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August 2020 Moms
emiliadkay
member
Product Spotlight Series: Diapering
emiliadkay
member
This is a place for FTMs to ask questions about, S+TMs to share their prior experience with, and everyone to share what they're eyeing in the world of maternity, baby and postpartum products. Each week we'll spotlight a new category of product to help streamline and make it easier to refer back. This week we're discussing DIAPERING. Think: disposables (how many and in what size, brands that worked for you), wipes, diaper creams, diaper pails - all fair game! For all things cloth diapering related, see The Great Cloth Diaper Discussion.
I've omitted the FTM/STM prompts below as I think our group prefers a more free-form response and conversation. Let me know if they're missed and we can bring them back for our next edition!
To view past Product Spotlights or the upcoming schedule, see here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DzmfbSu7toufv3p1VWNu1XOXDaU-tbI5FEfV8av46pc/edit?usp=sharing
Re: Product Spotlight Series: Diapering
I use whatever's cheapest - typically Comforfs (fred Meyer store brand) or Up and Up (Target store brand) and sometimes Parents Choice (Walmart store brand). Early on with my first, I tried all the brands - Huggies, Pampers, Luvs, 7th gen, honest. Paying more money, in my experience, does not equal a better diaper with fewer blow outs or leaks. We had the same amount of blowouts with any of the disposables - almost every poop. Same with my second, and they are very differently shaped babies. I've had one chunker and one skinny baby. So I just bought the cheapest since they were going to blow out anyway.
A lot of people swear by pampers, but I specifically dislike that brand. I feel (and my sister also has seen this) that they don't fit as well around the waist and want to slip down. Pampers have a waistband with slight stretch but don't have any elastic back there, whereas Huggies and most of the storebrands do.
I also had issues with Huggies. I found that if they were in the diaper wet for awhile with multiple pees, like overnight or a long car trip, the absorbent material came out and would be in chunks/beads all over their crotch, and I had to pick it off. I haven't had that issue with store brands.
Wipes - I also use storebrand.
Creams - I like Weleda the best. The only other one I've used is Beaudreux's butt paste. I grabbed that because she had a bad rash, and I ran out of Weleda, and Weleda is a natural brand, so I was looking for something more powerful. But they honeslty worked about the same. And they both smell really good!
Never used a diaper pail. We just threw them in the regular trash. We haul the trash a couple times a week and have never had a stink issue.
Finally, don't assume Amazon is cheapest, especially if you're going non-name brand. At the prices I pay in my location, Comforts and Up and Up are about 10 cents cheaper per diaper than Amazon's store brand.
diapers - we mostly used seventh generation. i've heard good things about dyper and want to try them, but they didn't exist last time around. we also really liked honest and earth's best, but got the best value with seventh gen. Get a bunch of samples to see what works for your baby. You may also need to change brands as they get older and their bodies change.
wipes - water wipes are great
bum cream - the green boudreaux's butt paste is also safe for cloth so we mostly used that, but only as needed; we used calmoseptine with disposables for especially bad rashes (good if your little is on antibiotics). get a silicone brush to apply the bum cream. It's so worth it not to have to scrub your hands every time.
diaper pail - We have 2 diaper dekor plus in different colors (one for cloth, one for disposables). It's nice that you can use a regular trash bag in them. It smells when you open it, but not bad otherwise. ETA: because we barely used disposables, we had put them in the garbage (and do again now that she's PT'ed but wearing overnight diapers). But our baby's bff has the stinkiest poops ever and we needed a better solution for when she came over so that's why we got a second diaper pail. It was still stinky even with the pail, but not nearly as bad.
changing pad - we got a cheap one with curved sides that sits on top of the dresser. We also got these white, waterproof pads that sit on top and when there is leakage you just wash those instead of the whole pretty cover. You can also throw one of those on the floor for a quick change.
wet or wet/dry bags - these are a must have for cloth diapers, but also very useful with disposables. your baby will have a blowout at the worst possible time and you can just shove everything in here and deal with it later. Or maybe you are somewhere without a garbage can, and this is your next best option. Planetwise is the most recommended brand, but we just got the cheap knock-offs in whatever cute patterns I liked.
We use Amazon subscribe and save for our diapers and wipes. This helps me because with both of my boys we were on a "quarantine" period and couldn't go out in public. Having the diapers delivered to my door was so worth it.
For wipes, I use Pampers sensitive, I prefer them over any of the other wipes and they do not irritate my boys' skin.
We never used a diaper pail, we just use the trash can and when the poop diapers started to smell, we just tie them up in shopping bags.
Make sure you try different brands as what works for some people may not work for you. It will be a trial and error for a bit. For instance, with my boys, we never changed sizes based on weight, we always had to do it based on their growth, so their diapers always look big, but actually fit, because of how long-waisted they are.
We got the Hatch changing pad, because I knew if we were going to try breastfeeding I was going to be extremely anxious about whether baby was actually getting enough/anything. For that feature alone, the changing pad was amazing in the early days (you can confirm exactly how many ounces baby gets in each feed, just by weighing before and after), but I've also loved just being able to wipe it down and not having a cover to launder. We looked at the keekaroo peanut changer for the same reason.
Water wipes are great. I originally had them on subscribe and save and now have waaaayyy too many because we really only use wipes for poo. Personal preference / opinions differ, but consider that before stocking up aggressively. We didn't get a wipes warmer but might for baby #2. I know people make fun of them and it is perhaps a bit excessive, but I think about how much I hate sitting on a cold toilet seat in the middle of the night and it seems like the whole diaper change ordeal might be a little less jarring for a sleeping/sleepy baby that way. We'll see.
We also used Boudreaux's butt paste and it's been perfectly adequate. I have a friend who got the Baby Bum brush and uses it exclusively to apply, but eh, there's so much grosser stuff in your life as a mom I never found the application of diaper cream to really bug me.
More stuff: I never had a changing pad. I registered for one, we didn't get it, and we were pretty broke. Right now, I tend to just change on the floor or the couch or the bed or whereever on a blanket, typically the floor. If they kick around naked for a few minutes, I keep a diaper under so I don't really worry about pee or poop getting everywhere. If I know they're blowing out, it's the bathroom or kitchen floor, which are tile, haha.
Wet bags: these are very handy. Gallon ziplocs or grocery store trash bags work fine, too. I have Sweet Pea and Planet Wise. Planet Wise is often recommended, but I actually prefer the Sweet Pea. It's a single layer, which means they're lighter weight, less bulky and take less space when stuffing them in a diaper bag. They've held up fine through CDing both kids and look like new.
@coldlife Yup. The leaking is why we've up sizes before they're even "ready" weight wise. Ds2 will be ready for a size 5 soon and he's only 20 pounds even, but he's almost too tall for his size 4s.
@emiliadkay I keep going back and forth on the Keekaroo (know it's not the one you have). It's pricey, but honestly not that much more than the changing pad and two covers I've currently got on my secret registry. I read somewhere that sometimes discoloration happens with the Keekaroo. Any other STM+ moms want to weigh in on whether or not you think it might be worth it?
How many diapers should I try to have on hand at the beginning, and in what sizes? And when you test out different kinds, did you go through a whole pack of one type or alternate? My plan at the moment was to buy diapers from Target so that I could easily return if one isn't working for us, or if we have too many smaller sized ones and need to go up, but then I'll likely switch over to Amazon.
Would also love to know more about some of the more eco-friendly/non-toxic diapers others have tried and liked.
And how necessary is a travel changing pad? Or could I just use a swaddle blanket. Thinking more about trying to cut down on number of must-have items I carry around in the diaper bag.
I bought the smallest pack, went through it, and when it didn't work at preventing blow outs (that was the big thing for me - everything else about the diapers was pretty much equal for me. Even the absorbent particle issue with Huggies I mentioned above I would have just dealt with if Huggies had contained the poop), then I bought a different brand and repeat.
I've never had a travel changing pad. I think it'd be handy, but just haven't gotten one. I typically have a receiving blanket or something handy and will use that. Even my nursing cover in a pinch! If there's no blow out, I'm pretty good at changing a diaper without getting mess everywhere.
I will not commit to any specific type of diaper brand until I've put it on my baby and given it a chance, we switched brands as often as we switched sizes with my daughter, some brands fit better at different sizes than others depending on her body shape and there was nothing worse than finishing a box of X brand where she blew out or leaked when I had figured out that Y brand fit better.
Unless this kid has sensitive skin, it will just be the cheapest wipes I can buy because honestly they all get the job done anyway.
We had a small place with our daughter, too small to waste space on a changing table set up.. I picked up a big basket from a thrift store and kept a travel changing mat, diapers, wipes, and A&D in there and I could drag that basket room to room with us if need be. It would live in the living room during the day and move to her room at night and her booty got changed where ever I happened to be at the time. You can't convince me that this isn't the best way to deal with diapers.. and if we land up in a 2 story place with the next little one I'll just make 2 baskets, one for upstairs and one for down so I don't have to haul stuff up and down. We take trash out daily so there's no reason to not just throw a used diaper in the can since it will go out that night anyway.
@rivercitynik most diaper bags come with a changing pad, so unless you are just going to use a regular bag you will have one to try and see if you like it or not. I didn't use it that often, but when I needed it I was glad I had it. I remember being at a nice restaurant when she was maybe 7 months old and having to change her on the nasty bathroom floor because they didn't have a changing table. If I didn't have the changing pad, idk what I would have done. Maybe closer to our due dates we will do a diaper bag packing thread.
For samples, I got a lot in various welcome kits and you will get sample diapers and wipes in the mail because all of the diaper companies have bought your data and know when you are expecting. You will also get formula samples and coupons in the mail. Even if you plan on cloth diapering and/or breastfeeding, keep them cause you might need them. I don't think you need to buy many diapers to start, if any, because you will definitely get a lot of newborn and size 1 as gifts and then you can decide what you like and reorder.
IDK if you all also know about composting diaper services. It's quite popular for people who don't want to use cloth but also don't want to leave diapers in our landfills forever. Once a week they drop off a new batch of diapers and pick up the dirties to compost (much like a cloth service does, but washing instead of composting). Just wanted to throw that out as an option because I didn't even know about it until after my baby was a few months old.
Mail order diaper services are getting really big now, too. I even saw that Hilary Duff just started one. I find it amusing that so many celebrities have gotten involved in the poop containment business. It's so not glamourous.
@rivercitynik Our changing pad is a medium gray, but FWIW we've never had any discoloration issues. Maybe it's like a cutting board and only happens if you leave something on it for a long time before cleaning up? I dunno. Re: A travel changing pad, I did use ours semi-frequently in the first six months or so, and not at all since. Like @roo_baby mentioned, restaurants with no changing tables are the worst offenders. If you live somewhere where you drive most places, though, the back or backseat of the car with (or without) a swaddle blanket will generally have you covered.
@roo_baby I am fascinated by the diaper composting thing! I cloth diaper but would love to do that for the times we use disposable when we are running errands or when he is with a babysitter. I am definitely looking into it!
Wipes: We also loved Pampers wipes. But once again, we switched over to the Kirkland brand once we ran out and they were great for us. We still currently use them.
Butt Paste: I love the Boudreaux's Butt Paste Diaper Rash Ointment, they worked like a charm for my daughter. To apply it, I just used a wipe. No need to waste money on a spatula to apply it. That's just another thing I need to worry about cleaning and I was not into doing anything extra that I did not need to.
Diaper Pail: We currently still have our Munchkin Step Diaper Pail by Arm and Hammer. I don't have experience with any other pail, so this was fine. It was rare when we a meal coming from it. We preferred the actual individual bags compared to the tear away bags. I feel like the tear away bags waste available space that could be used for more diapers. We also had a subscription with Amazon that delivered the bags every few months.
Changing Table: We did have to change table set up with all of the diapers and wipes or other accessories we needed for the baby in her room. If I could do it all over again I would have a changing table that comes on top of the dresser. I think that if frees up more space in the room, plus you can place the diapers and wipes on the top of the dresser or put them in a drawer.
Wipes: we made our own and then switched to Huggies sensitive. They're fine. Nothing to write home about but they get the job done.
Diaper rash remedies: I swear by corn starch. You can get a tub at the store for about $2. It dries them up so quickly and is all natural. I also like A&D. Nothing beats air time though.
Changing table: We have a travel changing pad that trifolds then folds in half so it is very compact. We just lay it on the bed or floor and change there. We have the white pad with the sides and had it on a dresser for a "changing table" but I never used it. It's so much easier to just pull out that pad and change where you are.
Diaper pail: we never had one. Breastfed poop doesn't smell bad and if it was a bad one we just put it in a plastic bag and tie it up. For cloth diapering we had a laundry basket with a wet bag in it.
Wipes: Kirkland. They come in a massive box and it takes forever to go through them all.
Diaper rash: We used Penaten on the more severe ones.
Changing table: for my first we had the change table attached to the crib, for my second her room was a bit smaller so we couldn't use the change table and instead used a pad with the straps on top of a low dresser
Diaper pail. Never used one. Just had a regular garbage can for wet only which we emptied regularly and then always ran the poop ones immediately out to the garbage bin outside.
Diaper Pail: we had one of the original diaper genies in 2000 and again in 2007. Hated it both times. Not sure if they’ve gotten better. But for the last baby (2015) I just kept sandwich sized ziploc style bags (store brand work great) near the changing area and sealed up the dirty diaper/wipes in one of those zippy bags and tossed it right in the trash. No pee/poopy diaper smell cuz it’s locked up tight!
Changing Table: I’m on baby #4. By baby #3 we were just changing him wherever we were at. Typically on the floor. I’m sure that won’t change.
We pretty much tried all the diapers under the sun but were on the Aldi train until DS was potty trained!