What is Pampers Up To?

Jun 23,2011 / By Maria / 15 Comments

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?”

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“What’s a disposable diaper?” and My First “Dunk and Swish”

Jan 26,2011 / By Maria / 7 Comments

>Saturday, my son had one of “those” diapers. I commented to my husband that the, ahem, “deposit” (which was creeping dangerously close to the outside of the Fuzzibunz perfect size diaper) would never have been contained in a disposable diaper! It’s been a while since I used disposables, but I remember blowouts all too well!

My almost-6-year-old daughter said “what’s a disposable diaper?” I’m a little baffled by the question, since we used disposables on her brother for 4 months, and I’m pretty sure she’s seen other people change a diaper and throw it away. I’m guessing she was just confused by the term “disposable.”

In any case, I said “It’s a diaper you throw away,” and she said “Oh.” It would be pretty cool if someday we looked back at our “throw it away” generation, and didn’t understand it!

So that diaper led me to my first “dunk and swish.” In over 15 months of cloth diapering, I’ve never done that. But this diaper…let’s just say it was a little beyond scraping, but was too much to throw in the washer. I was asking myself why I hadn’t bought a diaper sprayer yet.

After I already had to reach into the potty to fish out a cloth wipe I’d accidentally dropped in, I used a tip someone gave me. I pulled the insert out, held the ends of the diaper in my hand (firmly) with the inner facing out. I dunked it in the toilet and flushed (several times.) I held onto it tightly, but let it kind of get pulled down with the flush.

It really worked quite well and wasn’t terribly gross! I was able to flip it back around with the PUL side out again and carry it to the wet bag (I need to put one in the bathroom!) without dripping.

So now I feel a little more initiated, and more like a real cloth diapering Mom. Ha ha!

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Ever wished you could throw a diaper away?

Nov 3,2010 / By Maria / 15 Comments

>To attempt to make a long(er) story short(er), a few weeks ago, I was totally there. My son had been drinking some juice (side note: before you worry that your child’s dark urine is because of dehydration or a UTI, remember the red food coloring he managed to ingest a few days earlier.)

I was standing over the toilet, diaper in one hand, toilet paper in the other, attempting to scrape the massive, ahem, deposit off of the diaper. Just for a second, my eyes glazed over, and I drifted away…

I was spinning through a field of daisies, pack of disposables in my arms, “So Happy Together” playing in the background. With a smug smile on my face, I tossed the offending diaper in the pail.

Then, the record screeched, and I remembered what it was really like to use disposables. Remember that we used disposable diapers/pull-ups on my daughter for almost 2 1/2 years, and on my son for about 4 months. The terms “fitteds and pockets and snappis” weren’t in my diaper vocabulary, but “blowout” sure was.

We have one single photo of my daughter in her cute baptism gown, and in the photo, my husband is holding her with a horrified look on his face, since the blowout was in process at that very moment. Even when the diapers were on properly, and in the proper size, blowouts were a regular occurrence.

Much of the time, it came right out the back of the diaper, while the diaper itself remained relatively unscathed. I looked down at the diaper in my hand, covered with poop from front to back and side to side, nearly to the edges of the elastic and I knew. I knew there was no way this would have stayed in a disposable diaper.

I may be scraping and washing this diaper, but if it had been a disposable, I would instead be washing a shirt, pants, socks, probably my clothing, any surface nearby, the changing pad, and quite possibly, giving the kid a bath. I saw a post in the cafemom babies group where a Mom cut a onesie off of her daughter after a blowout, knowing there was no way to get it off of her without making a bigger mess!

With cloth, I had one incident where I didn’t have the diaper snug around his leg and breastfed baby poop came out of the leg gap, but other than that, no blowouts. So, yeah. I gladly washed that diaper! I think having used disposables in the past makes me appreciate cloth more!

Aside from the occasional horrifying story of the forgotten poopy cloth diaper that was beyond saving, have you ever wished you could pitch a diaper?

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Designer disposables (and the time I wore a diaper-on my leg)

Jul 25,2010 / By Maria / 12 Comments

I had heard of the new “designer” Cynthia Rowley Pampers, but just noticed them in the Target Ad today. $14.99 for 23 size 4 diapers?! *gulp*

I’ll say, I’m not a “sposie hater.” I used them for my daughter for 2+ years and on my son for 4+ months. My daughter never had issues with diaper rash, though my son did (which is really what made me finally make the switch.)

Do I regret it? Yes! Mostly because I could have an awesome stash of cloth diapers (or a diamond ring for that matter!) for the money I threw away on disposable diapers.

I’m ~~cheap~~ frugal, so I stockpile; diapers were no exception. I worked sales, coupons, special offers etc. to get diapers from 8 cents each (name brand.) I would buy them if I needed them if they were under 22 cents each. For wipes my price was around 2.5 cents per wipe. Now, that led to the problem of how many to stockpile. I’m a worrier, so it stressed me out. I was often left with too-small diapers to get rid of.

Speaking of too small diapers, it wasn’t just that they were too small, they had blowouts all the time. I joke that I’m hardly doing more laundry now with cloth since we had so many wardrobe changes with sposies.

Then, there was the trash. The pails were stinky, I had to keep on top of emptying them, then smell them again on trash day. I’ll admit that at the time, I was more concerned with my convenience than the environment, but now the thought of all those diapers in a landfill sickens me.

When you get down to it, the reason I didn’t cloth diaper my daughter was ignorance. If it weren’t for the cost, I would have been interested in the new Pampers. I’m not into “character” stuff, it’s just not my thing. So I hated seeing purple stripes through her clothes and Sesame Street characters peeking out of her pants. Now I know that cloth diapers are easy, fun and addictive. That they pay for themselves in no time, and even the plainest cloth diaper is cuter than the cutest disposable!!

Speaking again of money, I love being able to change my son whenever, without worrying about the cost. You figure even at a good price, a diaper change costs you a quarter or more for a diaper and wipe or two.

Even though disposable diaper manufacturers try to say you should change after every “use,” really, how many people do that? I know some kids are just super soakers, but I was able to get a diaper to hold 5 cups of water in my little experiment. Really? I think they are more absorbent so you don’t have to change after every pee. Even my doctor would say oh, I think you can get a little more use out of that, and close the diaper back up after checking her. Sometimes we’d change 3 diapers just in the doctor’s office!

At 65 cents per diaper, do you really want to change it after an hour or two?

So, about my wearing a diaper. I received samples of the new, ultra-thin (and somewhat controversial) disposable diaper in the mail. So, I decided one evening to wrap one around my leg and see what happened. I’ll be honest, I was hoping it would give me some awful rash, ’cause that would make for some good blogging.

Alas, it did not, and while I took pictures, ~~I won’t even bother posting them~~. OK a few pics, LOL. They’re not very exciting, I took them myself.

I started with a dry diaper and it instantly felt itchy and scratchy, especially at the leg openings. No way would I want to wear one of these on my bottom!

After an hour, I poured some water in and put it back on. Each hour, I took a pic of my leg, added more water and put it back on. Now, granted this was water and not urine. I will do a lot in the name of my blog, but I have to draw the line somewhere!

After a while, the diaper warmed up to my body temp and felt squishy. I actually forgot I had it on until I stood up from the couch!

I haven’t done this with a cloth diaper, so I really can’t guess what this means for potty training. I’ve heard that cloth diapered kids tend to train (learn) sooner, but I don’t know if the soft, stay dry and comfy fabrics of today’s diapers make a difference.

My hubby didn’t blink when I put a diaper on my leg, but he sure looked at me funny when he caught me in the kitchen with a diaper, measuring cup & scale. That diaper is a good 3 inches thick I think!

5 cups of water! Won’t someone please change my diaper?!

Anyway, if you can afford to spend 15 bucks on 3 days worth of diapers, consider cloth! In a month’s time, you could have a day’s worth of Smartipants diapers or a great stash of a hybrid/all-in-two system or prefolds & covers. If nothing else, you could use them until they had paid for themselves (saving the money you had not spent on disposables) then sell them and buy something even cuter and nicer!

Use them for another child, sell them…heck you could donate them and still be way ahead of where you’d be had you used disposables!

Tag Archives: disposable diapers

What is Pampers Up To?

“What’s a disposable diaper?” and My First “Dunk and Swish”

Ever wished you could throw a diaper away?

Designer disposables (and the time I wore a diaper-on my leg)

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