Stocking up on diapers????How many???

[daisy1234]

I am just curious about your opinions on stocking up on diapers. In Baby Bargains they suggest 500 size 1's and 100 newborn diapers. What do you all think? I have bought some of the huggies and some Pampers for variety but 500 seems like a lot to stock pile????

[SylviaC]

Honestly, I'd wait. Buy one package of newborn and one package of size 1's, keep the receipt and do not open either until baby is home. Your baby's birth weight will make a huge difference in which you can use. My son was 7.5lbs at 3 weeks early - I don't even want to THINK about how much he would have weighed if he went full term. So, we used newborns for quite a while, but several of my friends have had huge babies and went right into size 1s. I think if you have one pack of each you're ok for a couple of days. Then one of you can make a quick trip shopping for more. If the newborns are too small take them back and exchange them. Then you can go to costco and buy the giganto packs. The first few weeks you're changing diapers up to 20 times a day so they don't last too long.

One recommendation I will make in terms of stockpiling (if you use 'em) is diaper genie refills and wipes - I get 10 genie refills and 6 to 8 mega packs of wipes when I go shopping as I don't have to think about sizes on those. Plus genie refills are awkward and wipes are heavy so do it now while you have the strenght! lol

[suzska]

I can't remember how many of each we went through. My son was also small (7-1 at birth), so we were in newborns for a long time. Probably used a lot more than 100, but if he had been a 10 pound baby, things would have been different. 500 may sound like a lot, but it's probably 5 mega packs or so. Before you stockpile too many, you might want to buy one of each size in one of each brand (meaning Huggies and Pampers) until you know what works and what you like. I made the mistake of buying two packs of the BabiesRUs brand in newborn (since they were so cheap, I figured I'd pick up 2 packs), but I absolutely HATED them! And I was stuck with 2 packs of diapers I couldn't use. Sure, I could have returned the unopened pack, but they were so cheap ($5?), it wasn't worth it at the time. I did like the Target brand (I can't remember which variety--there are two), and bought those after I realized we would be in newborns for a while since they were less expensive. Around here, diaper manufacturers only seem to sell newborn diapers in one size package (around 38?), and that can get quite expensive after a while since you go through them so fast. Since I had the room, I was stocking up on larger size diapers when I found a good sale, but I haven't been lately. Right now we're in size 3's, and go through maybe 40 in a week.

--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01

[egoldber]

100 newborn diapers is only 2 packages (48 to a pack), so that really isn't that many. You will also likely use AT LEAST 500 size 1's, but you may not need them right away. Depending on the amount of storage you have and how conveniently located you are to stores, you may not want 10+ packages of diapers laying around!

My baby was 7 lbs, 5 oz at birth and was slow to gain initially, so we were in newborns for almost a month. Actually, we were in newborns longer than we were in size 1's. To be safe, I would get one package of newborns and one size 1 and then just buy more of whatever it is that you need after the baby is born. Dad is usually anxious for something to do and running to the store for more diapers is a task that my hubby was very happy to do!

Someone had a good suggestion of buying both "types" of diapers, Pampers and Huggies (and of course there are others that many people are happy with) and trying them out. You may want to buy the "opposite" brand from what your hospital uses (mine was a Pampers hospital) and see how you like their newborns, since you will have plenty of experience with the hospital's brand while you are there. :-)

HTH,

[jra]

It really does depend on the size of the baby. I'm so glad that only bought 1 pack of newborns. My son came out at 8# 12 oz so I could have skipped the newborns entirely. I only used them because they had the notch for the cord stump and since his stump fell off at 5 days old, I didn't even finish the package. I also am glad I didn't buy many size 1's. I only used 4.5 packs (68 in a pack).

Another reason that I'm glad that I didn't buy alot in advance is that my friend gave me 2-3 extra huggies size 1 that she had left over and I hated them. They just didn't fit my son right and leaked. Luvs seem to work the best for him and they seem to be quite a bit cheaper than huggies and pampers.

As far as finding out what your hospital uses, you may want to do that. If I would have known before hand that the hospital here uses cloth diapers, I probably would have taken some disposible diapers with me. They gave me 1 pampers newborn disposible for the ride home!

Jennifer

[suzska]

My hospital used Pampers, and only size 1's! While they sent me home with about 20 of them, they didn't really fit my little guy. So I just saved them until he was bigger.

--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01

[momathome]

Ugh!!! Can I complain about that for a moment? My hospital also only used stage 1 Pampers diapers - they were so big on my 5lb 14oz daughter that they took up her entire body. When I complained to the nurse about this, she said the diapers are supplied by pampers and that they are only given stage 1 samples. So, a word of advice, bring some newborn diapers to the hospital in case you have a tiny baby, too!
-Lauren

[egoldber]

Interesting. This must depend on the hospital. Ours only had Pampers Newborn. I guess it does pay to check out what your hospiral uses ahead of time! "-)

[minamorin]

i would also suggest buying only 1 package of each of the following:

huggies newborn
pampers newborn
huggies size 1
pampers size 1

and do not open any of them. as other moms mentioned above, your baby may be big enough to go directly to size 1. i stockpiled on huggies newborn (i was very small and was pretty sure my baby wasn't going to be that big) and didn't have any other brands on hand, only to find out that huggies leaked very badly on my son.

Better yet, have more than just two brands, if that's possible. Check the stores' return policy as well.