Monday, February 8, 2010

A Diaper Review - Which One's Stink and Which One's Don't

I'm a bargain hunter. You know how some people are really big into name brands and brag that they paid $200 for their baby's name brand onsie? Not me. I'd rather shout from the rooftops that I got the onsie for $1.00 at a huge sale.

However, when it comes to diapers, this all goes out the window. I will happily pay $5.00 more per box to get a diaper that doesn't leak or give my baby a diaper rash. The way I see it, even though the diapers cost more, they save me in the long run. I go through the "cheap" diapers faster and they leak. Leaky diapers equal more laundry. More laundry equals more money. If I had used the name brand/quality diapers (personally, I prefer the Pampers Swaddlers for newborns), I wouldn't be changing my screaming 2 week old's pj's at 3:00 a.m. I could just change his diaper and get him back to bed. Also, if he didn't have a rash, I wouldn't have to buy some butt paste, Cha-Ching!

With my first son I tried the generic Walmart brand diapers hoping to save money. Big mistake. The leaking wasn't as bad as the horrible diaper rash, though. Now, this could have all been a coincidence, my son could have just had really sensitive skin, there are all kinds of excuses I came up with so that I could try the Walmart diapers once again with my youngest son. I desperately wanted the Walmart diapers to work. Too bad. If possible, I think the diapers are worse now than 4 years ago. They feel like cardboard, chaffe baby's backside and leak. I've had an equally bad experience with Huggies. Luv's are good at stopping leaks, but they are also rough on baby's new skin. After two babies, I have discovered (at least from my experience), that when it comes to diapers, you really do get what you pay for.

The best diaper I have used is, without a doubt, the Pamper's Swaddlers. Once baby gets a little older (about a diaper size 2 or 3), I change to Luvs. They are just as good at stopping leaks as Pampers and not as expensive. They aren't as soft, but as baby get's older, it's not as much of an issue (they don't feel like cardboard, they just aren't as soft as Pampers). As far as the worst diapers I have used, the prize goes to the Walmart "Parent's Choice" diapers. As I mentioned before, they are as hard as cardboard, leak, have poor fit, and the parts that don't feel like cardboard (i.e. the elastic around the legs), feels like scratchy plastic. I would NOT recommend these diapers, although I wish I could. I hate how expensive diapers are. One last brand that I'm not impressed with is Huggies. I tried and tried and tried Huggies and have had no luck with them either. They leaked just as badly as the Walmart brand.

Again, this has been my experience, I'm sure there are people out there who LOVE Huggies and Parent's Choice. For those people, I'm really happy for you, I wish it could be me. My wallet wishes it could be me, but since it's not, I had better get back to work so I can afford to keep my son in diapers!