If you’re a first-time parent, chances are – you are overwhelmed by brands of baby diaper in the market. My husband and I decided we will try different diapers to see which brand would be “hiyang” or suited to our baby. Here are some features to look for when reviewing the diaper brand.

How to decide what diaper to use?

Choosing a what diaper to use can be tricky. But you generally need to decide if you want the convenience of disposable diapers or you feel the need to use cloth diapers. If you decide to use disposable diapers, there are two types that you will encounter: taped or pull-ups/pants.

Tape diapers is are accessible with tapes on the sides. They baby needs to be lying down for you to be able to remove and replaced the diaper. Some moms, however, can change wet (not dirty) diapers even when baby/toddler is standing up.

Pull-ups/Pants are pulled up just like underwear. It is good to use for older babies or toddlers as training pants. You need to tear the sides so you can remove the full or dirty diaper from the child.

Most parents prefer taped diapers over pull-ups especially when the child is young and eventually moved to using pull-ups for a much older baby or toddler.

What features should I look for in a diaper?

  • ABSORBENCY – The diaper should be able to absorb pee or poop without leaks and getting saggy.
  • WETNESS INDICATOR LINE – WE found this very helpful in the first few days of the newborn. Sometimes baby’s pee is not a lot but you still need to check if there was urine output. It would also tell you how full the diaper is depending on the line’s darkness. I highly recommend first-time parents to use a brand with this feature especially to newly born babies.
  • BREATHABILITY – At first, I thought that this feature was just a marketing ploy. But I have used some diaper brands that has great absorbency but were not breathable. You would know this because your baby might develop rashes due to trapped moisture.
  • FIT – Fit is important. This will help in the diaper’s performance on your baby. Some diapers does not go well with babies will thick thighs for example. So it is important to access if the fit is good for your baby.

How many hours once diaper is changed?

Ideally diapers needs to be changed every 4hours. But I highly recommend to change it every 2 or 3 hours. Since newborns are required to feed constantly, we usually change Koa’s diapers before we feed him and right after he pooped.

When should you size up?

Diapers come in sizes from Newborn, Small, Medium, Large and so on. These sizes are based on baby’s weight. However, all babies come in different form. So you might find that your baby may need to size up even though his weight still does not fall in the weight-range of the upped sized – this is true with chunky babies like ours. There are cases that you may need to upsize:

  • If you’re constantly experiencing leaking diaper – either poop or pee, then it is time to upsize.
  • If the diaper is tight for the baby in the tummy or thigh area
  • If diaper gets full too son or earlier than usual

What to do with diaper rash?

A diaper rash affects the baby’s skin covered by the diaper. It is usually caused when skin sits on wet or dirty diaper for too long, multiple poops or diarrhea or allergic reaction to baby products used, to name a few. I wrote a detailed post on how to manage and how treat the nasty nappy or diaper rash but it is basically to keep the baby’s skin dry and clean as much as possible by changing diapers more often.

READ: Treating the Nasty Nappy or Diaper Rash

READ: Tried and Tested – Effective Diaper Creams in the Philippines