Parents should ask babies for 'consent' before changing their diapers: experts

It’s a move that might stink to some parents, but there’s a new-age way to change a newborn’s undies.

Drenched diapers are no longer messes that need to be ripped off a baby’s bottom posthaste, according to new advice by early childhood development researchers .

Instead, the experts encourage moms and dads to request an infant’s consent — you read that correctly — before changing their diaper.

“At the start of a nappy change, ensure your child knows what is happening,” researchers from Australia’s Deakin University wrote in a November 2025 guide. “Get down to their level and say, ‘You need a nappy change,’ and then pause so they can take this in.”

But their offbeat directives for cleaning a cutie’s patootie — a task that parents often rush to “just get done,” the researchers said