Product Review: DIAPERS!

A RIVETING ARTICLE ABOUT…DISPOSABLE DIAPERS…

First of all, don’t be fooled, this is not riveting at all and I am not paid to endorse any products.  I’m only here as a new parent to write about my personal experiences with some popular baby essentials.  This is stuff we use everyday and it can be daunting when you don’t know which to buy or try.   Remember, every baby is completely different, so I encourage you to read up on and try everything you are interested in and follow your baby’s cues and your own gut!

DISPOSABLE DIAPERS

Overview

“I’m George. I’m a little serious sometimes. And this is Linda, my very good lion friend.”

Baby George is now 9 weeks old and we have tried two different disposable diapers, Pampers Swaddlers and The Honest Company, both in size Newborn and size 1.  We found pros and cons for each that I’d like to share with new parents unsure of what to stock up on.  In general, if you change your newborn before each feeding, you will use 10 to 12 diapers a day until they feed more efficiently and then you’ll use about 8-10 diapers day.    Every teacher, friend and nurse told us not to bother stocking up on size NB because most babies would be in a size 1 in no time.  They were very, very wrong, so keep in mind that babies are FREAKING SMALL and you will use at least one bag of newborn diapers before growing out of them.  George wore NB until 3 weeks and only then did he grow out of them in length before width.   That’s 210 newborn diapers before we switched to size 1!

Pampers Swaddlers Diapers

George sleeping soundly in his Pampers Swaddlers diaper.

These diapers are one of the most common disposables used in hospitals and at home and the price is right at about 21 cents a unit.  They are pretty futuristic as far as diapers go and I definitely recommend them for babies before solids are introduced.  The mesh lining of these diapers makes them special, wicking the runny newborn poop away their bodies, leaving almost none on the butt at all.  The seat is quite roomy, so they are rarely just sitting in wetness which helps to prevent irritation based diaper rash.  The double elastic around the thighs creates a pretty miraculous leak barrier, but they are still quite large for our son, so he does still leak out of the top on occasion.  This happens because the diaper itself isn’t really touching the body much (a good and bad thing), so when he pees while laying on his back, the urine streams down his side and out of the back of the diaper at the top.  Sorry for the specifics, but it’s important to know these things!   Unfortunately, these diapers are pretty terrible for the environment.  It kills a little piece of my heart every time I stuff a dirty one into the trash, but for now the benefits of these outweigh their impact for me.  I’m embarrassed to say that, but it’s just how I feel.

The Honest Company Diapers

George rocking out in his skull patterned Honest Company diaper.

The pros of these diapers are pretty obvious.  They are eco-friendly, hypoallergenic, free of crappy chemicals and come in super cute patterns that make me not want to dress my child!   The fit of these is a little smaller than the Pampers Swaddlers, so if you have a small or thin baby like we do, they won’t be swimming in these.   We found that these leak easily, however, because the seal around the leg is definitely inferior to the Pampers.  If helping the environment outweighs leak protection for you, I would recommend having some overnight diapers on hand when your baby starts to sleep a little longer at night.  That way you won’t be changing swaddles, sheets and pajamas every time they wake in the night.  Keep in mind that having to wash and dry all of those things after leaks can be just as bad for the Earth as using one or two overnight diapers a day.  Another con we found is that poop isn’t wicked away from the body like with the Pampers, so George got diaper rash a lot with these.  Newborn poop is very runny, so they are pretty much sitting in it a lot with these especially since they aren’t as roomy in the butt as the Pampers.   Ultimately, I think I might use these later in George’s life when his poop firms up a bit because then the wicking problem wouldn’t make a difference anymore as the firmer poop wouldn’t be able to get past the mesh in the Pampers anyway.   Honest diapers are about 6 to 7 cents more each than the Pampers Swaddlers, but I do feel that their lower impact on the environment will make this worth it to me later on when we introduce solids for George.

Conclusion

For now, we are using the Pampers Swaddlers to keep diaper rash and leaking at bay, but if we don’t switch later on to a disposable pad diaper system like G-diapers, we will definitely switch to the Honest diapers later on this year when George is poop is more solid and he has fatter thighs to counteract the inferior elastic.