For any mother, diapers are a part of life. (The alternative would be unthinkable.) We are a disposable diaper family. We’ve been through a few brands and styles with our kiddos. After 4 1/2 years of diapering, we’ve finally got our diaper management down.
With Sweet Boy, we started off with Huggies. I started with size one because the doctor had told us he was going to be a really big baby. Then he arrived early. We scrambled to get the newborn sized diapers delivered while we were still at the hospital. Here’s what I learned about the newborn diapers- they have a U-shaped cutout that doesn’t rub against the umbilical cord. Seriously, nobody ever told me that when I was pregnant. We continued with Huggies for the first months, because we really liked the wetness indicator.
I would buy the cases at the local discount stores. I could never figure out how to make the coupons work so the small packs were cheaper. I’ve read a bunch of articles on saving on diapers, but it just didn’t work out for me.
As Sweet Boy got older, we switched to Luvs. I learned from Baby Bargains that Luvs are made by the same company as Pampers. They have fewer features and no featured character on them, but the absorbency is the same quality and they are much cheaper. Like $10 a case cheaper. And they have coupons available in the Sunday paper too. We never went with the store brands because several daycare providers had told us that they are not as absorbent and can cause diaper rash.
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When Girlie was born, the newborn size was not an option for us. She was nearly 10 pounds and they just didn’t fit. We went right to Luvs for her. With the second child, the wetness indicator wasn’t as necessary. Momma just knew.
We continued shopping in stores for diapers. Our daycare provider joked with me one day that I seemed to stop at the store 2-3 times a week between Girlie’s diapers, Sweet Boy’s Night-time Pull-Ups, wipes and other baby needs. It became too much, so I switched to the Amazon Subscribe and Save program. We already had Amazon Prime
Subscribe and Save
If you are not familiar with Subscribe and Save, they offer 20% off your order of diapers and 5-15% off other items, like wipes. So now, every month we get a case of diapers for Girlie delivered to our front door. It is very easy to change your order when they grow into a new size and it’s 5-20% off. We get Sweet Boy’s Night-Time Pull-Ups every other month, for 5-20% off. The case of wipes seem to last me every month and a half, so I set it up for a monthly delivery, and skip a delivery when I don’t need it.
I have a few other items on my Subscribe and Save list – protein powder, baby soap, cleaners. I try to schedule those items so that I have five items delivered each month, so I get my maximum discount. And it is so easy to reschedule a delivery as long as you do it with a week’s notice. If I can’t get five items in a particular month, I still save a few dollars off the store price, and it gets delivered straight to my door.
We did run into one issue with diapers for Girlie. For a few months, Huggies were on a super discount on Amazon. I think they were changing the packaging or something. We started getting the Huggies for Girlie. She had the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. We brought her to the doctor about five times before we realized that the diapers were the problem. We switched her back to Luvs and the rash went away. Sweet Boy never had a problem with Huggies, but kids are going to react differently to different products.
What Works for You?
This is the system we really use. It saves us time and money, both of which are precious when you are a working mom with kids in daycare. If you have any ideas that work for you, please share in a comment to help other moms.