Diapers, Diapers and more Diapers

Starting even before birth, we are faced with SO many decisions regarding our babies, parenting and lifestyle changes we will or will not make.

What are you going to feed your little one?  And regardless of how you answer that, there are a gazillion other questions to answer.  Are you going to baby-proof?  What kind of sleeping arrangements are you going to make?  If you have a girl, will you pierce her ears?  If you have a boy, will you circumcise?  Which pediatrician are you going with?  Which vaccines will you give?  When will you start solids?  When will you start the college fund?  What kind of clothes is baby going to wear?  Are you going to be super casual, all organic, dressy, rock star?  What kind of toys will you buy for baby?  All educational?  All Wooden?  Will you let baby/child watch TV?  Will there be limitations?  What kind of nursery will you do?  Will it be a "grow with you" nursery or a permanent nursery for all future babies?  Will you do baby/mommy play groups?  How often will you have pictures done?  Will baby be Christened?  Baptized?  Allowed to chose their own religion?  And in the beginning, there are 3 questions that will totally affect how life with baby is: What will you feed him/her?  Where will the baby sleep?  And what kind of diapers are you going to use?

When it comes to diapers there are 3 options.  Although, in my mind, there is only two.  You can go with cloth, disposable or Elimination Communication.  I don't really consider EC as even a remote possibility for our family though.

Once you make the decision between cloth or disposables, it used to just end there.  I know when I had Kaitlyn it was pretty simple: Cloth or Disposable.  Then, prefolds or not pertaining to cloth and Huggies, Pampers or store brand when it came to disposable.  My oh my where we have come in the past 6 years.

My original plan was to stick with pampers with Samantha like I did with Kaitlyn.  I loved everything about them, their size, their smell, their look, the thinness of them.  They were perfect.  Then, Pampers ruined their diapers by adding dry max to them and now there are too many complaints of chemical burns on babies for me to feel comfortable using them.  Now, Pampers is of course denying that there is any problems with their new diapers, but with a brand new baby, who wants to take the risk??  Bah Humbag to that I say!

Then, I came up with a new plan, stock up on gdiapers, part of the new trend of hybrid diapers.  They are cloth, but you can use disposable liners and just flush or toss them.  Then, I saw them in the store and while they are SUPER cute, and feel super soft on the outside, the inside does not feel at all comfortable for a new baby.  Maybe for an older baby, but a new baby?  No way.  And we all know how often a  new baby goes potty.  Samantha averages at least 10-12 diapers a day.  I needed a new idea.

Idea three was to get a natural diaper that was disposable for the first couple months and then switch to gdiapers or something like it.  I started using Huggies Naturals, in a futile attempt to keep chemicals from her most sensitive parts.  But, to be honest, I don't love them.  They don't really hold very much, they don't ever feel dry really, like as she is peeing you can feel the diaper get warm and then it instantly feels moist.  So, on those rare occasions that I'm not holding her or she is asleep and she goes a little while before changing, it can't be comfortable and we've already noticed some redness.  And they don't have a smell too them, which I know is because they are natural, but seriously I miss the smell of pampers lol.  AND, we've already had nearly a dozen blow outs with them.  Like, diaper is properly secured, been on for maybe 5-10 minutes, and as she is going it is leaking out of every crevice.  The worst was the diaper that leaked out both legs, the back and up to her belly button.  When I am paying an average of $22 for 72 diapers (or about 31 cents per diaper, which is $3-4 per day) I would really like to have them do their one job: keep the poop and pee inside!

Considering I still have a closet filled with the ones I bought during pregnancy, I will keep using them, but at this rate, I'll empty it within a month.

The other night I ran out of diapers while we were out and about.  Thanks Huggies, I thought 12 would be enough for being out of the house 8 hours.  I had to run into Walgreens and buy some.  They were out of huggies so I ended up getting Pampers with drymax.  I didn't want to risk generic and I figured I change her so frequently still that we shouldn't have a problem.  Oh, I was in love.  That chemically created smell, the look, the feel, oh how I've missed thee.  I would switch back in a heartbeat if I wasn't so scared of the chemical burns!

So, where do I go from here?  Do I try to convince myself that the chemical burns is just a myth as Proctor and Gamble would like me to believe?  Do I switch to a cloth diaper system when we finish our stash of disposables? 

The more I think about it, the more unsure I am.  To be honest, my desire to use cloth has absolutely NOTHING to do with the environment.  I know that sounds awful and we're all supposed to be more Green (as I sit here with my laptop on my lap, plugged in, the TV on in the background for noise, and all the living room, kitchen, dining room and playroom lights on because it's gloomy outside and I just don't like gloomy...) but I'm not.  It's ok, shoot me now.  And, to be honest, I'm not sure that cloth really helps the environment at all.   I mean, you end up using a lot more water washing, and we do live in a drought prone area, you use more detergent, meaning more empty detergent bottles, you use more electricity when you wash them and so on. 

My goals in diapering are this: Do what is the most comfortable for baby, Be cost effective, Potty Train sooner and be convenient!!  I just don't think Gdiapers hits the first two, which means I would need a system that did.  Come spring, we are on the go, a lot.  I would need to do a hybrid system that had disposables.  But, I don't want to spend a fortune on disposable liners when I'm already spending a fortune on the diapers.  I just don't know what to do.  I am awful at decisions.   And this should be such an easy one, when it comes down to it, it is simply: What do I want to catch my kid's poop and pee??

What did you do?  What will you do?  What has been the best choice for your family and why?