mother of all diaper blowouts... and size 3 switchover

[etwahl]

i think we had the mother of all diaper blowouts when we were in NC. we were in a furniture store, just looking around, and i was holding lauren over my shoulder, hand under her butt. we start talking to the saleslady, and lauren starts pooping, and pooping, and pooping. i say, let's go out to the car and change her, we get to the door and we're picking up the carseat, and i say "it feels warm and wet on my arm...is it just sweat?" evan looks down and my arm is covered and it's dripping (luckily as we're leaving, not in the store). We get out to the car, and half of her is covered in sheeste (evan's word!) :( she was wearing a little one piece shorts outfit, and luckily the neckhole was big enough to be able to take it DOWN her body rather than having to take it over her head...otherwise I don't know what I would have done.

we decide to throw the outfit out, because there was just no selvaging it, especially since we weren't at home near a washing machine. We've got the pad from the diaper bag on the seat of the car, naked lauren on the pad, and sheesty legs flying all over the place. I had to hold her back so she didn't kick the rental and get that all messy. So we've got this little girl SCREAMING (I'd be screaming too if I was covered in that stuff) and I'm shouting out orders to Evan like I'm operating - MORE WIPES, MORE, MORE, MORE!! It's almost like I didn't know where to start. Then Evan starts laughing and saying " THIS IS TOO ADVANCED FOR ME..." talking about how he's been to war, but this is much worse and he couldn't handle it. So then I start laughing and having to hold myself back from peeing my pants...and I still have this dirty little girl to clean up who won't stop screaming.

FINALLY get her all cleaned up...probably used 30 wipes (luckily we had two packages of them) and put on a new outfit. Meanwhile, the floor of the rental is covered in stinky wipes.

Anyway, it seems to me the problem originated from the leg holes. It came out that way BIG TIME. there was a lot of poop, because she hadn't gone since the night before, and she's usually like clockwork - at least every second diaper.

So the question is, even though she's just over 12 pounds, is she too small for the size 3 diapers (which say 16 pounds and up...and the size 2 she's wearing say up to 18 pounds). She's currently in pampers swaddlers 2, and we have the pampers cruisers 3. I tried her in the 3's and they look HUGE on her (e.g. they go up her back pretty far). is that okay?

I'm so gun-shy now. whenever i'm holding her and she farts or poops, i keep thinking it's going to come out. i'm thinking that since i'm holding her butt, the diaper's pushed up against her body, so that in turn pushes the poop out the sides. so what prevents it from coming out every time?

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[mamahill]

I'm laughing so hard, tears are in my eyes, just picturing you with a surgical mask on, wipes flying all over the place, and Evan going AWOL. I'm not sure, but do the Pampers Baby Dry not have the elastic side that the cruisers do? I don't know if not having the "give" would be a good or bad thing. You could always try the cruisers for a couple days, and then switch back if you think they're too big. I know plenty of people who moved up a size (or 2 or 3) before they were big enough, according to the package. One more think I think we should go on instinct, rather than instructions. Anyway, thanks for the laugh. Poor Lauren - she's such a champ. On the other hand - what did you eat that brought that on?! Haha - hope you had fun in NC!

[brubeck]

Tammy that is the funniest story! I can just see the stinky wipes flying and picture the look on Evan's face. Hmmm.... Saddam or poopy butt? It's a difficult choice. :-)

Anyhow, it's okay if the diapers come far up her back, what matters is that there are no leaks. If you had the leak in a size 2 then try the size 3 and see if they are better. If they are not, perhaps you might want to try a different brand. I know lots of Mom who have switched diaper brands with every size.

The good news is that as she gets slightly older her poops will solidify a bit more and not be quite so watery (and therefore not so leaky) even if she is still only on BM.

[Momof3Labs]

Oh, my, the joy of motherhood!

Colin outgrew the size 2 Swaddlers at around 13 lbs, so we tried the Cruisers and they were huge in the leg holes (and I hated pulling them up to his armpits - how uncomfortable). I let him wear them for a day or two but I was terrified of what might happen. So I finally decided to try a different diaper and found that Huggies Supreme size 3 are bigger than size 2 Swaddlers and smaller than size 3 Cruisers. You might want to try one of those and see if they work to "fill the gap" figuratively and literally.

As a side note, Huggies size 1 and 2 were horrible for us - Swaddlers were much better - but for some reason, at size 3, that all changed. Probably because Cruisers are so much different than Swaddlers.

[Melanie]

Oh boy! I've been there. The only time Ds pooped out the legs was when it was a huge back-up as well. Yep, he was sitting on my leg at the PC in a onesie. My leg got warm...ick.

Anyhow, we had a horrible up the back blow out, in a onesie that I made stretch big enough to go down the body, outdoors at a garden with NO changing area in their huge bathroom. So I had to change him outdoors in the wind. Oh, and a special ed. class on field trip happened to come by as we're finishing (thank God my mom was with me) and he's screaming and they're all like "BABY!"

Evan sounds funny...changing a baby is worse than war!

So, I'd just say it was bad luck, unless it happens twice of course.

[lisams]

I could not stop laughing after reading this!!! I can totally picture it. We had a couple of those huge blowouts but luckily we were at home. It sounds like she may need to go up in size. My DD is long and always goes up to the next size at least 3 pounds before the package says.

Lisa

[egoldber]

OMG Tammy, I about died!!!! But just think, it could have been worse. She could have been in her carseat! I had that happen once, but fortunately we were home.

And a different diaper type or size sounds definitely in order, LOL!!!

[gravymommy3]

Tammy,

Thanks for the levity! You know what I would try? I suggest you try a cloth diaper cover. I know you don't CD, but what about putting a cover over her disposible? It might just help to contain the messes. Does anyone else out there think this might help? Or am I just looney??

[em_jon98]

Tammy,

Totally ROFL!!!! I can so see Evan wimping out on you. "This is too advanced...." Hmmm, I don't think he would know until he tried :)!

I would suggest trying the Pampers Baby Dry Size 2's. We have only used Pampers for Lindsey (tried Huggies once, but found them to be small, and DH tore off a few of the velcro type tabs while fastening). I loved the Swaddlers (but not the Cruisers), but both the Swaddlers and the Cruisers (and Huggies, for that matter) run smaller than a same numbered size Baby Dry dipe. Lindsey was in size three by late September, and would probably have been in size three earlier if we were using the Swaddlers/Cruisers.

[jubilee]

Sounds like it was time to call in the troops for reinforcement! Funny story!! We are going thru diaper issues as well. Logan is only 8 weeks old and is 12 1/2 pounds, I think he's comparable to Lauren's body size then. He's in size 2 as well. So I tried:
-Huggies regular (hate them- they seem to always leak)
-Huggies Supreme (the sides stretch pretty well, so I can get a tight fit. Final verdict is still to be determined since I've only used them 2 days. But no leaks!)
-Pampers Swaddlers (no leaks, but I've found poop in the elastic- so it's been close. The sides stretch well too. I do like these.)
-Pampers Baby Dry ( MY FAVORITE! No leaks, I actually like the sticky tape over the velcro- I believe it holds better.)

HTH