Either I’m Going Crazy…
or Pampers is messing with me. My two-year-old son Drake has shown no interest in using the toilet, so he is still in diapers. As he’s grown, I’ve had to largely ignore the weight guides on the diaper boxes, since they’re vast. Instead, I look at how the diaper is fitting him, especially around the legs. Sometime last fall, I thought, “These size 4s feel small; time to move up to size 5.”
After a few months in the size 5s, a friend changed his diaper and asked me why I was using 5s. “They’re huge on him!” she exclaimed. I dug up a size 4, tried it on him, and she was right; it fit just fine. I tried hard not to berate myself for however long I’d been buying 5s, since larger diapers cost more because there are fewer per box. I went back to buying size 4s.
But these past few weeks I noticed that the 4s seemed awfully big on him, too. I mentioned this to a friend who produced a size 3 diaper (keep in mind these are all Pampers, so all sizing SHOULD be apples to apples), I tried it on him. AND IT FIT.
Drake isn’t shrinking–he’s finally grown too tall for some of his pants. And he can see AND reach the shelf in his closet that he previously couldn’t. He’s always been on the thin side, but lately he’s been eating well and is not worryingly skinny as he has been sometimes in the past. So I don’t get it. Did I rush him ahead not just one, but two diaper sizes? (I cringe when I think of the wasted money over these several months. Pampers are not cheap, and we are a one-income family.) Has Pampers increased the size of their diapers? Is he growing up and thinning out in the diaper area?
Whatever the reason, I bought a case of size 3s today and they seem to fit him fine. I’ll just put aside those 4s and 5s for now. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be contrary in a good way, and start using the toilet before he outgrows (again?) the size 3s.
January 20th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Maybe he’s not losing lots of weight, but his growing upwards might have him losing his baby tummy and chunky ham thighs that they all seem to have when they are little baby loafs and then turn into like…real little people.
January 20th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Alas, Drake has never had “ham thighs” even before he began to crawl. I suspect that I caught him in 2 rare moments of relative roundness between sizes 3 and 4, and between 4 and 5, and those were what prompted me to move up. From now on, though, I’m using the smallest diaper possible!