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Comment by hluska | Hacker News Reader

This is off topic, but in March 2016, I'll become a dad for the first time and I was wondering if some more experienced parents could answer a question for me.

That article has a black board with a tally of diapers changed today. The count was up to thirty. Is that somewhat accurate/possible???

If so, holy shit, I'm investing in cloth....

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Congratulations! 30 seems high but not off the chart for a young baby.

My main comment, though, is that modern diaper technology is the bomb and you should definitely not go for cloth.

1. strips that change color so you can see with a glance from across the room if they need a change (if baby just wearing a diaper)

2. the wicking effect and absorbent substance in the diaper really do keep the baby's skin dry, even when they pee their diaper (not 100% but way better than cloth)

3. baffles around the thigh made of various materials prevent leakage in ways washable diapers cannot

4. well-designed diapers are super easy to put on, and more importantly, to take off and convert into a sealed bundle of mess -- they have integrated tape fasters not only to keep the diaper on the baby, but also to fold it up into a little kind of poo burrito, fastened with tape

But all those features are just minor differentiators, what you are fundamentally paying for when you buy disposable diapers is "not having to store and deal with a mountain of small towels with human feces on them". It's way, way worth it.

Here in Tokyo I pay about ¥13 per diaper, delivered by Amazon. It works out to about USD $40-60 per month per kid in diapers.

The only argument for cloth diapers is perhaps the pollution one, although I have heard (and want to believe) that the energy consumed and detergent pollution makes the difference insignificant.

Still, you are committing bag after bag of plastic into the landfill with disposables. But... if I had to improve my "eco" rating, disposable diapers would probably be the very last thing I looked at. You will have so many things to deal with when your baby is born -- anything that makes that easier is worth it and disposable diapers help several times every day.

Also, try different brands. They fit differently, and as the baby grows the fit changes.

Nah, that's way high.

Diaper pro tip: very young babies (first few months) require a "5-minute rule" on changing poo diapers. You see them doing it, or smell it, wait 5 minutes to change it. It's very likely it'll be a 2-stage operation, and if you change it too early you'll waste a diaper when wave 2 hits right after you're done (after if you're lucky). They can live with it for a few minutes.

Congrats, and good luck. The first ~6-9 months are fairly bad (mostly because it's a lot of work and kids just aren't that much fun at that age) but when they start doing stuff it's awesome.

This is such a great answer - thanks for the advice. I'll definitely follow the 5 minute rule!! :)

I would counter that the first nine months are also where you can easily get away with taking the baby out to a restaurant. After that you have a period of a few years where that is difficult as they have difficulty staying in one spot for any length of time.

What has worked wonders for me: when/if there's a baby shower, invite your buddies out for a "diaper party" (bowling, driving range, pub crawl, whatever) where the "price of admission" is everyone brings a box of diapers. This can save your bacon (the trove can last 6+ months), and also can provide male friends with a way to be involved/contribute, which in my experience, many appreciate.

That's a really great idea - thanks so much for sharing!

Def doing this when one of my friends first has a kid!

Author here. Two important things. 1)We had two babies in diapers when that was taken so it might actually be realistic. 2) It wasn't a real tally, we started it one day after a particularly bad morning and then as a joke I added a bunch. Hadn't even thought about it when taking the picture, but wanted to show the shoe rack.

One less important thing, we used cloth some too, for pee it is great. If/when your baby poops reliably, you can save a lot by using cloth during pee times of day and disposable when poops occur.

Parent here. That is a common thought amongst new parents - the cost of disposable nappies. However, when you factor in the cost and time of keeping the cloth nappies clean then there may not be much difference at all. I recall reading somewhere (don't have a reference sorry) that cloth nappies are more environmentally damaging than disposables, perhaps due to the additional energy used for washing, or the impact due to detergents.

That's very interesting - thanks so much for sharing your experience with me!! I'll rethink the idea of cloth!! :)

Read an article about this a while ago, can't remember exactly where. This is location dependent. In places where there's tons of water cloth is better. Where there's little water, disposables are environmentally better.

There are only two words you need to know about handling disposable diapers. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it here yet. It's "better than sliced bread":

   Diaper Genie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaper_Genie

If you take only one thing away from this thread, this should be it. It's phenomenal and worth every penny, IMO.

Incidentally, this is the first time since the change that I miss having the upvote score on an item.

The diaper genie is just okay. The plastic can retain smells after a while. During the diaper years my wife and I would simply take the trash out to the can twice a day or toss the soiled ones immediately to get then out of the house.

My 3 month old goes through about 5-8 and my 2 year old 1-4 a day depending if he uses the potty or not.

Thanks for your answer and congratulations on your family!! :)

30 is high. But about 8 to 10 per day is normal.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/nappie...

> Some babies have very delicate skin and need changing as soon as they wet themselves, otherwise their skin becomes sore and red. Other babies can wait to be changed until before or after every feed.

> All babies need changing as soon as possible when they've done a poo (stool) to prevent nappy rash.

> Young babies need changing as many as 10 or 12 times a day; older babies at least six to eight times.

The UK NHS has a bunch of information about pregnancy and newborn children. You might want to find a site that you trust because you will get a lot of unsolicited advice from friends and relatives and a lot of it will be bogus.

(Congratulations, btw!)

No, 30 is too high, but you will have very frequent changes during the first few months. I'll echo other advice: wait a bit, the poop often comes in phases.

By the time they hit six months it is less frequent, then after a year you may only have 3-6 diapers a day.

Remember with cloth that you have to scrape the poop into the toilet, you can't just toss it in a bag and have a service come pick it up (in which case you aren't saving money anyway).

I'm as environmentally conscious as anyone but disposable diapers are one of the few luxuries I choose to enjoy and I don't regret it for even a second.

The number of cloth diapers you need to buy is roughly proportional to the amount you'll go through in one day. So learning that babies typically go through 3X diapers/day instead of X doesn't actually change the cloth/disposable tradeoff.

That said, 30 seems high to me. Our kid probably peaked at about 8/day.

(We started with cloth diapers, but the amount of time washing them was just too high.)

Congrats! I vaguely contemplated cloth and now am so glad I didn't. It would have crushed my soul to put on a laundered and stuffed cloth diaper only to have my son dirty it while I was changing him.

30 is very high. ~16-18 is a reasonable top end, and doesn't last very long (maybe 1-2 months at most).

Up to 30 per day sounds crazy. My 2-month-old goes through 5-8 per day.

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