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Baby Products That Make My Life Easier: Diapering/Hygiene

This post is part of a series of posts intended to help my sister with her baby registry. Please see the other posts here and chime in with your advice!

Babies can be cute and sweet and just precious, but there’s a dark side to parenthood. There’s nothing I can say to prepare anyone for the responsibility of keeping a child clean. There are just no words. So I’ll go ahead and jump into the products.

  • Diaper Champ – We have this one and love that we can use regular garbage bags with it. And it helps some in hiding the smell. But I admit, there are times that I walk into the nursery and feel like I’m walking into a wall of poop.
  • Diapers – We use Pampers, which work well for us. I hear that Huggies are better for girls, but don’t know how true that is.
  • Wipes – Again, I like the Pampers brand of wipes. The thicker, the better.
  • Diaper rash cream – Continuing with the theme of “every baby is different”, Michael didn’t have a diaper rash until he was about nine or ten months old, but Cruz was probably only a month old when he had his first diaper rash. It’s so sad when they’re hurting, so have it on hand at all times. We use Desitin.
  • Baby powder – I didn’t use much powder for Michael, but I do for Cruz since he sweats so much. A pediatrician told me to use it on any area of his skin that tends to get sweaty and trap moisture, causing the skin to break down, i.e. diaper area, underarms, baby folds. It has helped a lot.
  • Contoured Changing Pad – We ended up using my old dresser in the nursery, which has worked out great since it’s long and has lots of storage. Throwing a changing pad on top also made it the changing table!
Michael on Changing Pad – 4 months old
  • Baby tub with newborn sling attachment – We have one kind of like this.  Cruz outgrew the sling pretty quickly, but it was nice while it lasted, especially before the umbilical cord stump fell off since you’ve gotta keep that pretty dry. I’m not perfectly happy with it – it seems like it could be a little deeper or contoured a little better for baby’s comfort.
  • Baby wash – Something tear-free. I personally don’t have a favorite. I tend to like a fragrance-free wash for sensitive skin since I have such sensitive skin and am afraid I’ve passed that on to my kids.
  • Baby wash cloths – This definitely isn’t a must-have, but I like working with the smaller size of the baby wash cloth when bathing my little ones.
  • Hooded baby towels – Babies are angry when they’re cold. Hooded towels help baby stay a bit warmer than they would with a regular towel. And they’re just so darn cute.

What am I forgetting? Are there any brands that you especially like?
(Facebook friends, please remember to comment on the blog and not in Facebook so that everyone can benefit from your advice. Thanks!)

1 thought on “Baby Products That Make My Life Easier: Diapering/Hygiene”

  1. ditto for the diaper champ. 
    Diapers?  We used Pampers almost exclusively for D until he was about 2 (size 4 or so) and then discovered Huggies fit better (his body shape had changed since Huggies never fit as a baby).  Huggies seem a bit bigger at that point.  I have also tried Kroger brand (did not  particularly like), Walmart brand (not too crazy about either), CVS brand…really liked (for E, not for D)-compared to Pampers for little baby, Luvs (really liked), and a few others.  It all depends on the stage and size/shape of your child.  With coupons, I can get Pampers about as cheaply as other brands, but they and huggies are more expensive.  We almost always use one or the other since they are consistently good (most of the time) but have tried off brands when they are cheap enough to warrant it. 
    We never used a changing pad cover/one more thing to clean.  Instead at age we risked leaky diapers mostly as little babies, I put down disposable changing pads and then just threw them out.  I know…rather wasteful but just easier and not really too expensive either. 

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