have bought bother white cloud and pampers but since its my first baby I don’t know what diaper brand is best and I honestly want the best for my baby no matter the price. what brand is best for you?
I would definitely go cloth, both bamboo and hemp are great, and you will avoid chemicals that are in commercial disposables, which can cause a lot of health problems.
Just a brief overview of chemicals used in disposable diapers:
Dioxins
Most disposable diapers are bleached white with chlorine, resulting in a byproduct called dioxins that leach into the environment and the diapers. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), dioxins are among the most toxic chemicals known to science and are listed by the EPA as highly carcinogenic chemicals. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to dioxins may cause skin reactions and altered liver function, as well as impairments to the immune system, nervous system, endocrine system and reproductive functions.
Sodium Polyacrylate
Sodium polycarbonate is a super absorbent chemical compound that is used in the fillers of many disposable diapers. It is composed of cellulose processed from trees that is mixed with crystals of polyacrylate. This chemical absorbs fluids and creates surface tension in the lining of the diaper to bind fluids and prevent leakage. Sodium polyacrylate is often visible as small gel-like crystals on the skin of babies and is thought to be linked to skin irritations and respiratory problems. This chemical was removed from tampons due to toxic shock syndrome concerns. As it has only been used in diapers for the last two decades, there is not yet research on the long-term health effects of sodium polyacrylate on babies.
Tributyl-tin (TBT)
Many disposable diapers contain a chemical called tributyl-tin (TBT). According to the EPA, this toxic pollutant is extremely harmful to aquatic (water) life and causes endocrine (hormonal) disruptions in aquatic organisms. TBT is a polluting chemical that does not degrade but remains in the environment and in our food chain. TBT is also an ingredient used in biocides to kill infecting organisms. Additionally, according to research published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, tributyl-tin can trigger genes that promote the growth of fat cells, causing obesity in humans.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Disposable diapers frequently contain chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These include chemicals such as ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene and dipentene. According to the EPA, VOCs can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, damage to the liver, kidney and central nervous system as well as cancers.
Other Chemicals
Other chemicals often used in disposable diapers include dyes, fragrances, plastics and petrolatums. Adhesive chemicals are used in the sticky tabs to close the diapers and dyes are used to color and make the patterns and labels that mark diapers. Perfumes and fragrances are used in some disposable diapers to help mask odors.
Even if you use cloth diapers, you need to make sure that they are made from organic non-dyed and non-treated materials, like I have mentioned before – bamboo and hemp are great (on a few occasions when we used diapers, that was our choice), I also heard loads of great reviews from other parents on natural wool diapers, but specific care they require and price combined was too much for us so I do not have first hand experience with that.
Also it is important to remember, that does not matter how natural and wonderful diapers are, they would not be good for your child if washed in syntetic chemical detergents, plus it would compromise their absorbency. So using natural detergents would be a game of choice.
Hope it helps.
I’m also a fan of cloth diapers. We use pocket diapers with bamboo inserts
Okay, I’ll admit it. I had exactly 72hrs to decide what kind of diapers to use with our son (quick adoption), so I asked my sister (who’d had SIX already), & she said to use Target’s store brand, so I did, & didn’t really rethink that decision until we started potty training. At that point, we switched to Charlie Banana training pants. We really like them, & I noticed that they also make cloth diapers with inserts, so we may try those if we have another baby. I definitely did not like all the waste of the disposables & even the store brand is up to $23 for a large box. (D-i-l pays $35 for the large box of Pampers, even though her kid has a perpetual diaper rash & the diapers fail as often as not!)
With regards to disposable diaper, it needs to be changed frequently in order to avoid the nappy rash. It is the urea that irritates the skin. So if the baby has a soiled nappy, change it immediately.
Can use paraffin oinment as a barrier before putting on a fresh nappy after cleaning with cotton and water.
Experiments with different store brand and see which work best. Often their quality is not too bad compared to the branded one and they are cheaper…
Just a tip, – why not to use organic coconut or olive oil as an ointment for baby’s bottom!
Here is a very simple diaper rush ointment we use ( we made it at home)
Herb infused olive oil ( we used calendula, camomile and plantain leaves, put them in a jar and filled with olive oil, kept it on our kitchen counter for about 4-6 weeks, shaking daily; you can just use one of these herbs, they all are great antibacterial and skin healing properties)
Coconut Oil
Raw shea butter ( or mango butter if you do not like the smell of shea)
Bees wax
Mixed it all together, melted the wax and added it to the mixture, poured into little containers and let it solidify.
It is easy to take with you in your diaper bag, it smells wonderfully, works incredibly good and totally natural.
You can also use just a bit of olive oil on a cotton to lightly wipe baby’s bottom. No need to use toxic products, like paraffin ointment.
I have 3 children. My first one never used diapers. Second one was partially cloth diapered. And the third one is also partially cloth diapered. I say partially, because they also used potty from birth, but with two toddlers and a newborn, I have to use diapers more with our 3rd one, not because he is not communicating, but simply because I miss his communication sometimes 
With all 3 children, we only had diaper rush once ( and it was resolved within a day), when I had to borrow disposable diaper on the transatlantic plane. :nowink:
We used disposable diapers for a few days on a very rare occasions (when we travelled internationally and had 2-3 days stop over), but in those situations we used Seventh Generation non-chlorine diapers, and tried to get back to no diapers and cloth diapers as soon as we were at our destination.
I would definitely not put any of the chemical ointments on my baby’s sensitive skin, for the fear of multiple health hazards. But it is also causing skin to get more sensitive and prone to breakouts. http://www.livestrong.com/article/226763-side-effects-of-petrolatum/
For wipes, we used little cotton cloths we made from T-short type cotton material. We either use simple warm water ( in most situations you would not need harsh soaps or cleaners at every diaper change), or warm water with natural baby soap. When we are out I have my home made bay wipes in container, soaked with a bit of olive oil, a bit of all natural baby soap and water. It works great and it is way better then harsh baby wipes (most of them are so harsh that leather manufacturer warn you to not use any baby wipes on leather furniture, because it would damage it!)
Received a few PMs and decided to answer in the thread instead:
Here is the detailed recipe we used for making the Healing Baby Bottom Salve (or diaper rush cream, I just dont like the sound of “diaper rush” )
HEALING SALVE FOR BABY’S BOTTOM and any other affliction of the skin
Calendula flowers, Plantain leaves & Camomile ( or you can use any one of these individually)
I used dry herbs, but if you have access to fresh leaves you can simply coarsely chop them and use them in this recipe.
Fill a clean dry mason jar with herbs ( in my case I used 1/3 of each herb)
Add olive oil alone or in combination with almond oil to fill jar again ( make sure there are no air bubbles, it may take you a while to really fill it, as it would be slowly going through all the herbs packed in the jar)
Let it sit 4 to 6 weeks
Let the oil sit out of direct sunlight on a surface that won’t be damaged by possibly oozing oil
When its time to process into salve pour off oil and plant material into small sifter and let the oil drip through leaving all the plant material to dispose
Heat the oil in an enamel pan. Add 1 TBS grated beeswax for each ounce of oil. Stir with wooden spoon as wax melts.
Remove from heat and add a few drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract as a preservative.
Pour liquid in small jars, let cool (if salve feels too oily it can be reheated and more beeswax added-careful not to overdo)
Use for diaper rash, insect bites, itches, minor wounds, etc ….
Hope it helps!
I used cloth except sometimes for night and outings. When I used disposables I liked target brand, 7th generation, walmart brand or huggies. Luvs had too strong of a smell and gave a rash and pampers gave my kids rashes. I used to like the swaddlers I got from the hospital and used those until merconium passed but they changed how they are made and gave my last newborn a horrible rash.
Thank you skylark! I always use salve instead of the traditional baby rash cream. it works great for all type of skin affliction.
If anyone is interested I sell salve 1oz ,2 oz, and 4 oz.
all the ingredients are organic.
it have ,calendula flowers, plantain leaves,st john’s wart , comfrey ,I also put camomile or lavender essential oils ,but the ones with essential oils are almost all gone,but i take request and will do it and my next orders . all this herbs are infused in organic olive oil.
I also sell pure organic cocoa butter and shea butter if anyone is interested
PM
Well I know this can differs a lot from country to country. Here in Brazil and also in Argentina and Uruguay we have Pampers and Huggies.
They are the best in the market and there is also a local brand that is as good as those ones. I think that in the first months you should try the better known brands just like Pampers and Huggies and then later try something else if you think it’s worthy.
Always had good luck with huggies and huggies overnights for at night time
I would definely stir away from bigger money making companies that produce chemical filled products (be that household, diapering or body care), so as I have mentioned before your best alternative among disposables if you really have to go that way is Seventh Generation chlorine free diapers. But I was asked what about UK. I do not know, as I have never lived there, but I found an article, that mentioned a few natural alternatives here http://www.babiesnappies.co.uk/2008/06/19/scary-sposies/
They recommend Bambo and Moltex Nappies, mentioning that they are free from all unnecessary chemicals including lotions, dyes, perfumes, phthlates and chlorine.
Not sure about Australia, I heard the name of non toxic disposable brand there a few month ago, but can’t remember it.
There is a diaper brand in my region made without plastic, but unfortunately I never found them.
Hi
This is in the UK:
We use BeamingBaby Biodegradable nappies when out and about. At home, we use cloth diapers from TotsBots.
Hope this helps.
Regards
BT
In my exoerience, I think Mamy Poko and Huggies are not bad :biggrin:
in australia, huggies is the ‘top’ brand, it is pretty good, absorbs pretty well and minimal leakage.
i have tried target, woolworths select and also baby love.
mamy poko brand (from malaysia or singapore) is the ‘best’ brand as it can absorbs very well (a lot) and can last long hours and still remain dry. baby love seems to be similar to mamy poko.
depends which country you are in, you have different ‘top’ brands. if you are in australia, i highly recommend you to go to baby expo (once a year) and you will receive different diaper samples and you could try on bub. it depends on the bub’s butt size as well.
i have looked into cloth diaper, it cost a lot initially but long term, it saves a lot and it’s much better for baby (no chemicals etc). also, they can last very long (reusable for the next bub too).
i plan to change miss R to cloth nappies (have a few given to us) at 6 months when she starts taking solids. i am just worried that since i do laundry every 2 days that the cloth nappies (we have 5-6) won’t last and won’t dry fast enough. if that happens, i may buy more.
to prevent nappy rash, initially (1-2 months) i changed her diaper every 3-4 hours regardless if it’s full. if her skin starts getting red, i applied sudocream on the area and it soothes it. a good practice is too use a warm wet cloth to wipe the area during each nappy change and give the bub some nappy free time as well. there are many organic baby balm (e.g. only papaya) for nappy rash in the market - check out those that contains chamomile, calendula and pawpaw.
Agnes4Eva,
Yes, you would need to have more cloth diapers for diapering full time. However if you are planning to do EC, then 5-6 would be enough. Baby usually goes potty every hour or more during the day, so you can calculate.
We never used diapers with our daughter, and she used her potty sometimes twice every hour and at different time of the day every hour and a half from birth. With our son we used diapers during a few different periods – one time when we changed continents (it was freezing cold when we arrived to Europe, and we decided to use diapers when we were going out for a longer periods of time, just in case we would not be able to find the bathroom inside) and then another time when I had our third baby, and our little boy had a hard time zipping and unzipping his pants on his own. We have about 10 diaper covers ( which we bought on ebay for an awesome deal) and we have about 30 liners (which we made ourselves). You only need to change diaper cover once in a while as diaper liners usually absorb everything and you can most of the times change just diaper liner. In our case we always had tons of clean and dry diapers ready to use. I would say we would have had easily managed with 15 liners and 5-6 covers.
Hi skylark,
Thanks for the advice. I’m really impressed that you didn’t use diapers on your daughter and potty train from day 1!! It’s amazing. At the moment, I’m potty training her (just the bowel) and most of the time she would open her bowel in the morning (in the potty) and then just urine in diaper the rest of the day. She could sit pretty well with support but not turning yet or crawling. My mom bought me lots of mamy poko diapers so most probably will let her wear cloth nappy during the day. There are so many different brands out there. The bamboo ones seems to take a long while to dry. I’ve looked around and Grovia seems to be the easiest to use. The ones given to us are pocket cloth nappies, not sure if its easy to use. 
using cloth nappies full time could cost a lot approx $500, I would like to have a go on the second one next time (hopefully our finances are much stable then),
Thank you, Agnes4Eva, Actually, if finances are of concern, cloth diapering is much much cheaper! You do not need to get most expensive brand, or even a brand at all, main thing that they are natural and you can get excellent deals on Etsy or EBay (for the same thing, just not bought at the fancy store) or even make some yourself ( there are a lot of DIY tutorials on line) we got ours on eBay brand new for $40 ten of them, and then we invested in good quality natural materials ( about $80–100) and made our own inserts, so the whole lot cost us under $150. For the same things, that others payed aout $800 just for a brand name writen on the cover When we travelled across the world on one of our trips and had to get disposables couple of times it costed us already half of that price!
As far as our kids we actually never did potty train them, since they have not used diapers, there was no need to, just listened to them and followed their clues. And by 2-3 months they also would ask audibly. So I don’t think I can take any credit for that, it was not much of our accomplishment, and we did not do much to make it happen, in fact I did not know anything about ECing at all at that point. we just knew that she did not want to use diapers and was very keep to communicate with us her needs.
Good luck to you with using cloth diapers, it is very easy and baby looks so much cuter, then wrapped in plastic and paper wrapping :yes:
In the meantime, while you have to use disposables here is a tip - judge the diapers not by how long they will hold between changes, but by how much less chemical ingredients were used in their making. So probably the ones that would last not that long (less absorbing chemicals) would be much better for the baby! We need to remember it is not about convenience for a parent, but about safety and health fr the baby.