Weighting diaper with stool

Specialties Pediatric

Updated:   Published

Hi, I have a question about weighting diaper. I looked into my nursing books and searched this forum but to no avail.

If I have a diaper to weight and there is also stool in it, do you weight with the stool? or remove the stool first before weighting it? What if the stool is not removable such as liquid stool? If I have to weight a diaper with stool, how do I chart it? My point is the stool is adding extra weight but it is not coming from the urinary tract.

Thanks in advance.

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Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

In NICU, we always weigh the diaper with stool. Then we document sm-med-lg stool along with consistency and color.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

Weigh the whole thing. Estimate how much is urine, how much is stool. That's about the best you can do.

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Specializes in Pedatrics, Child Protection.

I agree. Weigh the entire thing and document the stool. Diapers are so absorbant today that you really don't have another option.

RNAnnjeh

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Specializes in Acute Dialysis.
AC439 said:
Hi, I have a question about weighting diaper. I looked into my nursing books and searched this forum but to no avail.

If I have a diaper to weight and there is also stool in it, do you weight with the stool? or remove the stool first before weighting it? What if the stool is not removable such as liquid stool? If I have to weight a diaper with stool, how do I chart it? My point is the stool is adding extra weight but it is not coming from the urinary tract.

Thanks in advance.

I work in a PICU. Most of our kids are either post liver/small bowel transplant, in the evaluation process or post bowel lengthening surgery. We are obsessive about diaper counts, and weights. If stool and urine are mixed; we weight the whole diaper. We document U/S on the I&O sheet. The stool may add weight to the diaper but that is still fluid being put out. At least with diarrhea it is. The kids I deal with may have as many as 12-15 stools or more a day.

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Specializes in L&D, PACU.

Just spent yesterday's clinical in a peds unit doing that...weighing diapers.

The weight of the diaper went in the urine output column even if there was stool. Then in the remarks column I would estimate the size of the stool, in the small/medium/large range. Also note consistency and color. In an enteric patient that can be a lot of very watery stool filled diapers. Trying to get a sample was a challenge as it all soaked straight into the diaper.

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In the peds unit that I work, we weigh it and chart it under urine/stool or mixed diaper so the docs know it was both.

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Thanks a lot for the answers !

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Specializes in Peds Cardiology,Peds Neuro,Pedi ER,PICU, IV Jedi.

I'm with candicane,

Your organization should have charting options that reflect "urine and stool" output together...we do in our computer charting.

If a pt. has urine only diaper, it's just recorded as "urine". Anything else is "urine mixed with" and you can give a number and input a visual/olfactory description.

Oh and don't forget to zero out the scale to negate the weight of the diaper!!

vamedic4

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