It happens that young parents with babies have to visit a pediatrician and take tests quite often. This raises the question: how to correctly and easily collect urine from the baby so that the analysis is correct.
Cleanliness is a must for urine collection
It is worth remembering that the baby's skin should be very clean when collecting a urine test. This applies equally to girls and boys. The child must be washed by removing the remnants of the cream and dirt. Any impurities in the analysis will spoil it. It is best to wash your baby under running water, because when using wet wipes, various additives may remain on the skin, due to which the urine collector simply does not stick.
It is better to collect morning urine. It is more concentrated. The baby will have to be woken up for this, because the baby often urinates immediately after waking up. If you wait for the child to wake up on his own, you may miss the moment.
In addition to the urine collector, you must purchase a special jar at the pharmacy in advance. Baby tests are accepted only in sterile containers, so no baby food cans can be used.
How to use a baby urine collector
After you've washed your baby, it's time to use the drainage bag. You can buy it at the pharmacy. The price of this simple device is about 15 rubles. Buy several at once: not all young parents get it right the first time. A baby urine bag is a small plastic bag with an adhesive layer on one side for attaching it to the baby's skin. There are universal models, as well as special ones for boys and girls. They are not fundamentally different from each other. It is important that the urine collector is sterile inside. This improves the quality of the collected analysis. For convenience, it has a mark on how much ml the urine bag is full.
To stick the urine bag, remove the protective film. After attaching it, you can put on a diaper or put your baby on a waterproof diaper. In the second case, you will quickly notice that urination has begun and can correct the urine collector if necessary. However, in the diaper it will be better fixed, that is, it is less likely that the baby will accidentally rip off the urine container.
To speed up the process, you can breastfeed or turn on the tap water. Both the sucking and the sound of the water flowing away encourage the infant to urinate.
When the urine bag is full, carefully peel it off. Holding it over a sterile plastic test jar, you simply cut off a corner of the bag and empty the contents. For the correct research, about 20 ml of urine is needed (unless otherwise agreed by the pediatrician).
Other ways to collect urine from an infant
Using a baby urine collector is the easiest way to sterilely collect urine for analysis from a baby. Holding your baby over the jar in the hope of hitting it from a distance is hardly a good idea. This is already possible with an older child who knows how to "ask for a potty."
There are still old ways of collecting analysis from a newborn. Previously, the baby was placed on an oilcloth, with which the urine was then poured into a jar, or the diaper (cotton wool) was squeezed out on which the baby urinated. Such methods are completely unacceptable due to the inclusion of various debris in the analysis. In addition, collecting urine in this way is unpleasant for the baby himself.
