[jhmomofmany]

For the purposes of charting how do you define bleeding vs. spotting?

[LiamsMother]

I consider it spotting if I only need a pantiliner, not a pad.

[plan4fate]

I ditto Amanda.

[Keakie]

I use a Diva Cup now, but before that I used pads. I'm one of those women who almost never needed more than just a pantyliner so for me it's just a matter of knowing what looks "heavy" like one of my periods and what looks much lighter.

[sugarloafbaby]

I would consider spotting more erratic and less of it - spots on the pad kind of thing. Bleeding to me is a flow, anything that might fill a liner or a pad.

I am charting spotting right now, but it's not even enough to need a liner- the only reason I know it's there is because I am checking with tissue. Hardly anything, but still want to be cautious.

[rlh27]

I always went by brown= spotting, red=AF, because sometimes my brown spotting would be enough to fill up a pad in a day but it wasn't really flow. When my period starts, there's no mistaking it, it always starts heavy red.

[jhmomofmany]

Thanks for the replies. Yesterday and today both I've had hardly even spotting during the day, but then need a pad in the late afternoon/early evening, and it's gone again by bedtime. I'm not sure which to call that, and not sure if it even matters.

[ShawnaCAN]

Doesn't really matter which you call it right now, whether light or spotting. Either one is probably fine.

[LJD3Tdance]

Yeah, for me I'd probably call what you said spotting, but Shawna's probably right that it doesn't matter right now since you know what the current bleeding is.