Breastfeeding/diaper Log

[drliu2010]

Hi!

I'm a new mom-to-be and looking for a good breastfeeding, diaper log.

Does anyone have suggestions on what I should look for in a log and any logs they liked? Here are a few things I'm thinking but not sure how important they are and would LOVE your opinion!


Time/Length of feeding and Which breast
Time of soiled diaper - urine or stool
Goal of # of feedings
Goal of # of wet or stool diapers
Time/length of pumping and which breast


Here are a few links I found online, any suggestions on which may be best or others that are better?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13462112/Breast-Feeding-Log - Doesn't have times of feeding

http://www.doulaworld.com/doula/cfml/download/doulaworldlog.pdf -- Doesn't have goals

http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/breastfeeding-log-2wk.pdf --Doesn't have minutes of how long you feed and which side breast

[BabyBearsMom]

I just made a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. I had one column on the left that listed times in 30 minute increments. Then I had a column for Nursing (I would right "R" or "L" for each breast and the time I nursed on each side), then I had a column for urine and a column for bowel movements. I just put a checkmark as necessary. I didn't pump for the first 6 weeks, and by that time, I didn't need to track anymore so I never put that on the sheet.

Whatever you choose, you will want something you can fill out quickly and easily. You don't have a whole lot of time to do it. By the time DD was 3 weeks, I had given up, she was growing just fine and I wasn't being consistent with the tracking and didn't have the time.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I only filled one out a few days with ds2. I really didn't find that I needed it at all. I know some parents really like them though. I wouldn't want the length of feedings as that has little bearing on success- all babies take different amounts of time to nurse plus throw in growth spurts and you might get all flustered if baby is all of a sudden doing something different. Goals? You don't need them- you'll know them. Pretty easy to look and see if baby had 8 feedings/ day. :) I think diaper count matters more than time the diapers happen.

Beth

[larig]

if you have an iphone or ipad or ipod touch there are apps you can buy. I'm sure there's something like that for android too. (There is also probably a free spreadsheet template for MS excel or google spreadsheet as well.)

ETA: we really needed ours with DS, because he had some weight gain issues. Our hospital gave us a sheet to fill out when we left.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i used the doulaworld one (the 2nd link u have posted) for DS, and loved it. i think i used it for 2-3 weeks. at our 1wk appt we were able to show to doc and he said everything looked good. i think we were told the goals at the hospital and we just wrote them on the page, no biggie. as PP said, the goals weren't that big of a deal to us, even though he had jaundice our DS was gaining weight from the get-go and i pretty much just nursed him whenever he wanted.

[TwoBees]

I have a 4" x 6" spiral notebook. Each day gets a page, and I write the time and what/how much DD ate. I no longer keep track of diapers, but when I did, I just added that in there. No special chart or anything, I just listed the times going down the page when there was something new to add. I didn't find it that hard to look at the page and determine how many wet/dirty diapers DD had that day.

TBH, if DD didn't have weight gain/eating issues, I wouldn't be keeping track of her food anymore at all.

[lovebebes]

I only filled one out a few days with ds2. I really didn't find that I needed it at all. I know some parents really like them though. I wouldn't want the length of feedings as that has little bearing on success- all babies take different amounts of time to nurse plus throw in growth spurts and you might get all flustered if baby is all of a sudden doing something different. Goals? You don't need them- you'll know them. Pretty easy to look and see if baby had 8 feedings/ day. :) I think diaper count matters more than time the diapers happen.

Beth

:yeahthat:

[wendibird22]

I had a copy that my hospital gave me. I then basically made my own once I filled that one up. For me I found I only really needed to know:
1. total # of wets a day
2. total # of poops a day
3. total # of BF and when

So, on a piece of paper I had a pee column and a poop column that I just put a hash mark every time there was one.

Then I wrote 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 (for the 24hrs in a day). Every time I nursed I circled the corresponding hour. That way I could see how long since last nursing and could easily count the # in a 24hr period.

I did this for a few weeks then dropped it once I knew DD1 and DD2 were gaining sufficiently.

[wellyes]

With my first I put a whiteboard in baby's room and would track of feedings and diapers a few days at a time . It's useful info to keep track of but you don't need to keep the data. The whiteboard method was really easy and very visible.

With my second, I haven't bothered. It's not technically necessary to track that stuff. But it helped me the first time around keep myself mentally organized.

[PGTB]

I bought "Baby Activity" application for my iphone and I love it! Use it every day and religiously log everything from feedings, diaper changes to pumping sessions and most importantly sleep. Sleep patterns are a huge issue for us, I love that this app has the charts to be able to see the sleep patterns on day to day comparison. It's simple to use and the data can be emailed in .csv format and opened with the excel spreadsheet for analysis. I am a nerd, so I do use the analysis feature and make my own charts of feeding consistency and sleep in excel.

I started using it because DS was formula fed in the beginning and I used it to track amt of formula vs. BM, pumped milk vs. BF sessions in my excel spreadsheets. I love to have the app because I can easily track things without writing them down and especially I can do this anywhere (whether we are on a long walk or traveling). It maybe overkill for you, but for us with the sleep issues and necessity to track sleep patterns it has been very helpful.

[WatchingThemGrow]

You HAVE to check out WWW.TRIXIETRACKER.COM (http://www.trixietracker.com/). it is exactly what you are looking for - and it makes graphs for you. Grandparents, MDs, LCs can all log in to see it. LOVE it, and it was developed right down the bike path from my house, lol.