There are a lot of surprises that come with introducing a newborn baby to your family unit – but one surprise parents do not want to deal with is running out of diapers.
It’s an unfortunate experience most parents will run into at some point but if you plan ahead and stock up on diapers properly, you should be able to see through the newborn stage without experiencing this kind of panic.
So, to find out how many newborn diapers your baby will need, check out the guide below!
Should You Purchase Diapers In Advance?
It’s tempting to rush out and purchase all your diapers before your baby is even born – but that would be a little unwise.
This is because your baby might not even fit into newborn diapers when they are born.
When it comes to diaper sizes, newborns are babies that weigh up to 10 pounds. This means that your baby will only be able to fit into the newborn diapers for the first few weeks of their life.
However, some babies are born quite heavy and as a result, they skip the newborn size diapers and go straight to Size 1.
This is something to keep in mind when purchasing diapers for your newborn.
If you go out now and purchase every single diaper you will probably need for your newborn, you may end up wasting a ton of money because there’s a chance they won’t fit!
So, purchase a few days’ worth of newborn diapers ready for when your baby arrives – and then go from there!
If your baby quickly grows and weighs between 8 to 14 pounds, then it’s time to switch to Size 1 diapers.
How Many Diapers Does A Newborn Go Through?
If you want to stock up for the newborn stage, then you first need to work out how many diapers the average newborn goes through.
Newborns tend to use up between 8 to 12 diapers each day. That means that in the average week, a newborn will go through between 56 and 84 diapers.
The newborn diaper is only supposed to be worn for the first few weeks of your baby’s life but there’s no saying how many weeks your newborn will stay in newborn diapers until they can size up to Size 1 diaper.
However, on average, a baby will size up to Size 1 diapers at four weeks old – but there’s no guarantee that this will be the case for your baby.
This means that the average newborn baby will use between 224 and 336 newborn-sized diapers – that’s a lot of diapers!
How Many Newborn Diapers Do You Need?
If you want to purchase all of your newborn diapers in advance, then you will need to purchase at least 3 boxes of 140 newborn diapers.
This will give you 420 newborn diapers to cover you and these should be more than enough.
It’s a good idea to always keep some extra diapers spare in case of an emergency – especially as all parents have experienced putting a nice clean diaper on their baby only for the baby to spoil it within the next few minutes!
Of course, you don’t have to purchase all 3 boxes in one go.
A good rule of thumb is to have one box of newborn diapers ready for when your baby arrives and when you start to get low, just go out and buy another one.
Overstocking can lead to waste and while it’s easy to find other newborns who could benefit from some free diapers, it’s better for your wallet if you just buy your newborn diapers as you need rather than overstocking in advance.
Your baby may even outgrow their newborn diapers very quickly before they even go through a single box!
So – how many newborn diapers do you actually need?
Start out with 140 and go from there to reduce waste and save money!
What About Reusable Diapers?
Up until now, we have been talking about disposable diapers – diapers that are worn once, used once and then thrown away.
However, it’s been a growing trend to start using reusable cloth diapers. These are diapers that can be washed after use and then reused.
Reusable diapers are not only better for the environment but they can save you some serious money.
However, you can’t get away with just owning one or two reusable diapers. Most parents get their newborns between 20 and 24 cloth diapers so they have plenty to use while others are being washed.
Cloth diapers are designed to fit a baby for longer stages of their early life.
This means that your newborn won’t grow out of their newborn-sized cloth diapers until they are a few months old so even if your baby is born a little bigger than the average baby, they should still fit into a newborn cloth diaper just fine!
Whether you use disposable or reusable cloth diapers is completely up to you but whichever you choose, just remember to get enough ready for your baby’s arrival!
Final Thoughts
It’s important to be prepared for your newborn’s arrival but if this is your first baby, it can be tricky to know exactly what you need to get to be prepared.
When it comes to diapers, it’s a good idea to have one pack of newborn diapers and one pack of Size 1 diapers ready.
This is because babies can be born in all sizes so yours may skip the newborn size entirely and go straight to Size 1.
If you are using cloth diapers, then stock up with at least 20 to 24 newborn cloth diapers.
Once your baby is here, it’s much easier to gauge just how many diapers you need. If you are using way more than the 12 daily diaper average, then you know you will need that extra third box of newborn diapers.
If your baby is growing fast, you know that they will likely grow into the Size 1 diapers earlier than the average baby!
So, don’t overstock – get the basics noted above and then go from there!
