Diaper Trials

I promised you all that I would do a post on my trials and triumphs with diapers.

So, here is the much-anticipated post! Brace yourselves, it's a looong one!

Let me just tell you all that where diapers are concerned, believe me, I have been to the moon and back! I kid you not, I have tried absolutely every. single. brand. out there! Some brands I've tried multiple times.  Some brands, I knew that I never wanted to see them again upon the first use.  Some brands, I never even got past taking them out of the package! In this post I will catalog my usage of the brands of diapers that are out there and I will tell you what I liked and didn't like about each.

As you can probably guess, each of my children have worn diapers! And I care deeply about my children's buns.  I am not one to just settle for whatever diaper is on sale.  I guess you could say that I am deeply Brand Loyal! I will also tell you that diapers have changed immensely since my first child was born 17 years ago, even when nothing was wrong with a particular brand.  My philosophy is, why can't manufacturers leave well enough alone??!!

The first brand I ever tried, back when Russell was born almost 17 years ago, was Pampers, because that's the brand that our hometown hospital uses.  And I loved Pampers.  They were the only diapers that I used for him, exclusively. 

A little side-story here:
Russell was my very first baby.  That means that I had absolutley NO idea what to do with him.  When the nurses gave him to me to take home after his two-week stay in the NICU, I panicked! I must have looked half crazed! And I didn't even know how to change a diaper.  The NICU nurses had to show me.  So when I brought him home I felt pretty proud of myself for actually knowing how to get him bathed and dressed and diapered with a minimum of struggle.  But I did notice that I was having to change his clothes a LOT during the day! This puzzled me.  He'd have this wet spot along the middle of his outfit, at the top of his diaper, and I had no clue how it got there.  One day, I decided to bring this matter up with my husband.  My husband came into Russell's room with me and watched as I changed him.  He studied the operation and finally said,
"Honey, are you pointing his thingy down?"
And I was like "Excuse me?"
And he said to me, "Honey, you have to point his thingy down in order for the pee pee to actually go into the diaper instead of out of the diaper."
Ah ha! So from that day on I did what he said and lo and behold, no more leaks!!
Anyway....

So, I stuck with Pampers Baby Dry for many years.  Then they came out with Pampers Swaddlers and Pampers Cruisers.  Ah. The relationship was elevated to me becoming Pampers #1 fan! Only one thing marred my bliss: they cost an arm and a leg! Even with coupons.  But I continued to use them because of the love factor. And back then, they were good diapers.

I used Pampers for a number of years before I decided to investigate further.  By this time Hannah and Samantha had arrived.  I was using Pampers for them too, but the price was rising higher and higher.  They were both in diapers at the same time, being 16 months apart.  So it was even more important to me to get the best diaper for the best value.  By this time I felt like I knew what I needed in a diaper and I was pretty confident that I could judge a diaper acurrately.

I tried generic store brands.  Fred Meyer.  Drug Store brands.  Target at this time did not have a store brand, and I had never even heard of Wal Mart.  I tried Safeway brand.  All I can say is, ICK! The store brands that I tried were so flimsy, so thin, so papery that they could not stand up to a flood of liquid, let alone anything else, and I was having to change diapers every two hours.  Let me say, if you are changing a diaper every two hours, this is NOT a savings!! You are having to use a lot more diapers because they can't stand up to the tough stuff.

I decided that I would stick with Pampers.  But I did switch to Pampers Cruisers exclusively.  I loved the way they flexed and moved.  They were soft.  They seemed to have a good air flow without getting stinky.  I almost never had a blow out during this time.  We decided to budget in the big bucks for Pampers from now on.

Alas, all good things seem to come to an end, and manufacturers think they need to change things up to compete, I guess.  Around the time Sara was born I noticed that, upon taking a diaper out of the package, it just didn't feel or look the same as they had in the past.  This is when I became disillusioned with Pampers and decided to try Luvs.  For about $10.00 less per box! Keep in mind that this was eons before the internet and before Diapers.com!

So I fell in love with Luvs.  I used Luvs for a few more years before, you guessed it, they changed them! So I felt forced to switch back to Pampers.  They were ho-hum.

Fast forward.  It's now years in the future and I'm not really loving diapers anymore.  I've now tried Target brand (Up and Up).  Wal Mart brand (totally forgot the name).  By the time Sofia was born I was settling.  I even saved some Luvs from when I used them with Sara, and I compared them to the Luvs that I bought for Sofia.  BIG change.  I used the few Luvs that I had saved, mourning all the time for the great diaper that they had just gotten rid of for no reason.

When Lucie was born I used what I had on hand.  I had a few packages of diapers from the hospital.  They were Pampers Swaddlers, only they now had some sort of net thing, a mesh thing, covering the inside of the diaper, and every time I took a diaper off of her, it stuck to her.  Not to mention that she started to get a bad rash.  Then my friends had a diaper shower for me.  This gave me the opportunity to try different diapers again.

I have tried organic diapers.  We were concerned by this time of the junk touching our girls's buns, and we used everything else organic, why not diapers?! Yeah right.  I tried 7th Generation.  For like 35 cents a diaper.  Ugh.   And they were bulky.  And ugly.  They worked well, but the price deterred me.  I tried Earth's Best, found at Grocery Outlet for a steal.....but I had to change diapers every two hours! And we were having blow outs, bad ones, every diaper. So back I went to Pampers Cruisers.

Yes, expensive diapers are less expensive now with the advent of sites like Diapers.com and Amazon.  I can get my faves for the same price as generic diapers. 

I had some Huggies out in the container from a diaper shower that my friends threw me when we found out we were having twins, and I was hesitant to use them because I had not been happy with Huggies in the past.  But we ran out of diapers and it was quite a few days till payday, so I had to try them.  And I fell in love! With Huggies Snug and Dry, with Baby Mickey on the front.

In my opinion, Huggies are the best option out here.  I can leave a Huggies on Pennie for the whole night and there's nary a sign of a leak.  We've never had a blow out.  They fit great.  They're cute.  And I can get them for pretty cheap on Amazon, I found. No rashes either!

I do like Kirkland brand diapers, and I had been using them for Lucie now that she's older because they're good diapers, but for Pennie, the smallest size they start with are a combined size 1-2.  I think they're about 19 cents a diaper or something like that, compared to 25 cents at Costco for Huggies Snug and Dry.  So, Pennie doesn't fit into size three yet, and she's too big for the littler size.

So, I guess what I would leave you all with, after a gargantuanly long post (thanks for hanging in there) is that diapers can be very affordable online.  I have been so happy with Diapers.com.  You can look at every diaper under the sun and they even lay out the cost per diaper for you! I like that.  They also have customer reviews, which I loved when I was contemplating which diaper to order for Pennie.  Also, shipping is usually free with an order of a certain dollar amount (usually a weird amount like $49), and, the icing on the cake is that shipping is really fast, usually two days after I place my order.  I met a gal at Costco who told me about Amazon Moms, and she told me that I can order Huggies for the same price as store brands!!

Also, diaper showers are a fabulous idea for first time moms, and even third time moms or eight time moms! A mom needs to stock up on diapers, and a diaper shower is a great way to do that.

Here's a wrap up of the points in this post"
Diapers I hate: Luvs.  Pampers.  Up and Up.  Safeway brand.  Wal Mart brand.  Hmmmm...just about every diaper that isn't Huggies Snug and Dry!! And I'm going to order them from Amazon soon.  I will let you know the cost per diaper and all that stuff.

In the meantime, happy diaper shopping!!