This article is going to be a “how to” about diapers. Ever want to know how to buy diapers, how to put on a diaper, or how many diapers to buy? This article will give you the low-down on what you need to know.

How to buy diapers

When you buy diapers, make sure you do some math on how much you are paying for each diaper. Companies tend to put a different number of diapers in each box. I think they do this on purpose, so you don’t realize you’re paying the same or more for each diaper, depending on what you’re buying. For example, someone once told me to go to a membership warehouse (e.g. Costco or Sam’s Club) and buy their store brand diapers and it’s cheaper than the name brands like Pampers® or Huggies®. I just went to Costco’s website and see that a box of 216 store-brand size 1-2 diapers is $39.99 and a box of Huggies® size 2 diapers with 258 diapers in the box is $49.99. So, yes, you can spend less money by buying the store-brand, but you’ll be buying a new box sooner and not saving anything per diaper. Either way, you’ll be paying $0.19 / diaper for this size. When you get to size 5 diaper, also notice that you not only pay the same $49.99 for both brands, but you get less diapers. Based on prices today, you will actually pay more for the store-brand, paying $0.30 per diaper for 168 diapers and pay $0.28 per diaper for 176 Huggies® diapers. So, even if you don’t like math, take a calculator to get the most bang for your buck.

How many diapers to buy

Saving pennies might not seem like a big deal, but when you add up the amount of money you can save when you figure out just how many diapers you will buy in the first two years, it really does add up! Since I’ve already gone over how many diapers your baby will use by age, I’ll only reiterate that it will be in the neighborhood of 4,700 in the first two years alone (you can try to potty train early). I calculated that’s roughly $500 you can save by making sure you buy the box where you pay the least per diaper! If you have twins or triplets, watch out! This makes me wish I had done the math when I was buying a lot of diapers!

How to cloth diaper

Truth be told I only half-considered using cloth diapers, but this seemed like a good place to give you resources on where you can go to learn how to cloth diaper your baby. I found a really good video that shows you how to cloth diaper, which looks VERY similar to disposable diapers, if you choose an “all-in-one” cloth diaper. Here’s the video:

How to clean cloth diapers

According to The Cloth Diaper Whisperer, finding the routine that fits you takes some time, but the simple steps that tend to work are:

Using your washing machine:

1. Cold Water Rinse (no detergent)
2. Hot Water Wash with detergent
3. Rinse – If the load is particularly bad, consider a “quick wash” instead of just a rinse
4. Dry – Medium heat for about 60-80 minutes or hang on clothes dryer

In the same video series as above, here’s one on how to clean cloth diapers.

How to put on a disposable diaper

Here is a very good video on how to put on a disposable diaper:

If you are considering cloth diapers, but aren’t sure whether it’s more work or not or whether it will really save you money, here is a very good series of posts explaining the benefits: Cloth vs. Disposable. As I said, I never quite ventured into cloth diapers. I think I just became so overwhelmed with baby “stuff” when I was pregnant the first time, I just didn’t have any more brainpower to make that decision and I never revisited it the second time around. Researching for this article may have changed my mind!

How to organize clean diapers

Many people just keep the diapers in the box as quickly as you go through them, but if you want another way to organize your diapers, you can consider a Diaper Stacker or Diaper Essentials Organizer

How to store dirty diapers

Storing dirty diapers will keep your nursery (or any other room in your house) from smelling like a bathroom and prevent you from needing to run to the dumpster after every diaper change. We used the Diaper Champ because you can use regular kitchen trash bags rather than buy the expensive inserts that you have to keep buying with other systems. If you are using cloth diapers, you can use a wet bag or laundry bag to store soiled diapers.

I hope you enjoyed this article about how to: diapers and found the information useful.

Share your diapering tips!

When you’re pregnant everyone will tell you how much money you’ll spend on diapers, but until you’re throwing those things in the garbage, it won’t hit home. Here is a guideline about how many diapers your baby will use in a day by age.

How many diapers a newborn uses

Your newborn should wet her first diaper by the end of the first day and it should increase to about 5-6 per day by the end of her first week. Wet diapers is the #1 way to know that your baby is not getting dehydrated. It is important to track diaper counts, carefully, in the first few weeks of your baby’s life. Not only is it important to make sure your baby is getting enough breast milk or formula, but your pediatrician will also ask you how many wet diapers and how many dirty diapers your baby is having. It always helps you feel like a more confident new mom when you don’t have to tell your doctor “uhhh…I’m not sure.”

Your baby should have 3-4 dirty (aka poopy) diapers a day by the end of the fourth day. You should no longer see meconium by the end of the 5th day.

Make sure you know the meaning of the various colors of poop for your baby, too.

How many diapers a 1-3 month old uses

Your 1 to 3 month old will still wet 5-6 diapers per day (or more), but dirty diapers could start to space out. If you breastfeed your baby, she may poop after every feeding (mine did!) or go up to a week without pooping! This is just fine. If you are formula feeding, though, it’s easier for your baby to get constipated, so if your baby does not poop for 2-3 days, you probably want to call your pediatrician.

How many diapers a 4-6 month old uses

The number of diapers a 4 to 6 month old uses doesn’t change much from 1 to 3 months, but if you start solids in this time-frame, expect the contents to change! It will smell more than breast milk or formula poop, too. Many people start with rice cereal which is notoriously constipating (we started with oatmeal for this reason), so make sure your baby is still having a dirty diaper at least every 3 days, if he’s eating solids.

If your baby is sleeping through the night, don’t worry about changing any diapers at night anymore. If she is not, you may want to change one wet diaper a night with a feeding and always change a dirty diaper to avoid diaper rash.

How many diapers a 7-9 month old uses

Expect your 7 to 9 month old to wet 5-6 diapers per day (or more) and again, dirty at least one every 3 days. Now that your baby is eating more solids, if she is constipated, make sure you offer a sippy of water (for practice with the sippy and to help constipation) and focus on “p” foods such as pears, prunes, and peaches.

How many diapers a 10-12 month old uses

Your 10 to 12 month old will also wet 5-6 diapers per day, but you might notice they space out a lot more with dry diapers between. If your baby is still not sleeping through the night, it is most likely not due to diapers and you may want to help your baby sleep better.

How many diapers a toddler uses

Most toddlers won’t be potty trained until past 2 and as old as 4 (especially boys), so your toddler will still be going through 4-5 wet diapers a day and pooping every 2-3 days. They do learn to space out peeing more, so hopefully you will be going through fewer diapers.

But, what size diapers?

The size diaper you use at any given age will vary baby to baby and just depend on his size. If your baby is in the 50th percentile, you will most likely be following the weights on the packages very closely. Most newborns outgrow the newborn size diaper very quickly, so don’t stock up on those too heavily. Some babies go home skipping that size! If your baby is leaking during the night, try going up one size just at night and see if that helps.

How many diapers does that mean in the first 2 years?

For fun, let’s do some math (ok not fun for all of us) and figure out about how many diapers this is in the first two years of your baby’s life:

Let’s assume only 1 wet diaper is also dirty at any given day. Most dirty diapers are also wet. Here goes the math.

6 wet diapers per day for 730 days = 4,380
1 dirty diaper every 2.5 days for 730 days = 292
1 “oops I changed a diaper that wasn’t wet or dirty because I’m a new mom” diaper for the first month = 30
= 4,702

*Note: If your baby will go to daycare, most have a rule they have to change a diaper every 2 or 3 hours whether it’s wet or dirty, so you may want to add a diaper a day here and there to the total.

If you were to buy the extra large boxes of 160 diapers a box for about $40, you’d be looking at about 30 boxes for a total of $1200 in diapers for the first 2 years. Scary, huh? For fun, track your baby’s diapers, so you can see if we’re right or wrong.