In Search Of: The Best Waterproof/Pool-Friendly Diaper

In preparation for our trip next month, I need to figure out what Baba G can wear if we decide to visit the toddler pool:

I spent a few minutes Googling "waterproof diapers" and "swim diapers" and "diapers for pool" and came up with options ranging from Huggies Little Swimmers to Pampers Splashers to the i play Swim Diaper (same company behind BG's sun hat!).

I was most concerned with finding something that wouldn't disintegrate or get weighed down in the water. I didn't even THINK of the possibility of him going #2 in the pool, which was a topic of discussion and debate in the review section for the Swim Diaper. I guess this situation didn't cross my mind because at this age BG is VERY obvious when he's doing his business, and so I'd just whip him out of the pool should that be the case. But perhaps when kids get older they take care of #2 on the sneak tip?

Either way, I'm all ears for suggestions about what works best for a 10-month-old to wear in the pool (under swim trunks, of course).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Prince Lionheart Premium Wipes Warmer

Something wintry this way comes

It's a bit nippy out today, so I figured it was a good time to write about the Prince Lionheart Premium Wipes Warmer. This is a product I wasn't originally going to register for—I thought it was a classic example of something our parents and grandparents would laugh at because it seemed so silly. "We used to change babies outside in the middle of a blizzard (after walking uphill barefoot) and use snow for wipes and those kids were fine! He doesn't need his bum to be warm!"

But I DID register for the warmer after one of my friends swore by it. She lives here in Chicago and said her son would wail his head off when she changed him and the wipes were cold, but then after she used the warmer he was happy as a clam.

Baba G was born at the end of January, and even though we had a fairly mild winter, our condo is chilly from mid-October through March no matter what. We can crank up the heat all we want, but the AIR still feels crisp in our bedroom because it lies outside of the main foundation of the building (long story). BG slept in his Pack 'n Play in our room for his first several months, so I set up the wipes warmer on our dresser and hoped it would help.

The problem was that unless I could use the wipes on him within like 2 seconds after taking them out of the container, they lost their warmth. The damp cloth hit the chilly air and all heat was just zapped from it. Even so, we used the warmer for about three months because the wipes were still less cold than they would've been otherwise. At the end of those three months we were supposed to replace the "pillow" that sits at the bottom of the container. This pillow needs to be kept moist in order for the product to work, and by the end of the three months we did in fact notice that it was starting to brown around the edges. The replacements come in 2-packs for about $12.75 on Amazon.

I'm not sure if other people who live in normal houses or warmer condos would have the "wipes immediately losing their heat" problem. I quickly skimmed through the reviews on Amazon and it seems like there are a few other people who felt that the container needed to be extremely close to their changing area in order for the wipes to remain warm long enough. Others were like my friend and swore up and down that their kid couldn't be changed without warm wipes and that this product did the trick.

I liked everything else about the warmer. It was easy enough to use and the soft light on it was fine. I wished it didn't have to be plugged in, because that limited our options of where it could sit. But I'm assuming they were trying to keep its size as compact as possible and a battery compartment would've made it too big.

If you're interested in registering for or buying a warmer, you are likely to have a nervous breakdown when you try to figure out the difference between the two Prince Lionheart models, because I almost did. So I'm gonna help you out! Here's what I found on the company's web site:

• The 0231 (Ultimate) is based on our original Wipes Warmer with additional features including a pop-up lid, a flexible moisture barrier to help keep wipes moist and fresh and to hold the next wipe in place for pop-up style wipes. ($19.20 on Amazon)

• Model 9002 (Premium, the one I have) has improved and updated styling, a more powerful heating element, and an improved moisture barrier for increased moisture retention. (About $24.20 on Amazon.)

• All of our appliance style wipes warmers use the patented Ever-Fresh System® to ensure that whichever wipes you use on your baby, they are warm, moist, and fresh.

The bottom line: For us, the Prince Lionheart Premium Wipes Warmer didn't really work as well as we hoped it would, but that was in part due to the permanently cold state of our condo. Now that Baba G is sleeping through the night, I'm hoping we won't need to use it again this coming winter, as the temperature in our place is pretty bearable during the day, at least. But we shall see. I have it ready just in case.

If you do feel like you could make use of a wipes warmer, the reviews on Amazon indicate that it's worth spending an extra $5 and getting the premium version as it holds the heat in better. And remember you'll need a new moisture pillow every 3 months.

If others have used a wipes warmer, please share your experience! I'm curious if other people relied on theirs as much as my friend did.

He needs to wear this in our condo, it's THAT cold. (Kidding.)

In Search Of: An Overnight Diaper That Works

A few weeks ago I wrote about how we'd been having some issues with Baba G not sleeping through the night. Most of my friends who know the details want to strangle me, because apparently we've still got it REALLY good compared to parents of other babies. Until we figured out a good nap routine, he'd been waking up two or three times throughout the night. However, now that we have naps sorted out, BG is now going down around 8:30 p.m. after his final bottle and sleeping until around 7:30 a.m. If he wakes up at all, it's usually only once, before midnight, and it's often because his diaper is really wet.

Which leads to the topic of today's post. When I told a few friends about this "soaking wet diaper" issue, they were like, "You know there are special overnight diapers, right?" And I was like, "Um, yeah, OF COURSE, duh..." but in reality I actually had no clue. We'd used Pampers Swaddlers when BG was a newborn and then switched to Pampers Cruisers once he got to a size 3 (he's now size 4), and I thought that's all there was to it.

Shame on me—the writer of a baby products blog inspired by how companies cleverly market things you don't actually need—for not knowing about this other kind of diaper that I really DO need. I mean, if something like the Peepee Teepee exists, then I should've known the major brands had already cornered the overnight diapers market.

So I went and got a box of Pampers Baby Dry about a month ago. They're definitely sturdier than the Cruisers, but they're still not getting the job done. So either there's a better overnight diaper out there, or Baba G is a freakish pee machine and no diaper is ever going to be able to keep up with him. I do realize that this COULD be the case. At least he's having fun with the box...

All aboard the Pampers Express!

But seriously, if his diaper isn't sopping wet (to the point where his outfit is also damp) by the morning, then it's disintegrated. This has now happened 5 times. I told someone about this phenomenon and was relieved to hear she knew what I was talking about.

"Oh yeah, it dissolves into crystals, right?"

RIGHT.

Exhibit A:

What. The.

These Pee-Diaper Crystals are IMPOSSIBLE to clean up. I will still find them on BG 2 days later. It is maddening.

So if anyone has a suggestion for our dilemma (not feeding him right before bedtime probably isn't going to be an option for the time-being, though, so forget that advice) or has been happy with a different kind of overnight diaper, I'm all ears. I'm starting to realize that living in a city and only having a smaller-sized Walgreens and CVS within walking distance might be part of the problem. I have a feeling if I were to go into some huge baby store or Walmart or Target or something, there are probably hundreds of overnight-diaper options. Someone let me know!

Random side note: this diaper thing made me think of other products I wish I could find because something we have isn't up to snuff. So I'm going to start up another semi-regular column, kind of like Unsolicited Advice, called "In Search Of:" so that others out there can clue me in to a product I'd love to have but can't get my hands on.

Skip*Hop Pronto Changer

This isn't the first review I've done on a Skip*Hop product, and I'm sure it won't be the last. I really do love this brand.

Baba G has been checking off all sorts of milestones this past week, which contributed to my lack of posts. Since he's now crawling (!!!), I realized that I really need to get going on writing about some of the things I used when he was just a little bitty baby, because there are tons of new products we're spending lots of time with now that he's not only mobile, but also eating "solids" (aka: soupy kinda gross stuff). Too. Much. To. Cover!

Today I wanted to talk about the Skip*Hop Pronto Changer, because I used it in a weird way early on and maybe someone else out there can benefit from my ingenuity. (Kidding, because how I used it was not at all creative.)

The changer's main purpose is to provide a not-covered-with-other-babies'-nasty-stuff surface for you to swap out your kid's diaper when you're on the go. I, however, used it within our condo, just a room away from BG's changing table.

The black thing flips open to be the changer (they're not two separate pieces like this pic makes it seem)

The reason why is because I was attempting to help my husband get as much sleep as possible back then. We were SO worried about both becoming zombies after BG arrived that I went totally overboard. We had BG sleeping in his Pack 'n Play (we have one with a pseudo-bassinet level—ONE DAY I will write about it) in our bedroom, and whenever he'd wake up I would take him out to our main room to feed him and, if necessary (which was almost always the case at the beginning), change him.

Since he was not exactly quiet during these times, I figured out a fairly hassle-free way to change him on our couch using the Pronto Changer. I would get it all set up before we went to bed—I'd have diapers, wipes, cream, and even a new outfit (just in case) all right there on the coffee table next to the couch. Sure, sometimes BG would roll into the dip between the couch's back and cushion, but I'm sure he had fun when that happened.

We'll of course take the Presto Changer with us on trips in the future, but we haven't actually needed it for that use as of yet.

Generic Smiling Baby on a Clean Wood Floor = Not my kid & definitely not my disaster-scene condo

The bottom line: I specifically wanted the Skip*Hop Pronto Changer ($30 at Amazon), but I'm sure there are cheaper brands that work just as well. But is a portable changer pad a NECESSARY thing to have in the first place? No, not in the least. There are throwaway changing pads out there, and there's also this thing called paper towel or toilet paper that you could cover a public-bathroom changing table with if you wanted to. But I do like the Pronto Changer and I'm especially glad I had it during those early weeks. I'm still proud of those quick-changes at 3 am.

Changing Time Basics

I was ten days overdue with Baba G, and in the weeks leading up to his arrival I pretty much went crazy doing two things: 1) cleaning, and 2) shopping for random stuff online. These are two things I don't usually do, believe it or not (ashamed about the first and happy about the second).

During my nesting-fueled shopping spree, I started reading comments on Amazon.com about a ton of baby products. I think maybe I was looking into what the best kind of wipes would be (I was extremely paranoid that everything would give Baba G a rash... yet nothing has so far (knock on wood)) when I came across a page for these things: Medline Disposable Washcloths, also known as "dry wipes." Disposable Washcloths? Dry wipes? I had never heard of such things. So I read what parents before me had to say, and it turns out that dry wipes are what's used in hospitals for newborns. Instead of Pampers or Huggies-branded pre-moistened wipes (by the way, spell-check just wanted that word to be "pee-moistened," I kid you not) on fresh-to-the-world babies, nurses will just put a little water on these generic disposable washcloth thingies to help you clean up your bundle of joy during those extra-gross first few diaper changes.

So I went ahead and bought a case of these dry wipes before Baba G arrived so that I'd be ready with something that shouldn't have caused him any sort of rash. They didn't, and we continued to wet them with water for the first month or so (then we'd stack a bunch of them in our wipes warmer, which I'll write about another day) and they worked splendidly. But eventually it became too much of a production to go to the bathroom, wet the wipes in the sink, come back and lay them out on the Pack 'n Play changer and THEN get to Baba G's business. So we now use Pampers Sensitive wipes and they've been just fine. However, the Medline Disposable Washcloths are still in high demand—they're what we use to cover BG's nether regions during changing time instead of the Peepee Teepee. They're also great to quickly wipe up anything that's spilled on the floor (spit-up, mainly) or dry off BG if the wipes seemed overly wet, or if he's got drool all over his face, or whatever. Most of the time (like in this pose) he swipes them from my strategically placed position and tries to chew on them.

Got it! Hmm, not so tasty.

What's that crazy blue thing UNDER Baba G, you ask? It's the next thing I was going to write about: Champion's Blue Disposable Underpads. Yes, people, they're for incontinence. But who is more incontinent than a baby? No one.

So in my Amazon Fever I bought a case of these things, too, because everyone on the site was going on and on about how they use them instead of more expensive changing-pad covers that need to be, you know, washed and stuff. I have not regretted my purchase, and in fact have ordered a second case in the past month. Here's little teeny BG on one, pre-change:

Yep, I'm the same baby as that chunk in the pic above.

One of these pads lasts for multiple changings—it all depends on how, um, intense any given changing is. The white part of the pad is actually a sort of cotton filling that's under a very thin barrier that's hard to see in this picture. Eventually, because of the wiggliness of BG, that white filling will get all separated and chunky and then even if the pad is still clean overall, I'll toss it.

Here's the BEFORE set-up of our Pack 'n Play's changing station:

Bring it on.

I won't horrify you with the AFTER.

The bottom line: I'm really glad that I found the dry wipes and changing pads because we use them on a multiple-times-daily basis and they're energy and time savers. The dry wipes are $20.50 for 500 and the underpads are about $28 for 100. Right now Amazon has a "buy them together" discount, because there are obviously a lot of other new parents out there who've realized how much these two products rock!

Diaper Genie Elite Diaper Disposing System

I wasn't going to register for a "diaper disposal system" because I thought we already had one: THE TRASH CAN. However, my husband is not a fan of gross smells (I guess no one IS a fan of gross smells, but he's so sensitive, he'll start gagging if he gets the slightest whiff of something nasty), so the Diaper Genie was a must-have product for him. Thankfully, someone got us one, and I'm now a convert.

The funny thing is, I like this thing for reasons other than what it's marketed for, which is preventing the aroma of baby poo from settling into every last nook and cranny of your home. It does its job wonderfully as far as smell-prevention is concerned—no stankiness emanating from it to date, and we're going on five months of use.

But I like it mostly because: 1) it's easy to use, 2) it's quick to use, 3) it tucks in under our Pack 'n Play's changing station perfectly, and 4) even when full, it's still light enough that I can pick it up and set it right in front of our back door, blocking my husband's way out, so that he can't possibly avoid emptying it.

It's usually directly underneath the Pack 'n Play overhang, but you get the picture.

What I didn't realize before Baba G came along is just how wiggly babies are. It's like they are trying to test you to see if you're going to stop them from falling off stuff. Diaper-changing time is their ultimate test. So it's great to have the Diaper Genie right there to just step on real quick, pop a dirty diaper in and then catch Junior from catapulting himself through the air.

I didn't understand how one of these things worked before we started using it. It's no big deal. You just pull the tab off the diaper-bag roll kind of like you're opening one of those single-serving OJ bottles, pull the blue diaper-bag plastic out of the roll and tie a knot in it (this knot will serve as the bottom of the bag), set the ring in the diaper genie and push the knot through the pail's jaw-like divider, and you're done. Every time you throw a diaper in, it'll get pushed down through the jaws and into a chamber that is sealed off from the air you breathe. What did the country's first settlers do? So many of them must have died from toxic baby poo fumes!





When I can't easily push the pail around with my foot anymore, I know it's time to tell my husband to take out the "Diaper Sausage." (This apparently is a common term for what comes out of the Diaper Genie and other systems like it, but I'm not in-the-know with mom-slang yet so I just found this out while writing tonight. Hence the lack of my own Diaper Sausage picture... but if you really want to know why it got this nickname, click here for an example.

Would you believe that many diapers could come outta a little guy like this, who's so innocent-looking, to boot?

Who, me? Stink?

Would you also believe that the dude who created this glorified trash can sold Diaper Genie to Playtex back in '99 for a cool $75 miiiillllion? And that he's now founded a company (based in Ohio) that focuses on healthcare for horses, of all things?

BELIEVE IT.

The bottom line: I would highly recommend the Diaper Genie Elite because it does what it's supposed to do—it keeps gross smells at bay and gives you a dedicated, easy-to-operate trash bin for your baby's diapers. They're using the ol' "shaving razor" pricing strategy I learned about in business school, where a company makes the base component of its product fairly cheap (possibly even taking a loss) but then makes up the profit on things you have to keep buying for it. (Another example would be video game consoles and the games themselves.) The Diaper Genie Elite is a reasonable $35, but then the patented refill disks are $19.50 for 3. Each refill disk is supposed to hold up to 270 Newborn diapers total . . . less as your baby grows into bigger diapers.

I haven't paid attention to how many diapers we can stuff in to one sausage and how many sausages we can get out of one refill. You know why? Because I don't really care. I'm going to use this thing no matter what.

The Peepee Teepee

In my friend Charles Duhigg's best-selling book The Power of Habit, he talks about how there's no other time in your life where your buying habits are more susceptible to influence than when you're a new parent. So I'm gonna chalk up my purchase of several Peepee Teepee designs to not-being-right-in-the-head new-parentdom.

These things—and their official product name is The Peepee Teepee for the Sprinkling WeeWee—are useless. Why I wouldn't have figured this out before I bought them is beyond me. They're these little cloth-lined cones that are supposed to stop you from getting peed on by your baby boy.

They will not stop you from getting peed on by your baby boy.

Do you really think this little thing is going to stay put on a wiggling newborn? No. No, it is not.

The "Skulls" design

I guess softness would matter IF IT STAYED ON

I'd picked up three multi-packs of the Peepee Teepees on a whim while in one of my favorite baby boutiques. I returned two of those designs after I realized what an idiot I'd been, but had already opened the Skulls.

So I put one of the teepees on Baba G just for show. The napkin-looking thing he's holding is what we usually use to cover up "that area" in an attempt to avoid getting peed on. Even that doesn't always work, but it's damn sure better than a mini-cone that immediately falls off. At least Baba G stayed still for 2 seconds in order for me to take a picture. But if he knew I was going to post it for all of the world to see, he probably would've revolted.

This is the face of a baby planning revenge.

The bottom line: Definitely don't buy The Peepee Teepee for actual use. But if you're looking for, say, a funny decoration or conversation-starter at a baby shower, or maybe as a bow-alternative on a present or something like that, then go wild. They're only about $10 for a multi-pack.

PS - As with all of my reviews, if someone's had a drastically different experience with a product, I'd love to hear about it. But I just can't imagine anyone finding these things helpful.