I need help buying diapers! Experienced moms- please help?

Save the planet from plastic pollution, don’t buy disposable diapers! They’re worse than plastic bags and bottles combined.

I didn’t care for Pampers for either of my kids. I thought the crotch is that the proper term was too wide and looked really uncomfortable. We used Huggies, they seemed to fit the best and stay put really good. As for size, I wouldn’t suggest buying more than one box of the newborn size, my kids barely used one of the small sacks of those. My daughter breezed thru the size 1 and 2 diapers and hung out in size 3 for months and months. It’s really hard to say. I would buy the diapers somewhere with an easy exchange policy, like Walmart. Then if you have too many of one size, just take them in and exchange for the right size. Every kid is so different, so it’s really hard to say how many to buy of what size.

In terms of disposable get Huggies
In terms of cloth get BumGenius

In terms of sizes, get about 200 of each size but really you should only get size newborn and size 1 now

Honestly, it totally depends on your baby.

We used Pampers Swaddlers until our son grew out of them (damn they were great!) but we did use Huggies Newborn for the first couple weeks, they were just better for him because of how skinny he was. Swaddlers were PERFECT though.
Then we moved to Huggies.
I’m not a fan of Pampers Cruisers or Baby Dry. Cruisers don’t hold enough, and Baby Dry smells obnoxious. Some people swear by them though.
I like Huggies Snug & Dry, that’s what we get in bulk at the bulk store.
We also use Overnights, which I think are Pampers, for bedtime…otherwise he’d pee through (we’re so no where near potty training..sigh)
I also like Luvs, but they tend to sag a lot more than Pampers or Huggies, so they look huge when they get pee in them. But, they still hold the same.

I’ve only registered for diapers, it’s all I want or need. Diapers are THE best baby shower gift.

Oh, and price wise!
Diapers are cheaper for the smaller sizes. You get a lot more for less money, when they are smaller sized diapers. But, to get a big box of Pampers at the bulk store, it’s be $42.99 for like, 104 diapers. Huggies at like 39.99, and Luvs are 29.99 and you get a little more…like 128ct.
The smaller sizes come with more diapers though..you’ll notice this as your child gets older and you need to get diapers more often…but you do change them less.
Just don’t forget to get Newborn size, but don’t get too many because that’s the size they grow out of the quickest. Also depends on how much weight your baby will gain, but you can never have too many diapers. I’ve registered for like 4 boxes of one size, like size One Two Three Four…

@casheroo Very helpful! Thank you!!!
@knitfroggy Thank you!! Good advice

I agree with Huggies. I always had problems with Pampers leaking.

You may only need 2 or 3 packages of the newborn size. If you plan on stocking up, I would stock up on the next larger size.

I also would register for coupons like crazy. It may only save a buck or two, but when you have a baby, every penny counts!

@knitfroggy Oh yeah! I registered with my mother in laws, and friends addresses, my parents..anyone that would let me haha. I used all the coupons we could, because every little bit helps.

@knitfroggy I agree. It feels like Christmas when someone leaves a coupon near the diapers! I do that now whenever I come across a diaper coupon (since my children are out of diapers) because I know how much that extra dollar means to some people.

Coupons are great if you use them properly. When I first got married and felt grown up I’d clip all kinds of coupons and end up spending way more money buying crap I didn’t need because I had a coupon for it! I have since learned the coupon way and use them a lot!

sigh I always mean to use coupons but they just get lost and no time to organize them and then they always expire

Just don’t get adult diapers. My father did that when my older brother was born.
Well, my brother was probably a large baby, but still…
That’s the good thing about being a younger sibling; my parents got me the right size diapers.
I am neither a mom or experienced in these types of situations, but I think that my advice is still good.

@ekans Your advice is hilarious!

Look in the mirror and look at hubbys butt. Pampers are better if he comes out with a slender butt, and huggies are better if he has a broader butt.
I have one daughter who can only use pampers on her kids because they pee right out the sides of huggies. The other daughter has a big bootee family and her boys can only wear huggies.
Then again, there’s always diaper service
I found out with my first child that people like to give diapers as shower gifts. You could end up with to many newborn diapers!

Does anyone know if I can return unopened boxes of diapers to Walmart even if they came from Target, drug stores, salvage stores, etc? I don’t want to be rude and ask someone where they bought the diapers “just in case”. How did you guys handle this?

@Judi So funny yet so true. Who knew that Baby Got Back would be a great song for a diaper commercial. lol

I doubt you can take them back, but Catholic Charities (or other similar charities) can always use unused diapers.

I always used either Huggies or Pampers, whichever was on sale or whichever I had a coupon for. Between those two, I didn’t notice a difference. My kids must have butts that are right on the line between slender and broad! :)

Anyway, stocking up in advance is a good idea, but you could end up with a lot of diapers you don’t use. One of my boys was so big and grew so fast that he only fit into the newborn size diapers for a few days. My daughter, on the other hand, was so tiny that she was just barely out of size three diapers when she was potty trained a few months before her third birthday. There will always be some brand of diapers on sale. I could use any brand (although I didn’t really like the fit of Luvs, they did work fine for my kids), but I never liked the store-brand diapers. I tried a few different store brands but never more than once. They were more likely to leak, seemed to fit in an awkward kind of way, and had less of whatever helps to mask the smell of the absorbed urine. Ick.

If you live near a Babies R Us, you can stock up on diaper gift cards and then buy the diapers as you need them. You’ll always have the right size. If not, you can stock up on Wal-Mart or Target gift cards and use that as your “diaper fund.”

In case no one has told you this, buy a lot of cloth diapers. They make ideal burp cloths, and you can never have enough of them.

@rooeytoo Cloth diapers are “greener,” but a lot of babysitters and daycare providers won’t use them. If @BBSDTfamily is using some kind of childcare (which I think she mentioned on another thread, but I could be wrong), cloth diapers may not even be an option.

You can take them back to Walmart as long as they don’t have a shipping label on them that shows they were from another store-and they probably won’t. The UPC codes are the same and if they carry those diapers they will ring up.

@MissAusten – I don’t get it, why do you have a child and then let someone else keep it most of its waking hours, impart their values and beliefs.

If you are going to have them, raise them yourself and use cloth diapers to save the oceans for when they grow up.

@rooeytoo For two reasons. One, because no daycare provider will ever have the impact on a child that Mom and Dad do. Two, because children are expensive and most families need two incomes these days. Three, because high-quality childcare has no ill-effects on children and has actually been shown to be beneficial. Look it up.

I’ve worked in several daycares and have three children of my own. I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that daycare providers do not “raise” children. There have been many times when I wished I could influence a child more than that child’s parents, but it simply doesn’t happen. People who refer to daycare as a child being “raised by strangers” are so far off base and have no appreciation for how a good relationship with a caregiver can benefit the whole family.

@BBSDTfamily Sorry to hijack your diaper question. :)

Honestly, we tried them all and we have settled on the Costco (or BJ’s or Sam’s Club) brand diapers. They have proven just as well as the big names. What you save in diaper money pays for the club membership several times over. The only thing is that BJs seem to run a size smaller, so buy a size bigger than needed. I would not get generic brand wipes. They don’t cut it.

I would recommend reusable or flushable diapers (like G-diapers) if you have the funds and can deal with the inconvenience for the Earth’s sake. Although, I must say that I babysat a little girl whose mom provided G-diapers and they seemed to be somewhat messier than disposables in my experience. They also don’t flush as well as advertised and, of course can’t be used with a septic tank.

@MissAusten Thank you for all those answers!

My current experience is as a grandmother and babysitter of a toddler. We don’t like Pampers, they are too bulky and not very absorbant. My personal favorite is Luv’s because they are the best fit, but also the most expensive. The best buy is Huggies at Sam’s Club, or your favorite brand online by the case, mailed directly to your house.

There are several sides to the ecological question about re-useable diapers, including the fact the washing clothes, and processing water is somewhat ecologically questionable as well, plus the re-useable diapers have to be manufactured and eventually end up in the land fills as well.

Personally, I do not believe that plastic does not eventually deteriorate. Just as diamonds and oil/petroleum have taken a long time to become useful to us, so plastics in every form will eventually make their normal “circle” as well. It just takes longer.

@YARNLADY – well lets hope the it all deteriorates before the ocean becomes gelatinous because there are parts of it that are already pretty soupy.

We just traveled about 6000 kilometers cross country and at every stop, even in the middle of the desert, there were discarded disposable diapers lying about. If these lovely people would just dump the crap out and then put the rest in a rubbish bin, at least the crap would disappear in a matter of hours in the desert heat, but the plastic lasts for eons.

@MissAusten – If a child is in daycare for 8 or 9 hours a day for 5 days a week, goes home and goes to bed, how could the parents have more influence than the child care person? And if you can’t afford the child, why do you have it? Unless it was an accident or birth control failed. It was one of the reasons I never had children, I didn’t want to give up my career and I felt it would have been too selfish to have a child and then not raise it myself.

@rooeytoo I’m a stay at home parent, but I still recognize that parents need to work. You have your own personal reasons for not having children, you shouldn’t project them onto others. Daycare is not evil.

This guy biodegraded plastic in 3 months. And he’s in high school. Maybe if word about his findings and others like his got out and could be researched, developed, and marketed, we wouldn’t have such problems.

Also, discarded diapers in nature (or in the parking lot, like my neighbors do) is a different problem. That’s a litterbug problem, not a person buying disposable diapers problem. Responsible people make sure their waste goes to the landfill. Granted, any waste which is not easily degradable anywhere is not good, but at least if it’s on land, we have it to treat with bacteria or whatever we can find to eat it.

@rooeytoo : On the topic of day care- this is silly. Kids thrive on dynamics in their environments and being on a schedule, which is what day care can provide. If the child is having fun and is being nurtured, then I don’t see the problem. And you act like the parent never sees the child. Anyway, in a few years those kids will be in kindergarten which is all day in Maryland, now. So I don’t see the difference other than it’s illegal not to send them to kindergarten.

@rooeytoo By your logic nobody should have kids because they are required to go to school for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. My husband and I both work, we can afford a child, we got pregnant on purpose. If you’re too selfish to have a child then good, don’t. We do not feel that we’re selfish at all, rather the opposite.

@BBSDTfamily – you just finished telling people they shouldn’t eat meat unless they butcher it themselves, now you have children and you don’t raise them yourself, seems strange.

School is a lot different than daycare, an infant is different than a 6 year old. Totally different situations. I cringe when I see mothers dropping infants off at daycare so they can go off to work. That is completely selfish and cruel to a child. Plus you miss their first words, their first step, their first everything, what is the point?

And plastic breaks down into very small dots, it doesn’t miraculously disappear. It is those little dots of plastic that are making the “soup” in the ocean. And disposable diapers along with plastic bags and bottles are prime offenders.

@rooeytoo You must have misunderstood the meat post- I don’t butcher my own meat so I surely don’t think everyone should. I’m not discussing that with you in this diapers post though… go over there if you want to talk about it. I am raising my child myself. You obviously know nothing about parenting, daycare, or children and I’m pretty sure nobody in here asked for your parenting advice nor do they care. This question is about diaper prices, not your opinion of daycare. Quit harping about landfills because I’m using disposable and you can get over it. Please go troll another thread and let us continue our discussion without your rude behavior.

hehehe, okey dokey.

And if you are a stay at home parent raising your own child, congratulations, that is a good thing by anyone’s judgement.

Since it is not illegal to foul the planet with plastic, you are certainly within your rights to do so, but just think of your poor child growing up having to deal with all these pollution problems caused by the uncaring masses who went before.

Now I will go troll somewhere else!

Been out of town, but am home now to chime in!

My two oldest kids were in daycare as babies. I didn’t miss their first steps or first words. They also didn’t go to bed as soon as we got home. We had dinner as a family, played, read stories, or whatever, until bedtime. Them spending the 40 hours a week I was at work in daycare didn’t make them more attached to the teachers than to us. The kids in my daycare classes were not more attached to me than to their parents. They didn’t learn values from us, they learned them at home. Parenting isn’t about hours per day spent with a child. Good parents are good parents, whether they work or not. Being a stay at home mom (which I am now) doesn’t automatically mean you are some kind of super-parent and better than your working counterparts. I know quite a few stay at home moms whose children would be better off in daycare where there is no tv, no computer, plenty of room to run and be active, daily outside play time, healthy snacks instead of junk food, and a group of peers to socialize with.