A nappy tracker app for the question every child health nurse asks first
What should a nappy tracker record?
Four things: the time, whether the nappy was wet or dirty or both, roughly how heavy, and anything unusual about colour. That is enough to answer the question a midwife or child health nurse asks first, how many wet nappies in the last 24 hours, without anyone reconstructing a night from memory.
What to log
Time, wet or dirty, heavy or light, and a note when the colour is worth mentioning. One tap covers most changes.
What it shows
Wet nappies in 24 hours, the gap between changes, and the day-by-day climb through the first week.
Best for
The first two weeks, a baby who is breastfed and cannot be measured, and any week with a child health check in it.
Why do nurses ask about nappies before anything else?
Because you cannot see how much milk a breastfed baby has taken, and nappies are the one observable stand-in. Australian health services publish the counts for exactly that reason, and a midwife or child health nurse will ask for yesterday’s number before they ask about almost anything else in the first fortnight, while feeding is being established.
The count matters most in those first two weeks. After that, published guidance treats weight gain as the more useful signal, and the nappy question becomes a background check rather than the main one.
How many wet nappies should a baby have a day?
The reference range climbs day by day through the first week: around one wet nappy on day one, two on day two, three on day three and four on day four. From day five, five or more heavy wet disposable nappies in 24 hours, or six to eight cloth, is the commonly published range, and wee is described as pale and close to odourless. From six months, four to six heavy wet nappies a day is typical as solids begin.
These are population ranges published by Children’s Health Queensland, the Australian Breastfeeding Association and Raising Children Network. They describe babies in general, not your baby in particular, and a single quieter day is common. The free wet nappy guide on this site looks the range up by age and stops there, deliberately.
What does a nappy tracker log that a tally on the fridge does not?
Time. A tally tells you there were six changes; a tracker tells you the gap between them, which is the number that shows whether a quiet afternoon was a long nap or something to mention. It also records who changed the nappy, which matters more than it sounds: with a partner on nights and a grandparent on Thursday, each person only ever sees part of the day, and the only count that is right is the one everyone writes to.
Colour and consistency notes are the other thing a fridge tally loses. Poo starts black and sticky, turns green-brown around day three, and settles yellow and loose by about day five. A note against the change is how you tell a nurse the day it changed, rather than "sometime last week".
- Log wet, dirty or both, in one tap, with the time filled in
- Add heavy or light, and a colour note when something looks different
- With Premium live sharing, let every carer log from their own account so the 24-hour count is whole
- Check the count against the published range for the age, then stop
When should I stop counting and call someone?
The published warning signs are the same for every reader, and they do not depend on any number you type. Fewer wet nappies than the range for the age, or none for six to eight hours; dark or strong-smelling wee; a dry mouth or no tears when crying; a sunken soft spot on the top of the head; unusual sleepiness, floppiness or being hard to rouse; refusing feeds or vomiting every feed.
Any of those is a reason to contact your child health nurse, midwife or GP the same day, or to call healthdirect on 1800 022 222 for 24-hour nurse advice. A baby who is floppy, hard to rouse, or who simply worries you is a reason to seek urgent medical care rather than to keep counting.
Is there a nappy output calculator?
Not one worth having. A calculator that takes a count and returns "normal" or "low" is a screening test for infant dehydration dressed as a widget, and it knows nothing about the baby in the room: how they are feeding, how they look, whether they were born early. It can reassure exactly the parent who should not be reassured.
So BubSync’s free tool does the arithmetic-free version. You enter an age, it shows the published range for that age and the published warning signs, and it never grades your baby. The person who can is the nurse or GP with the baby in front of them.
How does BubSync track nappies?
A nappy change is one of the eight built-in activity types, and logging one is on every plan. Quick Log puts a wet or dirty nappy one tap away from the home screen, the timeline lists each change with its time, the "Try next" nudge on the baby card is worked out from how long it has been since the last one, and Insights charts nappies by day beside the other activity types, all of it saved on the phone whether or not there is signal. With Premium live sharing, everyone caring for the baby logs from their own account into the same timeline, so the number the nurse asks for is already whole when they ask. On the free plan the count is whatever was logged on that one phone.
Wet and dirty nappies by age, as published
| Age | Wet nappies | Dirty nappies |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 1 or more | 1 or more (black, sticky meconium) |
| Day 2 | 2 or more | 1 or more (meconium) |
| Day 3 | 3 or more | 2 or more, changing to green-brown |
| Day 4 | 4 or more | 2 or more, yellow and looser |
| Day 5 to 6 weeks | 5 or more heavy wet disposables (6 to 8 cloth) | 3 or more if breastfed; formula-fed babies often fewer, and firmer |
| 6 weeks to 6 months | 5 or more heavy wet nappies | Daily, or up to several days apart |
| 6 months and older | 4 to 6 heavy wet nappies | Usually daily, firmer once solids start |
Ranges published by Children’s Health Queensland, the Australian Breastfeeding Association and Raising Children Network. The dirty counts are published for breastfed babies; formula-fed babies often poo less often and firmer. Population ranges, not targets for any individual baby.
Frequently asked questions
- How many wet nappies should a newborn have?
- Published guidance puts around one wet nappy on day one, two on day two, three on day three and four on day four, then five or more heavy wet nappies a day from day five onwards. Wee should be pale and close to odourless. It is a population range rather than a target for a particular baby.
- Do cloth nappies count differently?
- Yes, because cloth holds less than a modern disposable. Australian guidance gives six to eight wet cloth nappies a day from day five as the equivalent of five or more heavy wet disposables.
- My breastfed baby has not pooed for days. Is that normal?
- After about six weeks it is common for a breastfed baby to go several days between bowel motions, sometimes up to a week, as long as the poo is soft when it comes, the baby is feeding well and their tummy is soft. In the first six weeks, fewer than three bowel motions a day in a breastfed baby is worth mentioning to your midwife or child health nurse.
- Does BubSync tell me if the nappy count is too low?
- No, deliberately. BubSync shows the count and the published range for the age; it does not grade your baby, because a single number against a chart that knows nothing about the baby in the room can reassure the wrong parent. The warning signs are shown to every reader, and a nurse or GP is the one to read the count with the baby in front of them.
- Can my partner see the nappy count?
- Yes. With live sharing, every carer logs from their own account into the same timeline, so the 24-hour count includes the changes you slept through. Live sharing between accounts is a Premium feature; logging nappies is free.
Keep reading
Written by the BubSync editorial team. Not yet reviewed by an independent clinician. The editorial policy says who writes these pages and how their figures are sourced. Read how we write and check these pages.
General information only, not medical advice. Nappy counts are population ranges published by Australian health services, not a measure of your own baby. If there are fewer wet nappies than the published range, wee is dark or strong-smelling, or your baby is unusually sleepy or hard to rouse, contact your child health nurse, midwife or GP the same day, and seek urgent care if you are worried.
