Diapers, diapers, diapers. If you are a parent with young kids, diapers you know the drill. Most parents spend at least $50.00 per month on diapers. If you have more than one child in diapers, that you feel like you are working just have a dry set of babies. Are diapers one of the places where you can save money by switching to a generic brand? Or will that just leave your baby wet and more clothes for you to wash?
I decided to find out if there was a generic brand good enough to buy again and again. I decided to try the Target Brand Baby Diapers. They do not have a cute name but I put them up against Huggies Baby-Shaped Fit diapers to see how they panned out.
Price
For the sake of price comparison, I am quoting the prices at my local Target. They are from the same store and the prices at Target are comparable to the prices at Wal-Mart. I buy the case of diapers because they are cheaper per diaper than buying the smaller packages.
Target sells their Target Brand Baby Diapers for $13.79 per case at all three of my local store. This means for a case of the size three diapers, which contains 104 diapers, you are spending $.13 per diaper. A case of size four diapers, which contains 92 diapers, costs you $.15 per diaper. Target Brand Baby Diapers never go on sale but you can get on Target’s mailing list, which gets sent out about 4 times per year and get coupons through the mailing list.
Huggies sells their diapers for $19.99 per case. The Huggies cases have the same amount of diapers as the Target Brand. This means size three diapers cost about $.19 per diaper and the size four diapers cost $.22 per diaper. Huggies also sends out coupons for those on their mailing lists and periodically you can find coupons in the Sunday paper for Huggies. Huggies also goes on sale, although the smaller packages go on sale more often than the cases.
Overall Look
Target Brand diapers are white with Care Bears on a strip of blue across the front of the diaper. They have blue outlines on clouds on throughout the entire diaper. These diapers are thin. They do not add much bulk on a baby when worn.
The Huggies with Baby-Shaped Fit are not as big as the Target Brand even though they are the same diaper size. They have more of a bulk when worn. There will not be as much room in a baby’s pants or shorts when they have these diapers on. They have the Lion King characters on the front of the diapers. They also have suns, paw prints and leaves in different patterns throughout the diaper. One added feature is that Huggies has the size of the diaper printed on the back of the diaper. Target Brand does not have that feature.
Diaper Tabs
Both the Target Brand and the Huggies diapers have reusable tabs. They are mad out of a Velcro-like material that is softer and quieter than we normally think of when we think of Velcro. The Huggies has a bigger diaper tab than the Target Brand. This usually did not make a difference but I had three diapers out of two cases of the Target Brand that tore off when I was trying to adhere them. I had to start the process all over again with a new diaper. The Huggies Baby-Shape Fit with the bigger tabs did not have that problem.
Diaper Fit
The Target Brand Baby Diapers were bigger, as stated above, than the Huggies Baby-Shaped Fit. The Target brand diaper fit resembled more of a granny-panty when compared to the Huggies, but it did not hang anywhere on the baby. The Huggies seemed to fit the baby with a close, tight fit like it was hugging the baby.
Both diapers had two sets of elastic in the leg to prevent leaking. The Target Brand Elastic had a softer fit on the baby while the Huggies had a harshly tight fit. Many times after taking the Huggies diaper off, there would be red marks where the diaper was rubbing. There were not such marks with the Target Brand diaper.
Another plus was the elastic on the back of the diaper. I have used diapers before with no elastic on the back of them and had a big mess to clean up. Both diapers had the elastic on the back. The Target Brand diaper was only in the middle of the diaper and it was, again, a softer fit for the baby. The Huggies had elastic all around and it was a more harsh fit than the Target Brand. There were no red marks on the baby’s back because of the fit of either diaper.
Volume
There was a difference in the volume that the diaper held. The only time diaper volume counts is at night or if the baby is left with someone who doesn’t realize how often a diaper should be changed, such as an absent-minded parent.
The Target diaper, although bigger, held less than the Huggies. My baby woke up a few mornings a couple hours early because the Target diaper leaked. The Huggies diaper, as stated above, was bulkier and it held more. The baby never woke up wet when the Huggies were being used.
Conclusion
Target Brand Baby Diapers are wonderful diapers for the price. They didn’t leave any marks on the baby and I wasn’t worried about money when I had to change many diapers. The Huggies only comes out ahead when it comes to volume held.
I like having a dry baby in the morning do I decided to use the Target Brand Baby Diapers for every day use and only use the Huggies Baby -Shaped Fit at night. This way I get a nicely priced, comfortable diaper in the daytime and I won’t have to worry about the diaper leaking at night.
