Let the kid be happy with nappy this monsoon : all about Nappy pads, Diapers, cloth nappies.

With the rains wreaking havoc in Pune for the last 10 days, managing Lil General's laundry has been a nightmare for me. His comfort has been my primary concern throughout, so it was cloth nappies all the way with diapers and nappy pads meant exclusively for traveling, visits to the Doctor and our outings. Even for evening walks, I used to put on only cotton shorts as he had a good control of his urine/susu sessions then.

Once the monsoon set in and the weather got a little chill, on some days I was using close 25 cotton shorts a day and it was getting totally unmanageable with the clothes not drying in this weather. He had an erratic sleep too because of the wetness.There are a lot of them available in the market. Most of them are the velcro type which is easy to put on and wash. I have seen that most of the times the nappy liner gets wet even if you use a nappy pad. So you have to wash after using it every time. There is an exception however.

There are plastic nappy liners and cloth based ones. I recommend the cloth based ones. Though the plastic ones are economical, it doesn't fit right and is highly uncomfortable for the baby with the susu leaking out from everywhere.

Cloth based ones are good but you need to be careful while buying. Some of them are thin and the velcro doesn't stick well after using a few times. One such is from Hello Baby. I recommend not buying this one.

The nappy liners from Mothercare are great. They are thick and fit well.

I advised having about 5 of them. The Hello Baby ones are priced at Rs. 50 a piece. I bought the Mothercare ones outside India, so not sure how it is priced here. Mothercare ones should be available in the Shopper's Stop stores in India.

Nappy pads - which one is good?
Again one has a lot of choices when it comes to disposable nappy pads. These are rectangular pads that can be stuck onto the nappy liners. The absorbing capacity of these pads are much lesser as compared to a diaper. You can feel the wetness after 2 urinating sessions.

Some of them that I have tried are:

1. Actifit - by far the best. It is thick and lengthy. Comes in packs of 6. Costs about Rs. 31 per pack.


2. Johnsons' Nappy Pads - not as great as Actifit. Shorter and thinner. Comes in packs of 20. Priced at Rs. 115


3. Huggies Nappy Pads - Better than Johnson. Comes in pack of 6 (5+1 free). Priced at Rs. 31.


The lock in system and adhesive of all the above are good.

Diapers

Don't have much experience on this one as I've been using only PAMPERS since his birth. First it was the newborn one and now it is the 9-14 Kg one. It is priced at Rs. 128. Packs of 52 are available outside India and it works out a little cheaper.

Diaper rash cream

Palmer's Diaper Rash cream with a cocoa flavor is my favorite. I don't use this much as LG doesn't get a lot of rashes. Sometimes when he does, its either this or Vaseline.

The economics of using Nappy Pads/Diapers:

If you are using only during the night, then you would need a pack consisting of 6 nappy pads will see you through 2 days. Which makes it to 15 packs a month at Rs. 450.

Finally, if you have a rough estimate of how much you would consume in a month, it makes sense to stock up for a month rather than buying every week.
Related Resources : Reusable and eco-disposable nappies on test