Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The Great Diaper Debate

So... Here we are, the triplets are now almost 2.5 years old. They are unfortunately still all in diapers and no closer to being potty trained than they were the day they were born. I've also got the girls, also in diapers. 5 babes in diapers. An average of 25 diapers a day. 5 per child. Gah... Too much.
200_2 So I was pinching pennies the other day, and trying to figure out just2001 how I could save another buck or two on this diaper fiasco. I remembered back in the day when the boys were itty bitty, I was a real diaper snob. I wouldn't even look at a pack of diapers if it wasn't a Pampers brand Swaddler. I moved on up into the world of cruisers, very begrudgingly, but learned to love them as well. But if someone offered me a Huggies, Luvs, or White Cloud Diaper I would snub my nose very gently at them. I just wasn't one of those girls... I was a Pampers kind of Momma...
2002 The girls came along, and Jon and I decided that there would be no other brand than Pampers touching the girls bottoms... After a few months, I noticed that the Pampers Baby Drys were on sale at a much lower price, and that they now offered stretchy sides... I thought how bad could they be? I tried them, loved them, and haven't gone back... I've justified my change as "staying within the Pampers Family"... I'm crazy.
Recently I found out that I would be saving .08 per diaper if I tried Luvs. Luvs, with their Blues Clues characters on the waistband... What070720_summerluvs_hmed_10awidec_2 would the trio do without their familiar Sesame Street Characters on the waistband? Who would Will play peek-a-boo with? Certainly not Blue, he had never seen him before...I figured what did I have to lose? I chanced soiling a pair of pants (or three) and sulking back to my tried and true brand. So I smuggled a pack of size 6's into my cart and paid a mere $7.99 for it at my local Target store. Getting home I felt like I had to explain myself to the family. "I know, I know, but they were on sale, and they look so soft...and..." I was met with a lot of stares and looks of disbelief, especially from Jon. I think he felt betrayed. That night we opened the package together, I pulled one out, looked at the specimen, and was actually impressed. It was thin, "far too thin to hold our kids pee" Jon quipped. It wasn't crunchy "crunchy means absorbant" Jon shot at me. I was starting to feel a little defensive over these little Luvs. Afterall they were cute...And soft...And not crunchy.
Trying them out, we've been more than pleased. They are really giving Pampers a run for their money... quite literally. We've been using them now for about a month and a half, and they've contained quite their share. They've leaked on occasion at night, but not near like the Pampers brand did. We've yet to have a "blowout" that they couldn't contain. And most importantly, nobody's skin is reacting poorly to the change.
My thought is this... When the babies are small, the mess is hard to contain. We're new at parenting (and diapering) and the messes are difficult. We find one brand that works for us, and we stick with it. We think that it's the miracle brand. But really, its just that we as parents finally got into a groove, just as that diaper was introduced. Now, this is only my theory. What do I know? I'm just saying... If can save you all $8 on a case of diapers, without using a coupon... It's worth a shot, right? Right. :)