Baby

Switching Diaper Sizes for In Between Babies

Changing Diapers Aizes for In-Between Babies

How to Change Diaper Sizes for In-Between Size Babies

How do you use up leftover diapers when your baby is in-between diaper sizes?
Babies change sizes quickly and unexpectedly. Due to unpredictable growth spurts, you may find yourself left with a large amount of diapers in a size that no longer fits your baby! Instead of wasting the smaller diapers or giving them away, use our quick tips for how to change diaper sizes for in-between size babies.
Does this situation sound familiar? You buy a super ultra jumbo box of size 2 diapers, and after you’ve used about five of them, your baby has a growth spurt and needs size 3! You don’t want your baby to wet his clothes 5 times a day from wearing a diaper that’s too small, but you also don’t want to waste that entire pack of diapers you just opened.
I’ve been stuck with small diapers many times with my 3 children and have devised a way to use up the smaller size diapers instead of wasting the money spent on them! As frugal as I am, I hate to waste things!

How to Use Up All of Those Too-Small Diapers

Keep both diaper sizes at your changing area. Use the remaining smaller diapers for times when you’ll be staying at home and your baby is going to be awake. The too-small diaper won’t form a circular leg hole anymore, but more of an oval, and that’s okay. This is why leaks are possible. You can make up for this a little bit by angling the tabs downward instead of straight across.
Use your larger size diapers when you’ll be away from home, or when baby is going down for a long nap or nighttime.
Why does this diaper tip work? As your baby grows, the too-small diapers don’t wrap as far around his tummy and, in turn, don’t form a proper closure for the leg holes. This means the small diapers don’t provide the same coverage they did before and don’t protect against leaks as well.
You can still use up the smaller diapers with my tips when you’re at home and it won’t be as much of an inconvenience if a leak does happen. Using this method, you may be able to use the majority of the smaller diapers before having to switch to the new size 100%.
I have been able to whittle my supply down to about 10 remaining unused diapers on this method, and that’s good enough for me!

3 Comments

  • doreen

    Thanks for the tips and the website! The problem described here can also be avoided however by using cloth diapers. There are many modern solutions that make cloth diapering relatively easy to use and care for. I have diapered all three of my children in both cloth and disposables and even gdiapers for the latest. Cloth diapers are by far the most comfortable and fit the widest range of the above . I bought mostly one size diapers (8-40lbs like cuddlebunz and wahmies motherease, and bumgenieus) for baby #1. After the tiny newborn stages (when I use prefolds with covers) they last the entire diapering time till potty training. They don’t leak at night when paired with the right inserts and or covers and the prefolds can be used to boost absorbancy as well. Finally baby is exposed to less chemicals than having disposable gel chemcial filled diapers on their bottom next to their genetaila for the first 3 years! For an initial investment of $500 and about $100 for baby #2 and $3 for various extras if I had chosen to never buy disposables I would have been set!

  • papaweewee

    Great tip on saving money on used items. Trying to potty train 2 yr old now and she’s catchn on pretty good!