Satellite^Gal and I are going to be having a brand new baby in October!!
So, right now, we’re gathering neccessities in preparation for the new addition to the family. Fortunately, we’re getting most of the bigger stuff (furniture and the like) on loan from family friends, which will help very much indeed.
Now, on to the subject of diapers.
up until recently, The general consensus she’s been hearing was mostly in favour of Huggies. A couple of days ago, a mom we met at Wal*Mart said that the best she’s found were the Pampers Swaddlers. Now, we’re unsure.
So, I’m coming to the pool of nearly infinite knowledge that is the Straight Dope, to get the opinions of the parental Dopers; which newborn diapers are the best?
Opinions based on the current designs are mainly what we’re looking for.
Personally, I prefer Pampers Swaddlers. I’ve found them to be extremely absorbent and to rarely leak. Unfortunately, I believe they are on the higher end of the price scale, but I’m usually buying diapers in a hurry, so I don’t have time to do the math.
You are going to go through so many diapers that you’ll have plenty of time to compare and contrast the different brands.
You may decide you want to buy brand A, and you stock up on that but when baby comes you find there’s an allergic reaction, or maybe they leak or just don’t fit quite right (too tight/big in the leg, too high on their stomach) even when you adjust for size.
With Velociraptor we tried a few different types. We started with Pampers, tried some store brand ones, switched to Huggies and then went back to Pampers until he was potty trained.
I’ve known people who started out with cloth diapers and switched to some disposable brand or vice versa. Some people swear by the store brand ones (and have had great success with them) when I tried, the tabs would rip off the store brand all the time, the huggies leaked (too loose in the legs even though I tried a few sizes), and I couldn’t afford a cloth diaper service nor the initial outlay of buying and then dealing with them myself (nor did I have the time to deal with them being a single Mom going to school and daycares tend to prefer disposable). Part of why I tried several types was because people bought me diapers and would bring different brands.
My advice? Buy the Huggies. Try them out, if they fit right and work for baby, great. If not try another brand and keep trying until you find what works.
If you do stock up on diapers ahead of time, don’t buy too many of the newborn size. Depending on the baby they either might not fit for long, or even at all when you first bring them home.
Thanks for the opinions so far, and keep them coming.
I think what we’re planning on doing is buying a small pack of both Huggies and Pampers, to start with, and see which perform better… also, I’m sure Sat^Gal’s baby shower will net us plenty of different brands for us to try. We’re not looking for the be-all end-all of diaper opinions, we’re just seeing what the general consensus is, as well as finding out what to look for when deciding what works and what doesn’t… and who better to ask?
Definitely get one of those newborn-size packages that have the little cutout for the umbilical stump. Otherwise the top edge of the diaper can irritate the stump a little bit.
We’ve used cloth diapers along with disposables, but the disposables we’re currently using for Whatsit the Youngest are Huggies, just because they seem to fit him better. I agree with the advice to try out different brands and see what works. For MiniWhatsit, I used to use Pampers.
Both the Huggies and the Pampers that we were looking at had the umbilical cord cutout, and we fully intend to us that style. don’t want to pinch the baby’s knot and rish a blow-out…
imagines baby flying around the room losing air, going “ptptptptptp…”
Pampers Swaddlers for a brand new baby, then Luvs as soon as they are out of the newborn/tiny infant sizes (about size 2 or 3). Luvs are the least leaky diapers I’ve found for little boys, and the price is right, too. I have no experience with girl’s diapers.
I tried Huggies with all three of my boys, and with breastfed newborns, I had horrendous poop leaks more often than not. I hate Huggies. Huggies addressed the problem with poop seeping out the back that they used to have when my first boy was little, but it still blasted out through the leg openings of my third boy’s diapers when I tried them again. For the difference in price, I was never happy with the performance. My kids were all prolific poop machines while nursing, though. YMMV
Walmart’s Parent’s Choice brand diapers are hands-down the worst I have ever used on my kiddo. They are leaky, do not wick moisture away from skin, and leave my toddler son with a rash if I put one on him overnight.
For our last baby we used Pampers for the first year and we’ll switch to Huggies after he starts walking. This is what worked best for the other kids (in hindsight) although as others have mentioned it does vary by child a bit.
The fact is that each brand has a slightly different fit, and as it turns out this fit is important to keeping it all in so to speak. What I did was try different brands to see which one worked well with our baby.
The Littlest Briston used Kirkland (Costco’s house brand) for most of her life. However, they don’t make a size 6 diaper, so when she outgrew size 5 we switched to Huggies. In both cases there was never a leak, although there was the occasional popped diaper if she peed a tremendous amount overnight.
And as of last week she’s fully potty trained, so now it’s no longer a concern…WOOOFRICKINGHOOOOOO!!
Actually - We were all about Pampers for Spike, they just fit better. But then, Costco sent us a free sample of the Costco brand diaper. Now we’re all about Costco. They fit great - We haven’t had a blowout, and they’re cheap to boot.
It really does depend on your specific baby’s size and shape. The sprog was tall and skinny, so it was a challenge to find something that had adequate coverage that still fit snugly against his waist. We finally settled on Huggies because they showed the least amount of plumber’s butt, and still fit well otherwise.
We use Huggies. We tried the Pampers (probably Swaddlers) when he was brand-new, but they smell like baby powder! It doesn’t mention it on the box, either (at least, nowhere noticable - I don’t remember if there was an ingredients list or anything). My family has a history of skin allergies to scents, so that really annoyed me and we won’t use them anymore.
We’ve tried a couple of other brands, but have always come back to Huggies. They work really well for our kid.
Pampers Swaddlers are the way to go when they are newborn - they are smaller than the other size 1 diapers.
After that - try some of everything.
We use the Superstore diapers (but that’s a Canadian thing). They fit fine, absorb fine and are the cheapest around, even before a sale.
If we’re traveling, we go with Huggies.
Costco diapers sucked. They just did not work for my kid. I donated the rest of the case to the Sally Ann, and actually felt guilty about it.
Pampers (the non-swaddler kind) are absorbent, and fit well, but they are really, really scented. You’ll be able to smell your kid’s butt from across the room. That just didn’t work for me
We’re using Pampers Baby Dry (green package) on our 11-month old daughter right now. They hold an impressive (to me) amount of pee without appearing to bother her or irritate her skin.
Initially we used Huggies (can’t remember why) and then somewhere along the line switched to Pampers (again, can’t remember why). They seemed pretty much the same, to be honest; I think we’ve settled on Pampers out of inertia, “One less thing to think about,” and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
When we first switched to Pampers, we were using Swaddlers (yellow package), and I know we found the hybrid size 2-3 quite handy for a while. Since 2-3 appears to be the largest size Target sells Swaddlers in, I’m guessing that we stayed within-brand and moved to Baby Dry when she outgrew those. Switching to Pampers Cruisers, which are also available in her current size (3), has crossed my mind. See above for why we haven’t actually tried them.
I’ve always been a fan of two of the store brands I find in my area. Baby Basics at Albertsons (Jewel here in Chicago), and the Target store brand. They fit both of my kids great (they are both on the slim side, I don’t know if that makes a difference), they never leaked, and they are definitely cheaper.
We use Kirkland diapers as well. Our son is six months. We left the hospital with a batch of newborn diapers which lasted us past the point where his umbilical stump fell off.
However, your mileage can and will vary as it depends on the kid. One friend didn’t like the fit of the Kirkland diapers on her son.
