Best Generic Diapers

Posted by Lana on Apr 29, 2010 in Featured, Mama and Baby | 2 comments

No one told me that buying diapers would be the end all, be all of my life when I had kids. The amount of money spent on this commodity, however convenient and necessary they may be, can put a serious hurtin’ on one’s bank account. I am grateful for their invention, but do feel a twinge of guilt thinking of the millions of disposable diapers out there sitting in a land fill. But then my baby poops for the third time in two hours, and I’m adding to that ever growing pile. I have considered some of the new cloth diapers, but when I did the math, I didn’t see a considerable savings. Plus, I read (and if you’ve read any of my other posts, you know I read everything within my reach on subject matters I am concerned about/take interest in) that most of the new fancy cloth diapers leak, not properly sized, and well…just aren’t what their hyped up to be. In the end, I decided to (sniff sniff) pollute the earth, and go with disposables.

Here are the diapers I have tried and tested: Luvs, Parent’s Choice, Publix brand, and Sam’s Club-Member’s Mark.

Here they are in order from worst to best:

Member’s Mark – They sagged to my child’s knees after the first pee. I went through the whole box though…and they weren’t good at all, in my opinion. Don’t even think about using them at night.
Publix brand- They were ok, but still didn’t hold up to more than a couple of pees without sagging badly. Didn’t work for overnight.
Luvs- They were really thin, and didn’t hold very much. I just tried their new ultra leak protection and have to admit, they were much better. Not good for overnight either.
Parent’s Choice -I really like these diapers! They aren’t good for overnight, but they are great daytime diapers. They hold a lot of liquid, and are a good snug fit. The tabs can be a little tricky, but if you open them up before you put the diaper on, they work fine. I also really like their line of organic baby wipes…and they are cheap!

As far as name brand goes, Pampers and Huggies are great of course. I like Pampers Overnight diapers (.33 cents each), so I use those for night time only, and use Parent’s Choice (.14 cents each) or Luvs (.17 cents each) during the day. This way, my money stretches so much further. One a side note, I did try Seventh Generation’s Chlorine Free Diapers, and wasn’t very impressed. They looked like brown paper bags, and honestly they felt that way. I did like the fact that they were a “greener” choice, but they just didn’t warrant a further purchase due to their ineffectiveness.

Update 5/28/10 – I have switched to Huggies Overnight diapers. They hold more than Pampers Overnight by a landslide. Also, per Amanda (one of our wired mamas), I have started using Target’s Up & UP diapers for daytime use. I still really like Parent’s Choice, so if I go to Walmart, I’ll get those or Luvs, and if I’m at Target…I’ll use their generic diapers. It’s so great to have less expensive choices of diapers that actually work! I haven’t tried Up & Up diapers for overnight yet. My oldest son (27 months) can really fill up a diaper at night, so I’m afraid to not use a designated overnight diaper!

Share your generic diaper experience! Leave a comment below.

I’m not opposed to trying a cloth diaper system, so please feel free to leave a comment with your positive experience, and any notable budget pluses.