Being a mother of young child, diapers became our best friends. But do you know how much money we have spent on diapers? This article aims to share my own experience and lessons learned.
Table of Contents
1. What does diaper have?
Diapers are generally composed of three main parts: surface covering layer, absorbent core layer and base fabric. Each product has some small difference such as waist support, how children are ware it.
Surface coating layer
It is including non-woven surface layer, anti-water cloth on the side.
Function: The non-woven fabric with semi-permeable membrane properties prevents the penetration of water molecules and ensures the smooth flow of air, keeps the surface of the diaper dry, and does not irritate the baby’s skin, causing eczema and red buttocks and other diseases.
Absorbent core layer:
It consists of wood pulp fiber, polymer water absorbent resin, and diversion layer, which is the core of each brand of diaper.
Function: Absorb urine through paper (wood pulp fiber + super absorbent resin), the purpose is to keep the baby’s butt dry after excretion. The role of water absorbent resin is to keep dry, and the role of wood pulp fiber is to absorb water and breathable, and maintain the softness of diapers. The function of different diapers is mainly reflected in the ratio of wood pulp fiber and water-absorbent resin.
I don’t know if you have opened the diaper, the absorbent resin is a small ball, you can refer to the information on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superabsorbent_polymer).
Bottom fabric
It is composed of PE breathable bottom film and bottom non-woven fabric
Function: The PE breathable bottom film is to prevent urine leakage, and the bottom non-woven fabric is to ensure the breathability and improve the comfort as much as possible.
2. How many diapers a kid need?
Do you know how many diapers and wet wipes a child uses? Do you know how many models of diapers are there? Daily use, night use, sensitive, dry, active fit etc.
| Age | Size | Pieced per day | Pieces per week | Total |
| 0-6 weeks | 0 | 10 | 70 | 420 |
| 7-16 weeks | 1 | 7-10 | 50-70 | 700 |
| 17-30 weeks | 2 | 5-7 | 35-50 | 700 |
| 31 weeks to 1 year | 3 | 5-6 | 35-42 | 900 |
| 12-18 months | 3 | 5-6 | 35-42 | 1000 |
| 18-24months | 4 | 4-5 | 28-35 | 900 |
| 24-36 months | 5 | 2-3 | 14-21 | 1000 |
In total, he or she need 2720 diapers in year 1, 1900 in year 2 and 1000 in year 3! Total number is 5620! Each child is different. It is estimated that a child needs a total of 5,000 diapers. If an average diaper is calculated at 0.3 euros (different diaper brands have different sizes and prices), a child will spend about 1,500 euros in diapers.
3. How to get cheap diapers?
For a budget-conscious mother, it must not be possible to buy diapers at the original price. What’s more, we are in the Netherlands, where a penny has to be split in half. The following is a discount website for various types of diapers, for your reference, my experience is that I usually start with 40% off, and it is enough to store up for three months at most, because the next wave of discounts will come again.
https://www.luieraanbiedingen.net/
https://www.luierinfo.nl/aanbiedingen
4. The Dutch diaper brand competition
So, can we save further? Of course! When I was confinement, the Dutch lady who helped me said seriously, did you know that the diapers and Pampers of Etos and Kruidvat are produced by the same manufacturer? The concubine did not know and did not go to research, but Consumentenbond, a well-known Dutch website, investigated 11 types of diapers from 10 brands. The methods and results of the investigation are as follows. (https://www.consumentenbond.nl/verzorging-van-je-kind/test-luiers?CID=EML_CM_Mamateltafcampagne)
It is true that Etos and Kruidvat are next in the ranking. If you catch up with the discount, it will be cheaper. If you catch up with the worry-free baby with insensitive skin, the old mother might as well give it a try.
About Me
Hi, there. I am Lin. Together with my husband and two kids, we live in the beautiful Netherlands in Europe. I am dedicated to self-development, creating quality time for the whole family, and fully supporting kids with their potentials and possibilities with all I have learned from engineering, MBA, and 10+ years of working experience in the energy sector.
