Diapers
The best diapers for you depends on: your budget, baby’s skin sensitivity, and if you want cloth or disposable. Here are my favorite disposable diapers:
- Pampers Swaddlers: The most commonly used diapers in those first few months, maybe because most hospitals will have those for you when your baby is born. The yellow stripe turns blue when the diaper is wet.
- Pampers Pure
- Honest Company: These are adorable and they are chlorine-free.
- Earth’s Best TenderCare: They are more expensive but a chlorine-free and fragrance-free option via Amazon.
- Bamboo Nature: Another eco-friendly brand that parents love.
- Parasol: Another eco-friendly brand with adorable patterns!
Tip: Join Amazon Family and get 20% off diapers when ordered through Subscribe & Save. This is a fantastic deal! Through Amazon Family you also get discounts on fruit/vegetable pouches (a toddler favorite!) and many other baby-related products.
Wipes
I prefer a fragrance-free wipe (because I don’t trust the chemicals in most scented products) that gets a lot of crap in one swoop. We primarily use the Honest Company wipes, Babyganics wipes and WaterWipes. I’m also a fan of these wipes that are free of all the yucky stuff you don’t want to put all over your baby’s skin! The Huggies One and Done wipes are very popular.
While this is not a necessity, a wipes dispenser is very nice to have. This one is weighted and has rubber feet – so it doesn’t slide around the table when you are trying to pull a wipe out. Note: This is NOT a wipes warmer.
Diaper Pail / Trash
Choosing the right diaper pail for you will depend on your priorities. You’ll want to look: odor containment, diaper capacity, foot or hand operation, style/design, bag changing process, required bags and the cost. When comparing prices, don’t just look at the prices for the actual pail. You must also take into account the prices of the trash bags (if that pail only takes a particular kind), how often you have to change the bag and the cost of any other necessary refills.
Living in a condo, it was necessary for us to have some sort of diaper pail. Now that we moved to a house and have a garage attached, we got rid of it. For poopy diapers, we stick them in those mini diaper sacks and take them immediately out to the trash in the garage. The pee diapers just go in the kitchen trash (it gets put out in the garage frequently). Since babies pee and poop a lot more when they are younger, I will get a diaper pail for upstairs when we have another baby. Diapers don’t get disgustingly smelly until they start eating solids (6+ months) or have formula. They don’t reach their peak stink until closer to a year. So take that into consideration when asking friends their opinion on their diaper pail’s ability to conceal odor.
Munchkin Step • Ubbi Steel • Dekor Plus • Diaper Genie Elite
Munchkin Step by Arm & Hammer: This is probably the best at concealing odor. The bags are sealed when the lid closes. You have to buy special bags, refill baking soda dispensers, squish some diapers and manually close the lid, but it is likely your best bet to minimize the stink. It opens with a step pedal, which is generally preferred by parents (including me!). (capacity: ~30 newborn diapers)
Ubbi Steel: This is more expensive, looks awesome, great because you can use any trash bag, but you can’t open with your foot and every time you open it you get a huge whiff of the smell. The smell won’t be a huge issue until they are closer to a year old when they eat lots of solids and the poops smell disgusting! (capacity: ~50 newborn diapers)
Diaper Dekor Plus: I haven’t tried this one, but I’m curious. It looks good, and I hear it is decent at concealing the odor. You can apparently use regular trash bags and you don’t have to squish the diapers.You can also get the “Classic” size that holds about 20 fewer diapers, for $29. (capacity: ~60 newborn diapers)
Diaper Genie Elite: This has a very affordable price, holds in the smell pretty well, but the bag refills are expensive. We had two (one on each level), one broke after 15 months of use. I heard from someone else that theirs broke pretty easily. After years of use, some complain the smell can kind of stick in the plastic. Requires diaper squishing. I wouldn’t buy this one again. (capacity: ~38 newborn diapers)
Changing Pad
Don’t get a separate changing table. Most people I know just used the top of a dresser. You will want a sturdy surface that is about waist-high to change diapers. Assuming you use a dresser, you will use a changing pad on top. As your baby gets bigger (and super active), many people end up just using the floor for changes. You probably can’t go wrong with which one you get, but here is the one I have and ones I have heard about. The color and lack of design are irrelevant for most of these because you will likely have a changing pad cover on all except for the Keekaroo Peanut.
Summer Infant Contoured Pad • Summer Infant 4-Sided Pad • Naturepedic Organic 4-Sided
Poopoose Changing Pad • Keekaroo Peanut
Summer Infant Contoured Pad: It is affordable and does the job. You’ll need at least two covers. They also have a newer 4-sided version: Summer Infant 4-Sided Changing Pad (~$20).
Naturepedic Organic 4-Sided Changing Pad: This one is made of organic cotton, and like many of the others it has a strap to secure it to furniture.
Poopoose Changing Pad: This is very highly rated, so I would love to check it out. It secures your baby to minimize squirming during a diaper change.
Keekaroo Peanut Diaper Changer: No cover is needed for this, but it’s very expensive.
Changing Pad Liners
Get some waterproof changing pad liners for on top of your changing pad. Any brand works, but you will be so glad you have these – especially if you have a boy! Babies poop and pee a LOT and they always seem to poop and pee on the adorable changing pad covers you just got. We have gone through a lot of these… they get stained. We used Munchkin Waterproof Changing Pad Liners, but there are a lot of different types out there.
Diaper Sacks
This is a must-have for disposing of poopy diapers when you are away from the house. We actually use these to put individual poopy diapers in the trash bin in the garage at home now – instead of a diaper pail.
- Sassy: We have used these for years
- Arm and Hammer: I’ve heard these are good too.
Portable Changing Station
Some form of portable changing station or diaper clutch is a must-have for changing diapers on the go – any brand works. Something like this:
Skip Hop • Petunia Pickle Bottom • BEBE By Me • Oh Joy!
Diaper Bag
Find one you like, and get that! It all depends on your personal style. To see a selection of fashional diaper bags at a range of budgets, check out the Stylish Diaper Bag post.
If you don’t like any that are out there, you could also get a diaper bag insert to transform a large tote into a diaper bag. Make sure there is room for the essentials. Have duplicates of things that never leave the diaper bag (i.e. pacifier, lovey, diaper cream, etc). This way, when you are running out of the house you won’t need to make sure you have what you need. Here are three of the many options for bag inserts:
- ToteSavvy ($45-$75)
- kilofly (~$17)
- MommyDaddy&Me (~$21)
Diaper Rash Cream
Some good clean options are:
Badger Balm Baby Zinc Oxide Diaper Cream, Calendula with Beeswax & Sunflower – 2.9 oz
Beautycounter Baby Calming Diaper Rash Cream, 3 oz
Honest Company Rapid Relief Diaper Rash Cream, 2.5 oz
Boudreaux’s Butt Paste Diaper Rash Ointment
Packed Diaper Bag
Skip or Wait and Maybe Buy Later
Wipe Warmer: I’m sure it’d be nice to have. I mean, wouldn’t we all prefer a nice warm wipe on our bum instead of a cold one? But you have to leave it on all the time to get the right temperature. Also, your baby should get used to warm wipes so he/she won’t be unhappy when you are out on the go. I don’t think it is worth the money or space.
Jumping Ahead a Couple of Years…
If your child has issues with pooping in the toilet (as mine did and many others do), this book literally changed our lives: Softy the Poop. I will write more about that later, but it was the best $11 I spent! My husband and I also read the same doctor’s book for parents, The Ins and Outs of Poop, which was helpful for us.
Baby Feeding Stuff»
Medicine Cabinet & Baby Care»
More Baby-Related Essentials:
