Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Mommy Tip Tuesday

It is Mommy Tip Tuesday; lets talk... DIAPERS!

Diapers are a big decision when you are having a baby. When I was gearing up to have Nicole, I did not know the first thing about diapers. I stood in the diaper isle overwhelmed by the sizes, brands, and different diaper types. I really did not know what to get. So, I tried a little of everything. And here are my findings...

Newborns: When you have a newborn, they go through like 10 diapers a day, so you need at least 2 packages of newborn diapers. My favorites are the Huggies Newborn Little Snugglers. These have an umbilical cord cut out so the diaper doesn't rub that tender belly button and a wetness indicator that turns blue when baby is wet. This makes it so easy for new moms to know when it is time to change the diaper!
 Older Diapers: I tried a lot of different diaper brands (pampers, target generic, parent's choice, ect...) and my favorite diapers are still Huggies (little snugglers when they are young and little movers when they get older). I think that the Costco Kirkland brand is very equivalent to Huggies and I will switch back and forth between them, depending on which is on sale. The Target Generic brand is really good too, but I rarely go to Target and therefore rarely buy them. 

DO NOT BUY PARENT'S CHOICE! Do not be fooled by the really cheap price into buying these diapers. They leak, they blow out, they rip, and they are awful! I got some as a gift and I hated them! After ripping my fourth diaper, I swore that I would never purchase them again.

Recently, I was turned toward Amazon Moms as a resource for inexpensive diapers. You can get Pampers at 30% off for free shipping. Pampers are not my favorite diaper. We had way more leaks with Pampers than we did with Huggies. But, I think I will peruse the Amazon Mom avenue and report back on my successes or failures.

Now, some of you out there might want to know about cloth diapers... I have no experience with them and I never intend to for multiple reasons:
1. It is gross.
2. It is expensive to get started. You need at least 200 dollars just to get started.
3. I don't like doing laundry as it is, I don't want to be washing diapers twice a day.
4. They are big! They are so big that most babies can't wear pants when they are wearing cloth diapers.
5. It is gross.

If you have experience with cloth diapers and would like to do a guest Mommy Tip Tuesday, shoot me an email or leave me a comment and then I could have someone who actually knows about this subject and doesn't just guess... like me.

Diaper Pails: When we first had Nicole, I scoffed at the necessity of a Diaper Genie as my diaper pail. I said, “A trash can with a lid will be good enough.” So, I got a trash can with a lid and we used it with Nicole. This only lasted until Nicole was 5 months and started eating solid foods. Then, her room started smelling more and more poopy. The trash can started wafting a foul odor even when it had a clean bag in it. 

The trash can did not hold the poopy smell within itself and it started to take on the smell of poopy diapers into the plastic! I did not want to trek out to the outside trash every time she had a poopy diaper, so I gave in and bought the Diaper Genie. 



I love it! It keeps the smell in as long as you use the Diaper Genie brand liners and you don’t let it get over full. If it gets too full, then the lid doesn’t close all the way and the smell escapes. I like this Elite 2 version where no twisting of the lid is required. Plus, there is no way that Nicole can access the dirty diapers for any reason.

Do not be fooled by the 1 dollar cheaper Odor Grabber liners! They fit into the Diaper Genie just fine, but they do not hold in the smell! The smell escapes and attacks your face and then you are spraying febreeze 9 times a day.
So, this is all that I know about diapers right now. I will probably continue to learn more and I'm sure there are other and maybe better diapering options out there, but this is what works for me.

For more Mommy Tips, see my sister's blog here.

3 comments:

Marie said...

Agree, agree, agree. I have been suckered into buying the Parent's Choice brand diapers twice and I have regretted it both times! They are so cheap, but you have to use twice as many because you have to change your baby's diaper twice as often to prevent leaks. Huggies all the way.

Sarah said...

Good to know. So many things I must know before fetus comes.

Angela said...

One thing I found about diapers after 4 kids is it all depends on the kid. With my first huggies didn't work but pampers did. With my second it was the other way around. And I've used parent's choice many times with no issues, but on an older kids never a small baby. I don't imagine they'd hold newborn poop at all.

Oh and my experience with a diaper genie didn't go well at all. I imagine they've improved them in the last 6 years though. Now I have older kids that can carry the diaper to the outside trash for me.

I do love the nice Huggies diapers though, they are very nice. But I'm usually too cheap to buy them.