I’ve posted before about “designer disposables,” both here and on Facebook. It’s clear that disposable diaper companies are a little threatened that “they’re cute” is a valid reason for ditching sposies and switching to cloth. Lots of other people have blogged in depth about their most recent campaign for special diapers to go with special outfits yada yada and the sposies on the clothesline, so I won’t go into that too much.
Now, I’m not a sposie hater that thinks that disposable diapers and the people who use them are awful. My daughter was disposable diapered for a little over 2 years, my son just over 5 months. However, had I known then what I know now about cloth (or a fraction of it really) I never would have used a single one! I do think disposable diapers are expensive, wasteful (in many ways) and we really don’t know what the long term health effects of the chemicals really are. I know disposable diapers are very useful for many people in many situations, but what can I say? I love my cloth. I don’t want people to think we cloth users look down on (gasp) sposie users since I want to bring more of them to the dark fluffy side. (Tee-hee.)
I’m particularly bothered by this trend of spending an exorbitant amount of money on a “special” disposable product, when you can get a “special” reusable product for the same cost. I don’t judge people for what they choose to spend their money on, but it would be silly if someone paid a zillion bucks to have fancy paper plates shipped from Europe for a party, instead of spending the same bucks on some lovely fine china to use, keep, sell, lend, donate etc. If you have the money to spend, good for you! You have obviously worked hard to get to where you are, spend it how you like. But why accept an inferior product for the same price? Especially when it will be thrown away? Maybe it’s because I’ve had to stretch a single income over a growing family for so long. Maybe it’s because of the “penny wise, pound foolish” lessons I’ve learned over the years? In any case, it seems silly. Doesn’t a diaper cover (like the little bloomers that come with some baby girl dresses) make more sense than a printed disposable anyway?
I’ve been trying to put my finger on just what it reminds me of. $15 for a case of printed paper towels to cover your Thanksgiving table, instead of spending the same amount on a cloth? Buying a couple of knockoff purses that fall apart after 1 use but cost the same as one designer purse that goes with everything? I don’t know. I need to think about this some more. Maybe like Cinderella’s dress (and all the goodies) that went *poof* at midnight (if she didn’t have a fairy Godmother to *poof* them there for free in the first place?) Getting a French manicure before digging a garden with your bare hands (yeah they’ll get ruined in two minutes, but at least they’ll look nice?)
Oh and so what happens when you have a massive sposie blowout, and now the outfit you bought those sposies to match is no longer in the picture? (True story, we have one pic of my daughter in her baptism gown!) Mmkay so now I’ve gone off on a tangent, totally away from the point of this post!
Though I haven’t used a disposable diaper in over 20 months, I do still collect the “freebie” pampers points codes they put out there. Why not? Free stuff is free stuff, right? Well recently they have been posting codes on their Twitter account that are valid only until the end of the day. I have a specific site I lurk to grab the codes, I don’t follow them on Twitter!
Well here’s why I’m suspicious: Today’s code (yesterday’s by the time you read this) was TWITTERCNGCLOTH. Yeah. CLOTH. OK, no biggie.
I really wanted to know why they were putting out a code with “cloth” in it, so I had to go to their Twitter account to see what was up. (Picture Sherlock Holmes with a laptop.) That’s where I found out where they are doing a trivia type thing where they release the code once someone guesses correctly. See below.
“Is everybody ready for some trivia? We are going to play ‘Guess what’s in my diaper bag’ for GTG points.” “Clue one: Even though this is my first baby, I know I need plenty of these in my diaper bag! What do you think it is? ^Cathy .” The answer was baby wipes, and the code was TWITTERDIPEWIPE. Next: “2 more items in my diaper bag today. What are they? Want a hint?^Cathy .” The answer was keys & wallet and the code was TWITTERKEYWALET.
When I went to stalk their account to figure out why they were using codes with “CLOTH” in them, it said: “Oops! I sent out the free code today w/out the question! Looks like everyone is getting off easy today lol Enjoy TWITTERCNGCLOTH 5pts ^Cathy.”
So color me suspicious but boy do I wonder what the question today was supposed to be! Was it a burp cloth? CNGCLOTH…a changing pad and burp cloth? Was it “What icky gross thing do some people use but not us because we’re using horrifically overpriced but not as cute printed sposies??”
Then again, I’m the type who walks into a room at the same time chatter stops, and gets paranoid that everyone was saying nasty things about me!
What do you think about “designer disposables?”
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
Thanks for the code.
I posted about this recently too. I think it’s ridiculous to pay more and throw it away. But I’m glad Pampers feels threatened by fluff!
<3! Pampers is crazy
I so want to know what the trivia question was!!
It’s bugging me. I’m *almost* curious enough to ask, LOL. Not quite though.
Do you think the answer could have been a “change of clothes” for baby?
Hmm… still it makes you wonder. I have LONG been wondering HOW sposie manufacturers are going to combat the increasing surge of cloth diapering families. I mean I’m right NOW it’s a drop in the bucket, but it HAS been growing exponentially! 🙂
Fun post! 🙂
Oh hmm…that’s a good one. You need a change of clothes for the sposie blowouts. Ha ha.
Funny that when I was a baby, sposies were trendy. My parents were broke, but used sposies. But my mom said they couldn’t afford sposies with gussets, so they were pretty useless. MIL used mostly prefolds & plastic pants because she said they might as well have not been wearing a diaper!
I used disposables with my oldest most of the time I bought the store brands because they did not have as much stuff printed on them. If I was using sposies now I probably would not buy the designers because I don’t want the print showing through there clothing. It is much easier to match my cloth to dresses than it was sposies.
When my daughter was in diapers, all I wanted was a PLAIN, WHITE diaper, so it’s extra funny to me that they are making prints now. I despised the swirls and characters showing through, or peeking out of clothes!
Ugh…I can’t stand “designer” sposies. They are such a waste of money! I’m not a total sposie hater, if you need to use them while you clear up a nasty yeast rash or something like that I totally understand, but spending that much per diaper change for a designer print you’re going to throw away? No thanks. I admit, there are some diapers (BG artist series) that I spent a little more on because of the cute print, BUT with two kids in diapers they will get PLENTY of use (we had 6 diaper changes in 20 minutes yesterday lol).
Even if you bought a stash of really cute, expensive minky pockets at $35/each, they would pay for themselves in no time AND you could re-sell them!
Can you imagine paying nearly 50 cents for a diaper & then having your kid poop in it instantly? I LOVE that with cloth I can change him every minutes if I want to!
I actually laughed when I saw the package of Pampers with the sposies on a clothesline. I told DH that they’re trying to attack the cuteness factor of cloth but they won’t even come close! I used sposies on DD for the first 6 months of her life and she would have blowouts all the time! Now that she’s been in cloth for 11 months, we’ve never had one (but there were still some pretty gross diaper changes!). I just don’t like that they’re trying to portray that their product is just as good as cloth (yeah right!).
It just seems so weird. Diapers on a clothesline…cute. Yeah. Trash on a clothesline? Not so much.
Totally agree on the blowouts. I had one or two close calls when we had a stomach bug, but with sposies I was regularly changing entire outfits (and sometimes giving baths too!)
I did the math and it’s about 10-15 cents higher per disposable, especially for the larger sizes of the prints, and it’s not like babies are in 1s or 2s very long in disposables. I just shake my head.
I haven’t checked out the prices, but I think disposable prices are crazy enough as it is. When I used them, the MAX I would pay (for name brand diapers) was about $6.99/jumbo pack, and that was only if I was desperate. I’d typically stock up when I could find them for 12 cents/diaper or less!