Hippie diapers

One result of Zachary's continuing rapid growth (we're pretty sure he's well over 18 pounds now; we'll find out more definitively at his 6-month checkup in a few weeks) is that he has progressed fairly quickly through diaper sizes. I still remember when we were on the size N's (for newborn), and now we've gotten past 1's and 2's and onto some kind of weird in-between, non-documented "2-3" size (only carried at a few larger stores).

The size changes were okay when the brand/style of diapers could keep up, but for some reason we just ran out of sizes; the next size moves into what they call 'Cruisers', though I don't think he'll be cruising anywhere for the short term. Hopefully they still work well when the baby is, er, inert? Anyway, since we made the move to his current brand (after the other leading brand* simply didn't work for him), we haven't really had much trouble with leaks and accidents (other than when you're in the middle of changing him and he decides to make one of several possible, um, counterarguments). So naturally, we approached this latest move with some trepidation; we'd tried an alternate brand of size 2s previously without success - he leaked right through.

Off we went to the large baby superstore chain, looking to get some 3's. Unfortunately, the type we were planning to try upgrading to was only available in extra-large crates (what I'll call "landfill size"). We weren't quite ready to make that big of a plunge without at least testing them out first, but no dice - there weren't any smaller packs. The only brand that was available with a reasonable number of diapers was the more eco-friendly, chlorine-free one, which comes complete with a Native American philosophical quote on the packaging. So fine, we were up for trying to be ecological, picked up the pack, and headed home (in the hybrid car no less).

The diapers felt a little bit more, er, papery, and were a tannish-brown instead of that (chlorine-bleached?) cottony white that we were used to, but other than that they looked okay. So we popped Zachary into them and he seemed happy enough. At least until he went to the bathroom (right in time for dinner with mommy), at which point we all knew about it, since he had soaked through multiple layers of clothing. That night we reverted to his old size for bedtime, and I hoped that we'd just accidentally not fit them snugly enough or something. But sure enough, yesterday I knew every time he went to the bathroom, because he was soaking wet. Oh, and the other kind of potty event also caused a blowout that totally soaked him through, which of course made for even more of a mess.

Net result: 2 extra washloads of soiled clothes (in 1 day!), five costume changes, and four completely failed diapers of the handful he wore. Of the 40-pack of diapers we bought, more that 30 are going into the garbage -- no, we're not actually that ecologically destructive; I'll take them to the parent-child class tomorrow and see if anyone else wants them.

So later yesterday evening, after dinner with mommy, Zachary and I went to the store and bought the landfill size of the brand we'd been thinking of to begin with. No major disasters with them so far, other than the impending environmental one. *sigh*


*-At this time, Zachary chooses not to officially endorse any particular brand of diapers, but certainly not these.