,” Koren says. “Aspect-lying, generally, is an effective place for fussy infants, however for a typical child that doesn’t cry throughout diaper adjustments, I wouldn’t change something.”