Diapers in China
When we adopted our older daughter the diapers were adequate. Not quite as good as the ones we have in the States but still good enough. I have recommended in the past that people take diapers from home to last for the first day or two in China in case you can’t get to a store, and to have enough from home for travel days.
However, on this trip to China the diapers were identical to the ones we have in the states. We used the green Pampers in China and brought a few home that I compared to the ones we bought here side by side. They are the same except the U.S. diapers have Sesame Street characters on them and the ones in China have other characters. If you are positive you’ll have time to go to a store before Metcha then don’t bother taking any diapers with you. If you aren’t 100% sure of that then carry two days worth so you know you’ll have enough until you get a chance to go to a store.
April 27th, 2007 at 7:10 am
So what’s a typical lifespan of a diaper anyway? I’m guessing 4 a day? Clueless first timer here.
April 27th, 2007 at 7:21 am
The diapers (pampers) we found were adequate but definitely not identical to the quality of US diapers. You might think more like 5 or 6…it really depends on your daughter…it is different for each kid….our last one had difficulty adjusting and had stinky diapers at least 4 times a day. We planned 6, and usually used them. (and with Chinese diapers, I ripped the tab off at least one a day..grumble.)
:)Good luck!
April 27th, 2007 at 7:27 am
According to the following, the lifespan of a diaper is quite long:
http://tinyurl.com/29hrky
Barry
LID: 12/23/2005
April 27th, 2007 at 7:32 am
I’d figure on 8 to 10 diapers a day to be on the safe side. You probably won’t need that many, but if a baby has diarrhea then it could easily be that many.
And Honored2bDaddy is right - which is why I use cloth diapers. However, for the China trip I used disposables.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:01 am
You have a busy family with a new child, you work at what is clearly a demanding job, run a blog that is hugely popular and use cloth diapers.
RQ you are truly amazing.
I tried for a month with my daughter 5 years ago and gave up.
All I can say is WOW!~
April 27th, 2007 at 8:18 am
We have been home for 13 days and I took about 30 US Pampers. I decided to use the Chinese diapers to save some of the US for the trip home. Lilly leaked through 2 US diapers and NEVER through the Chinese diapers. I was so shocked! I thought the Chinese diapers were actually better, but now she is back on the US diapers.
Claire
April 27th, 2007 at 8:34 am
In China, our Pampers diapers even had the same Sesame Street characters as the ones back home.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Cloth diapers are not difficult.
I use the super fluffy chinese prefolds with a variety of covers but I think the prowraps classic are my favorite, and I use microfiber liners so baby’s bottom stays dry. I wash a load on Wednesday and again on the weekend. Peepee diapers go straight in the bin, dookie diapers get a dunk in the toilet first if they are gooshie but if it’s solid then you just dump the solid matter in the toilet and there’s no mess. Usually the microfiber liner keeps there from being a mess.
I run one cycle in the washing machine on cold with just vinegar and then run them through again on hot with detergent that doesn’t have any inks or dyes or perfumes.
Seriously, using cloth diapers means two extra loads of clothes a week, and I can fold them in less than five minutes when they come out of the dryer.
I have about $150 or maybe $200 worth of diapers and that is it. It is much, much, cheaper than disposables.
If a child is sick and there is a lot of diarrhea then I resort back to disposables. Same thing if we are on an overnite trip.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I couldn’t tell the difference between the Chinese pampers and the U.S. ones. The one thing that has changed, which annoys me no end, is that there is now an Elmo on the backside as well as a character on the front. I keep thinking the Elmo is the front, and try to put them on backwards. When we last used Pampers 2 years ago, the design was only on the front.
I am old enough to remember when we had to use cloth diapers. My sister was a cloth diaper baby. Pampers had just come out when my little brother was born. No way would I ever go back to cloth diapers. I am pretty crunchy - I use a Mei Tai, I make my own baby food, I co-sleep. But there is no way on this planet you will find dealing with washing poopy diapers, especially with our tiny urban washing machine.
April 27th, 2007 at 9:02 am
I am with RQ…8-10 diapers per day for about 2-3 days is more than enough..this will actually expand probably to 3-4 days…I used a lot of the local pampers in China in 2003..they were all fine…I should consider cloth diapers…they are more environmentally friendly……I have a feeling I might do both…but not in China…I guess I will have to see. The ‘reality of diapers’ again might make me change my mind….LOL
April 27th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Good to know! Thanks RQ. Question: We’re headed to Guangxi Province ~ any recent btdt’s know if the green Pampers are available there?
April 27th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Ahhh the great disposable vs cloth debate. I just wanted to point out that despite what you may read in the link provided by Honored2bDaddy the case for one vs the other from an environmental perspective is not completely black and white to me.
In our case for example, the disposables are composted by the City..we put them in the same bin as food waste. The plastic parts are separated and also recycled I believe. How does this change the environmental equation? I am not really sure but I suspect the experts could find ways to say it is either better or worse depending on how you do the math.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:01 am
When we were in China in December we did not find decent diapers. We actually shared some of our US diapers with travelmates for trips since the diapers they bought in province were not good for nights and traveling. It may depend on the province you travel to and where your guide takes you to shop.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I bought Huggies at the Wal-Mart in Changsha (also in December), and they seemed basically the same as the U.S. Huggies I had brought with me. As a matter of fact, I got them a size smaller than the ones I had brought and so they fit our tiny little girl and probably worked better.
In Guangzhou I couldn’t find Huggies and bought Pampers. I didn’t like them nearly as well, but that was mostly because they had tape fasteners instead of the Velcro-type fasteners that Huggies have. Once I managed to get one on securely (I was a rookie!) they seemed to work just as well.
But I was very glad I had brought some with me. We got our babies one morning and didn’t get to the Wal-Mart until 4 or 5 p.m. that day.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Yes, windthrow, I was just making a play on ck’s wording. We’ve used disposables and not sure how I’d do with cloth diapers.
Kind of hard to believe a disposable diaper would last for 500 years. The stinkin’ little closure tab sometimes doesn’t make it through the first attempt at assembling it.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Hey Honored…wasn’t a criticism of you at all! Just wanted to point out that the link you posted made those of us using disposables sound irresponsible and that maybe…just maybe there is more to the story. I also felt a lot better about our decision to use disposable when they started up the citywide composting program here and I knew they weren’t ending up in landfills.
On a more positive note…for those people still waiting for their first child. I thought the endless diaper changes was going to be one of the harder parts of parenting. Now I am not saying I like doing it, but it isnt all that bad. Maybe we are lucky but our daughter seems to enjoy the whole process and it is pretty hard to be unhappy about anything when a little girl is smiling and giggling at you.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Well, my experience is different. In the supermarked next to our hotel in Hunan/Changsha there were no Pampers, just chinese brands. And they suck!!!! I brought too few and tried it - believe me. So don’t rely on finding Pampers, that’s my little advice…
April 27th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I thought the diapers were about the same - but our daughter is a lot bigger than most her age and I could never find the right sizes unless I was somewhere like a big dept. store. (Walmart). The little 7-eleven across from the white Swan and grocery down the street only had 3s. We needed 4s. So I was glad I brought a few. The 3s fit her like a thong - not the best protection! We also have been using Huggies and the ones we found in CHina were Pampers.
April 27th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I LOVED the Chinese Pampers!!! They fit well and never leaked. I was glad I didn’t listen to anyone and bought my diapers while in China. I just took 5 diapers but most guides will take you somewhere to get diapers either the day before or the day after.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
We returned from Changsha (Hunan) in early April. We stayed at the Dolton Hotel and a block away is a grocery store called Whaco. They sold Chinese Pampers (with Sesame Street on them). They worked just fine, in fact much better than when we bought Chinese Pampers back in 2004. In Guangzhou you can find Chinese Pampers at the grocery store near the White Swan.
We used a lot of diapers since our daughter had bad diarrhea. I’d say about 10 a day.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Good thread, and I agree with RQ. My only packing regret was that I brought way too many diapers from home. Like most of the previous posters, I loved the Chinese Pampers, but we were in Guangzhou the whole time, so supplies were easy to find.
Oh yeah, the inflatable duck tub that scared the heck out of our daughter would be the other packing regret…
April 27th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I didn’t get much luck from the green pack Pampers. They didn’t absorb as much as the Pamper’s Cruisers. I don’t even buy the green pack here in the states. I had to change them immediately after a pee.
On the plane ride home, my daughter was sitting on my leg. She had a dry (green) pamper on. She let go a pee and I felt not only the warmth, but my leg was SOAKED from just this one pee. So needless to say, I went back to my Cruisers as much as I could. I was trying to save them if I could.
When we go again, I’ll still bring at least one or two small packs of Cruisers (purple) and use the green ones the entire time in China , with maybe the Cruisers at night.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
That’s really funny that you had success with the Pampers. Maybe it was because we have a boy but with our experience, we could not use China diapers…always a leak….or other mess. If we adopted again, I would make room for the diapers. Most people have said that the China diapers are fine. In our experience, I was so happy to be home to our diapers. :)
April 27th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
The Chinese Pampers we used in 2005 leaked, and we actually had better luck with the cheap Chinese-brand diapers! After doing this once already, I see no reason to bring extra diapers with us next time, except to use before we could make it to the store. They take up so much room. I’d use the leaky Pampers before I’d fill my entire suitcase with more diapers.
Our guide arranged for all the babies to be brought with extra diapers and formula, so we’d know what they had been using. We didn’t need to go to the store until the next day. I would still bring a few, as we didn’t know they would have extra diapers for us until we got to the province.
I brought bunches of size 3 diapers and wasted lots of space. Our baby wore size 2.
April 28th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Has anyone ever traveled with cloth diapers before? We are going the cloth route, and I would rather start that way right away instead of giving my husband a chance to get used to the disposables. ;) We live in China, so our trip will be shorter than most. Thanks!
April 28th, 2007 at 8:40 am
I still HIGHLY recommend taking a small pack of the Huggies overnights. They will hold GALLONS of wee wee and not leak. I like them for overnights, LONG days out on tours and especially the flights!!! If you figure a baby sleeps 12 hrs a night and they don’t leak, that’s maybe 1 diaper change per flight. And NO outfit changes!! Also, because I only had 2 sets of PJ’s for baby I could not afford for her to wet up her PJ’s and then maybe not get them back in from the laundry in time. I used the Chinese diapers most of the time, but my Overnights for the times I stated above. I already to like 20 loads a week of laundry……cloth diapers are just TOO MUCH for me!!! I sure wish my city recycled the disposables….our recycle program sucks…we recycle everything the city takes, but it sure is not much. As far as cost….during the wait, I watched the sales and started buying diapers…Luvs, Pampers, and Huggies…we’ve been home over 6 mo. and I have only bought diapers 2 times…still have TONS of packs in my closet.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Has anyone used cloth diapers while in China? I think my husband would absolutely throw a fit if I rinsed them in the sink or tub and hung them to dry. How easy is it to convince a hotel to launder them for you, or are their laundry facilities (do it yourself) near most hotels?
April 29th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I agree, RQ. We were in Guangzhou the entire time and I expected to have a hard time with diapers. I was PLEASANTLY surprised!!! In my opinion, they kind of smelled funny (but then again, everything in China smelled like the water to me!! LOL!!!), but they worked wonderfully well!!!!
His,
Mrs. U
LID 9-12-05
referral 1-4-07
“Gotcha Day” 2-25-07 for Elizabeth
http://www.makingahouseahome.blogspot.com