The Diaper Challenge

Since we use Pampers for Quinn's spoiled little tush, I figured it was time to see if there was a more economical option out there.  I almost feel like I am doing an elementary school science project, but oh well. I made charts and stuff.  Yay!  Charts!

First, I ordered three different sample packs.  I'm including the Pamper's data as a baseline, since we know we like them, and we have no problems with them, besides cost of course.

Seeing my lovely chart now, we should have left off the Naty diapers, as they follow the same exact pricing as Pampers.  Oh well.  We are currently on size 1 diapers, which is why I listed all the way up until size 3.  Here's the cost comparison per diaper:

As you can see, the diapers.com diapers are priced significantly lower than any other. So they win hands down in the cost factor.

We also had "comfort" to look at.  If the diapers felt like sandpaper, or were stiff, I, personally, would not want to wear them; therefore, I couldn't expect my child to be comfortable in them either.  Pampers, diapers.com, and Seventh Generation diapers were all pretty soft, and almost cloth like.  The Naty diapers totally lost in this category, although they we're pretty much out as soon as I made my chart.  They were super stiff, and pretty rough.  Yuck.

Next we had convenience.  Only Pampers had stretchy tabs.  Seems dumb, but when you don't have them, you notice.  Seventh Generation made up for this by having a back stretchy thing.  It’s hard to explain, but it gave some give.  Naty was, again, stiff as a board, and Diapers had a little stretch to their tabs, but nothing to brag home about.  Where Naty lost again, and none of the other diapers did, was disposal.  With all the other diapers, even though the tabs are like a Velcro like material... Naty had NO WHERE to stick them when you are done with the diaper.  There was no wrapping up that mess, so that was a big no go to me.  God forbid the trash can roll over, or I miss when I toss it in, I am not cleaning up a poopy mess twice when I don't have to.  The rest of them had something to stick it too, all the way around.  Yay for them!

Lastly, we had the most important test of all:  the inside!  We have only (luckily) had to deal with diaper rash once, and that's when we switched to the sensitive Swadlers, versus the normal Swadlers, and we haven’t had any problems since.  We had stuck to brands that listed no extra chemicals, no bleach, chlorine, fragrances, etc. etc. as well as hypoallergenic.

Night 1, we tried Seventh Generation.  I had planned on putting the diapers on right when I put Quinn down for her actual bedtime (not attempted bedtime… try as I may) so that they would be put to the fullest test of overnight wetness, which is about 7-9 hours.  Well, silly me, I took a shower, and Jason took it upon himself to put her in the new diaper around 9 pm.  Lucky for him we had two… and she pooped.  Brilliant!  I highly doubted that we would ever get a poo test in because she’s so unpredictable, but we did.  And they passed.  It was a messy one too, but none got out, although it was reached to the max in every direction.  I kept her in regular diapers the rest of the night until she was ready for bed, and swapped out her last diaper for a Seventh Generation one.  Lasted through the night, and no leaks!  Jason’s only complaint is that they are a very light brown.  No design on them at all.  He just thought they looked “dirty”; I’d probably go with dingy more than dirty but to each their own.  Pretty much no one sees her without an outfit on anyway, so no big deal.  Pass pass pass!

The next night, our only other option was the diapers.com diapers, because the Naty diapers were shipped from a different location, and they hadn’t arrived yet.  Lots of people complained about how there were green and purple designs on the diapers, and if your baby wore white it showed right through.  Really?  Let’s call the fashion police on that one!  The designs were cute, with stripes and polka dots.  Many of the reviewers online said they got monkeys on their diapers, but I got a bunny on both of mine, standing next to a big “B”.  Maybe it had something to do with the size.  The diapers were easy to put on, and I did the first one a little bit before her bedtime because I was hoping for another poopy one, and I got it!  (Yes, it’s a sad day when you hope for poop!)  While the diaper held the poop very well, Quinn only had it on for an hour, two max, and she already had diaper rash developing.  I didn’t even both with the second diaper.  I am not putting either of us through that again.

I made my little chart before I even tried the Naty diapers.  Seeing that they really didn’t matter, I just used them in the middle of the day yesterday… and got another pooper!  They were very stiff to put on, and almost hard, as they had no give (hence the love of stretchy tabs.)  When she pooped, I could smell it.  Normally her poop doesn’t smell, and if it does, it’s minimal since she is exclusively breastfed.  I am convinced something “natural” (since that’s what these diapers bragged about) in the diaper made her poop stink.  I could tell she had a poopy diaper before I even picked her up.  While her rash has still not gone away completely, it got no worse with these diapers, but with all their cons, as well as not being any cheaper than Pampers, they were also a no go.

Yesterday, I ordered a pack of Seventh Generation diapers.  The price was nice, and size 1 diapers are 20% off until sometime in December (we will grow out of that size before then) so they are even cheaper than normal.  If we make it through the pack with no major incidents, than I think we will have a new diaper, and a few more bucks in our pockets even when buying by the case.  If not, back to Pampers we will go.