A Guest Post from Pete: A Dad, A Deal, And 41 Dozen Diapers
My friend, Pete (the only male to ever comment on this site), is very excited about being a new dad. He enthusiastically jumped in and started changing diapers on day 1. He works for a small junior high and they recently had a diaper drive for him and one other teacher. The stack of diapers in his garage is about 8 ft wide and 4 ft high! Seriously. In this article Pete shares his first experiences with diapering.
Starting off with my credentials, I’ve been a father for exactly 4 weeks today, thus I’ve changed somewhere between two to three hundred diapers. My experience with diapering before becoming a parent was limited to a few isolated incidences of babysitting for a friend or my sisters. When it was time to clean up the dirty-deed, I simply used whatever diapers were supplied, never noticing their effectiveness or brand. In grocery stores, I undoubtedly walked past the disposable diaper aisle, but had never stopped to determine my “Brand” or even price range. Consequently, I did like the idea of environmentally friendly and exploring the world of cloth diapers…if the opportunity ever presented itself.
Well, the opportunity did present itself this year and I wanted to be prepared. A month before our son arrived there was a disposable sale at Babies R Us and I capitalized on it. I purchased 2 super-sized boxes of Newborn size and 2 mega-sized boxes of size 1 diapers. The cost per diaper was as low as 7 cents per diaper, which is significantly less when compared to some of the “Brand Name” diapers which can easily cost 25 cents per diaper. (And when you’re using 12+/- diapers a day, it makes a big difference). For what it is worth, my wife and I decided that we would postpone the use of cloth diapers until our son was at a stage where he was dirtying fewer diapers per day.
Now, about the four boxes of diapers. They were the cheapest in price I had researched, but would they get the job done? Since I had so many, I was determined that these would work! Unfortunately, our son was not just dirtying these diapers, but he was regularly wetting his clothes as well. The diapers frequently leaked liquids near his lower lumbar. The worst of it happened last Tuesday, when I changed his diaper six times between 6pm and midnight, and believe it or not, all six times the diapers had leaked and soiled his clothes. That was the night I decided to cut my losses and invest in the “Brand Name” diapers. Since making that decision exactly one week ago, I can honestly confirm that our son has never needed to a change of outfit due to his diaper leaking! Thus, as difficult as it is for my spend-thrift mind to admit it, my practical lesson learned here is that the “Brand Name” diapers are worth the extra expense. This same principle extends to Ice Cream brands as well.
Lessons learned – If I was a seasoned parent I would have more credibility for my these theorems, never-the-less, while I’m on the subject, I’ve included an extra paragraph with additional postulates.
- Every child is different and things can change at each stage, so “Brand A” may be best now, but “Brand B” may be your best choice after future development.
- Do not buy in bulk until you have “street tested” the brand and size to confirm it’s the way to go.
- There is a significant amount of money spent each year on diapering, so one very practical way to help new parents is to start a “Diaper Drive”.
The leaking diapers that I purchased in bulk was the “Especially For Baby” brand from Babies R Us. Since then, I have used Huggies and Pampers. Both have worked out very well, but I especially liked the Pampers. My next brand to try out will be Luvs.
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@ Pete, a very good friend of mine has 3 boys. When I have talked diapers with her (I have a baby girl) Pampers was the only one for her boys. I love my friend and I can honestly say she is more frugal than Daniel E. I have been told by many seasoned parents that Luvs is just as bad with leakage as the non brand names. I tried many brands for my daughter and again after talking to multi kid parents this is what I learned…
For girls Huggies worked the best, where the most padding is places.
And for boys Pampers worked the best for the same reason.
I would love to know what everyone else thinks?
@Pete — Did you try Babies R Us brand in Supreme? Although our son was in cloth diapers, we did use disposables occasionally. They worked pretty well, and were cheaper than the competition. I don’t know if they make them any more b/c I didn’t see them on the website, but maybe they have them in stores.
That being said cloth is still the cheaper way to go. If you guys have another one, using a diaper service for the first month or two is another option; your changing lots of diapers but not doing the laundry. And the best part is you still save money in the long run — I did the math
Congrats on being a new parent. God bless you all and give you wisdom as your child grows!
I’ve had good luck with Pampers. We had problems with Huggies leaking early on in the smaller sizes but did much better with them now that we are in Size 3s. Luvs have been great too. I have had very few leaks with them. I use Huggies now because they offer them through Amazon subscribe and save service. I get 144 Size 3 Huggies for 27.00 delivered to my front step. Thats shipping, tax and everything. They offer every size but only Huggies.
We cloth diaper too but have also used disposables on occasion. Actually the older boys still use diapers at night time (cheaper than pull
Sorry about that. The 4 year old decided to move the mouse to the “submit comment” section and click it while I was typing. Grrr… Anyway, diapers are cheaper than pull ups and I haven’t bought any night time cloth diapers.
Pampers have been our #1 pick for disposables. However we get 144 Huggies size 6 (for older boys) at Costo for 35 dollars. It is much cheaper. I am curious about how much they would cost through the service you use, Someone Being Me. It is on Amazon? How do you find the service and cost of diapers? I did a brief check and couldn’t find it.
I have found generic brands to work GREAT now that the kids are older and bigger. Darah is a hard diaper fit because her body is shaped a tad different than most children. She has skinny little legs, no butt, and a big belly. (sidenote: it’s the cutest little body in the world! I would love to order it in a size 5’10 for me!) It’s hard to fit a diaper on her that doesn’t leak through the legs. When she was little, we swore by Huggies. I clothed for a couple months, and that worked best for her body shape, but I gave up because of some poop issues Darah has. Connor was in huggies too for his first few months which worked great. Once he started getting active, generic have worked great! I recently got Kirkland’s brand from Costco and they are absolutely my fave!!!! I would totally compare them to Huggies!
PS: Thanks so much for writing this up! Very good information and great perspective!!
Sharon M, The diapers were “Especially for Baby – Supreme”. I took back the boxes of size #1, but I still have a lot of the Newborn size. I didn’t think it wise to return half a box of diapers. Are there local shelters or WIC clinics that’ll take diapers???
Our small group will take any diapers you’re willing to give out! We are going to be volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center in New Braunfels and planning to do a diaper drive.
Pete,
I’m glad to see that you are changing lot’s of diapers. I hope when we have kids Phil will do the same. I agree with you that with some products the name brand really does make a difference. I will have to explain to Phil that Aldi’s (albeit great for certain things) probably won’t work for diapers!
Robin, in the past you might have been able to turn diapering into a race or a competition and Phil would’ve risen to the challenge. That was during his “active” early 20′s stage. Maybe, as a teacher, you know that the motivation is the key to results…so you have the big task of getting him past the point of “Mentally” changing diapers…to Physically getting the job done! In all seriousness, he’ll change them just to keep baby an Libby free from smelling poopy. BTW, these Texans probably aren’t familiar with Aldi’s brand, never-the-less, you couldn’t be more right!
I think you hit it right on the nose with number 1, Every child is different. We have 3 boys and all have been in different diapers!! Josh (the oldest) used the store brand from Babies R Us with no problems. We loved them!! Then came Xavier, we tried the store brand from Babies R Us and they did not work!! So We went to Huggies. They worked great. Jayden is now in Huggies just because they worked the first time and we are to lazy to try another brand. He has on occasion been in different brands when he runs out of diapers at the nursery or daycare center’s and never had a problem. We could probably switch to a cheaper brand but right now I like the stability of knowing he will not leak with Huggies.
Dear Mom Crowd,
I just wanted to say that I think your articles and postings are fantastic. Whether or not we use generic or brand diapers, sippy or straw cups….I always feel like I have gained so much from reading these. This is such a great site! Thank you for deciding to do this and for being such great Moms!
@Pete: Maybe Babies R Us diaper quality has gone down the tubes in the past couple of years…
Any of the crisis pregnancy centers (Agape, Women’s Center, etc) will take your unused diapers. SAMM shelter downtown probably would, too, as well as some of the battered women’s shelters.
It sounds like you have the “being a dad” thing down pat! Your three rules should be sent home with every new parent from the hospital.