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Safer Diapering Guide

  • Writer: Alex Kelly
    Alex Kelly
  • Jan 17
  • 19 min read

Updated: Apr 2



TCF vs ECF

TCF diapers are not bleached using chlorine or any chlorine derivatives, which means they do not generate dioxins. TCF diapers will either have a higher level of hydrogen peroxide or supplement the process with oxygen or ozone. TCF diapers would be considered the “best” option. 


ECF diapers do not use elemental chlorine during processing. Instead, a chlorine derivative, like chlorine dioxide, is used to bleach the pulp. This process reduces dioxins, but does not eliminate them fully. Chlorine derivatives may cause skin, nose, and throat irritation, and are toxic to aquatic systems. ECF diapers are not considered the “best” option, material wise. 


Safter Diapers (TCF)


Safer Pull-Ups


Safer Swim Diapers


Safer Wipes ("best" options)

These wipes have some of the cleanest ingredients and gentlest preservatives. 



Safer Wipes ("better" options)

These wipes’ ingredients are better than most, but they do contain sodium benzoate. while rare, those with extra sensitive skin may have an irritating reaction.


I wasn’t able to find any of the “best” wipes in store anywhere, so I was only able to test out a few of the “better” wipes. I have an online order placed for Kudos, so once I try those I will update. But as far as the ones I tried…here are my thoughts as far as QUALITY/THICKNESS goes…


1. Healthy Baby is definitely the highest quality IMO. 


2. Hello Bello and Honest are just ever the slightest bit thicker than Rascals and Millie Moon, but truly not hardly enough to make a huge difference. 


3. Then Rascals and Millie Moon.


4. And lastly, Pura. These are definitely the thinnest of the three. I didn’t get a pack of Attitude, but I have used them in the past and if I remember correctly I would compare them closest to Pura. 


I didn’t include Blissmile in this, because they are pre-packaged individual wipes and more of a wet-wipe feel than a diaper changing wipe. But they are a great option to keep in the diaper bag for “every now and then” wet wipe needs. 


As far as ease of pulling out wipes with now hand goes (iykyk), I would rank them…


1. Healthy Baby


2. Rascals & Hello Bello (both pretty comparable)


3. Honest & Pura (these two I had the most difficulties with and they tended to pull out two at a time more than the others)


But all in all, I would be fine using any of them and personally just go with whichever one is having the best deal at the time.


How the wipes hold up to the "one hand pull" ;)


Safer Diaper Creams



Safer Baby Powder


DIY Baby Powder

1/2 c arrowroot powder or organic cornstarch

optional 1 tsp soothing calming herbs like calendula or chamomile




Real Life DIAPER Opinions

I went out and asked all my followers their real-life experience with some of the above diapers, and these were the responses.


FREESTYLE

  • I love Freestyle. They’re TCF, so soft, fit super well. After trying (obviously) mostly everything under the sun, I think we will mostly stick to freestyle. They even work well for over night for both my kids. I’m a big fan of them


ANDY PANDY

  • Andy Pandy is okay, pretty expensive and not easy to find. Fit and look exactly like Dyper. I like that they’re mostly plant based but I didn’t like them enough to keep buying them, and like I said they’re pretty hard to find. Even on Amazon they’re sold out a lot or you can only get one pack at a time.

  • I think Andy pandy run small. Or my son went through a big growth spurt as soon as I opened the package


THRIVE

  • Thrive run small and are kind of rough

  • Runs small

  • Thrive gets 10/10 in my book!

  • Thrive feels…cheap?

  • thrive!! They are great, hold enough , great texture and quality

  • amazing price point for TCF diapers but you get what you pay for also lowkey annoying you have to have a thrive membership if you don’t otherwise use thrive (I do) but if someone was truly on a budget but using TCF diapers was important to them they’re not incredibly accessible. They also run really small. My long and lean toddler was never in the right size according to her weight, and right now we have some left over 3’s and they fit my 15 pound 4 month old like a size 1. They feel like drug store brand diapers so cheap but again incredible price for TCF diapers

  • thrive has an awful chemical smell and frequent poo blow outs for us. 

  • Thrive diapers are not soft. They are stiff and scratchy. They do work well. I had an issue with the package I received and thrive made good on it and refunded me. 

  • Love thrive, probably my favorite.

  • Thrive was ok. I personally just didn’t care for the material and they seemed to run a tad smaller , like the width was more narrow than other brands we tried, which didn’t work for our chunky baby

  • We use thrive and i like them except for one weird thing. I feel like my child's pee diapers are more potent smelling in them. Even after 1 little pee she will smell like pee so bad

  • Tried thrive with my daughter and she kept leaking out/the tabs kept moving around when she was crawling so we had to stop using them.

  • Thrive diapers were pretty thin and not soft. They weren’t awful but we didn’t reorder

  • I have tried the thrive diapers but they just feel scratchy. Only way to describe them lol

  • We use Thrive and Love them. On the smaller sizes (1&2) we sized up before he hit weight (maybe 5-2lbs before), but he’s a super soaker and he’s only 20percentile. We’ve only had three blow outs in his 9 months and it was either the diaper got put on wrong or he already had a pee filled diaper. They last us all night and hold a lot of pee & poo. I’ve never worried about it falling apart.

  • I LOVE the thrive market diapers I would say they are for a slimmer baby. But they work great and they are an awesome price


PURA

  • Loveeee pura, parasol is good too!!!

  • pura is my favorite and affordable without leaks

  • Healthy Baby and Pura are suuuper soft (Pura runs a little large)

  • Pura is amazing in my opinion! Also affordable. They absorb well & I never had a blow out or leakage with them. They worked even as an “overnight” diaper. I know some say “they’re too soft” but that wasn’t a big deal to me & didn’t bother my son.

  • Have used pura and parasol, pura seems to steadily have quicker availability/pricing has worked better for my family. I love how soft parasol is, pura is still relatively soft but parasol definitely takes the cake. Both do great overnight as well!

  • Love coterie and Pura. Pura is thinner than coterie but seems to hold just as good. 

  • Didn’t love Pura’s either - tons of blowouts in the newborn stage.

  • Pura also good price point, style is pretty much like healthy baby. Apparently they’re at Walmart but I’ve checked 4 Walmarts and never seen them. They fit kinda funky - the first size is 4 to 11 pounds and they didn’t fit my newborn around the waist because they were so wide like I couldn’t get them tight enough. By the time the waist fit correctly they were so short on him it was like he had a plumbers crack so we had 2 packs that totally went to waste so that was annoying. I like that they have cotton and they come in paper.

  • Pura resulted in blow outs for pee/poo

  • Pura is good too but doesn’t seem to hold as much

  • I have tried pura and healthy baby. I find them very similarly, but I prefer pura over HB because HB tend to be so soft I find they slip and leak more easily. I really love pura!

  • Didn’t like pura, they seemed to not absorb very well.

  • We leaked pretty bad with pura and attitude

  • pura is absolutely terrible!!! sag extremely bad, they run small. never hated a diaper more.

  • LOVE pura. My absolute favorite.

  • We have been doing Pura for a couple months now and we love them. Still fairly soft. They contain all the things. I doubt they would’ve with Ben though. He had so many blowouts lol. They work for Katie though. I have them on subscribe and save on Amazon which I love but the last couple weeks they have been delayed shipments or out of stock. Out of stock at Walmart too. Not sure what that’s about. They are a good price too.

  • We love Pura but ordering can be delayed or sizes out of stock often but they are so soft and not bulky which we love. 

  • We have used pura for a year and love them. The only con is the back doesn't have the elastic so it doesn't hug baby and there is a gap but we have never had a blow out come up the back.

  • Love pura! So soft, no leaks and great for babes with longer torsos, they aren’t short!

  • Love Pura!!!!! Our favorite diapers

  • Love pura - adorable, comfortable and easy to order with the Walmart app

  • I have used pura a few times and they are really soft. Sizing guide is off for sure! Bigger than the lbs listed

  • I like pura. They run small

  • pura also run small but super soft, leak more then others to me

  • Pura is so soft, amazingly absorbent, and I’ve never had any blowouts. The fit is really not the best. Their smallest size (I think it says 4lb) was so big on my newborn who was 7.5lbs when born. Other sizes 2,3,4 have been a little weird shaped too but regardless I like the price and absorbency, and that they are tcf

  • We use Pura & loooooove them! They hold up well (no blow outs), super soft, easily accessible on Amazon or Walmart  & for the price I feel like they’re a solid option for tcf

  • Pura diapers are very soft but they are weirdly shaped? The sizing is weird, they are for a more boxy baby I would say. They also don’t have the moisture indicator which I guess is fine but kind of weird. For example the size 3s say something like fits 12-22lbs??? Which is so weird. They don’t fit my baby until she was 16 lbs


BAMBOO NATURE

  • A little rough

  • Love bambo nature for babies but not so much for toddlers cuz I feel like they start to smell really bad….maybe it’s from bigger Toddler  size poops and pee lol

  • terrible. Like awful lol. We tried overnight first and they leaked literally every single night. Tried the regular kind and they still suck. They leak they feel super cheap and fit terribly. All around bad.

  • Bamboo nature also had blowouts of pee/poo for us

  • We currently use bambo nature and they’ve been out favorites!!

  • Bamboo nature was a good option when we couldnt get Pura

  • Hated Bambo. They never fit right and we always had leaks and blow outs. 


ATTITUDE

  • bit tough feeling

  • We leaked pretty bad with pura and attitude

  • Attitude seems very cheap quality to me. I do not like them at all.

  • Attitude diapers and wipes are terrible. I ended up giving them away

  • I like attitude. I think they hold everything in pretty well, I don’t see any irritation and Aesthetically,They have no decoration and are plain white and good for photos!


COTERIE

  • love them! We use them occasionally an would mix in with kudos. They’re soft, absorbent, and fit really nicely. We are actually trialing them for exclusively right now to see if they’ll work with his skin.

  • Coterie are great but so thick for this reason they don’t leak but like that the healthy baby didn’t have the blue line

  • Coterie- blowouts every night up the back. We sized up, same thing. Such a mess. Did not work well

  • Love coterie

  • Coterie was soft but not worth the cost imo - sooooo expensive it just doesn’t make sense to buy it

  • Coterie when my son was a newborn for about 3 months. I absolutely LOVED those but they weren’t in our budget to keep up with. If we had the money I would 1000% buy just coterie

  • LOVE Coterie and Kudos

  • Coterie is the best of the best. Clean, soft, keeps baby dry. All the things. 

  • GOAT coterie used for both my kids

  • Love coterie and Pura. Pura is thinner than coterie but seems to hold just as good. 

  • Coterie probably my favorite but just was so expensive

  • Loved Coterie for newborn but hated for everyone after that, never held anything in and my baby broke out in a rash.

  • Coterie is the goat in my opinion. They’re so expensive but worth it. Just having two in diapers both in coterie gets expensive fast, but both of mine are in coterie right now. Super soft and fit well. I like that they’re available at whole foods where we shop regularly if you end up in a pinch, otherwise the shipping thing is kind of annoying but in LA they come pretty much the next day, I’ve heard in other places of the country it can take several days to come. They’re all around great, the price is just the hang up. Especially now with the subscription you don’t even get free shipping with the monthly box which seems absurd? Like I’m spending $100 on diapers and you’re gonna make me pay for shipping that’s wild. If I buy both kids at once obviously I don’t have to pay shipping but like, I’m now spending $200 on diapers a month which I’m aware is totally not feasible for many. They do fit a little small or their weight ranges are on the smaller end.

  • Love coterie! No leaks and are soft.

  • Coterie have been our favorite to date

  • Coterie- literally the only diapers my girl could wear for over a year without breaking her out. Only downside was the $$. Loved that they had “pants” in smaller sizes for my very active baby who stopped allowing lay down changes early on

  • Just ended our coterie subscription- NOT blowout proof and sizing was very weird my daughter is in size 1 in others but already in 2 in coterie. With that being said they don’t do returns/exchanges on unopened diapers so I had to pay an extra $98 for the next size up and donate the size 1. Also they aren’t the softest diapers on the market IMO. I feel like people have them because of the aesthetic

  • I don’t like coterie. Got a bunch from my sil so I didn’t pay for them. My baby has more blowouts in them than other diapers. Although they feel extremely luxurious, the blowouts on clothes definitely isn’t worth it. And they are pricey.

  • Coterie the best of the best!

  • Love Coterie diapers! I especially appreciate the pant from sizes 3 and up. It's a cross between a diaper and a pull up and helps makes changes easier ever since my little one started alligator rolling

  • Coterie is our nighttime diaper. It’s absolutely superior on how much it can hold, but they are expensive so it’s perfect for night times and the Pura for daytime!

  • Coterie holds a TON of pee but my baby blows out of them 60% of the time. Not sure if it’s her or the diapers ha

  • we love!! Really soft and the most absorbent! I do feel like their diapers run a bit bigger than advertised. Our daughter was 7lbs when born and honestly for the first 2ish weeks even the coterie NB were too big (thus lots of blowouts / leakage). We had to used pampers until she was a bit bigger but otherwise great! 


KUDOS

  • LOVED LOVED LOVED until they recently changed their formula. We tried lots of diapers and Kudos was the best but after their formula change my son started getting these horrible eczema flair ups / rashes on his butt cheeks and we are almost positive it’s the diaper change. I still think they’re a very clean diaper and we will likely try them again with our next baby but unfortunately have to switch for now. 

  • We used Kudos for probably about 5-6 months and I did not love them. They felt like maybe a step above Honest diapers and they also smelled.

  • Kudos-okay…not very absorbent (felt wet immediately).

  • LOVE Coterie and Kudos

  • I love both Kudos and parasol. They are super soft & thick. I buy kudos more bc they’re are slightly cheaper than parasol & they are really good for overnight diapers too

  • Kudos are our fav!!! Holds in so much.. no need for a “nighttime” diaper. Most people think they’re expensive but they are the same price point as Honest (if not cheaper) if you do the subscription.

  • Kudos diapers, hands-down the best diapers I’ve ever used.

  • sigh …kudos…look I want to like them so bad, they’re pretty well priced for what you get and the ingredients are great. The cotton top sheet is great in theory but it doesn’t dry like other diapers and that can be an issue for some butts. Like my daughters lol. She was/is sensitive to moisture and frequently got a rash in them. Overnight was a huge forget about it. They also fit so small, at least the old style did. Very similar to the thrive fit actually. My daughter was never in the right size according to weight and she was never chunky or gigantic either, I had to email them on two different occasions because the box we had just didn’t fit, I will say their customer service is fab. I haven’t tried the new style, but I have a pack that I’ll open today and come back lol.

  • 5 for kudos diapers and wipes! Only blowout proof diaper I’ve found! Wipes were thick and good quality!

  • Kudos are our favorite. We size up at night, but stick with regular size during the day. No blowouts.

  • Kudos diapers and wipes are hands down my favorite used so far!!! Love how soft their diapers are and sizing is super flexible. They are very absorbent and feel like they’ve held in my sons blow out moments. 

  • I use kudos. I've never had any issues with leaking. Sometimes the tabs are hard to unstick to close the diaper, and sometimes you find a piece of cotton in the diaper area from the diaper fibers, but other than that.... zero complaints.

  • Kudos we liked when bought online but when we got from target felt like quality went down and super thin, not absorbent.

  • Didn’t care for Kudos

  • Tried kudos. Honestly felt cheap, did not absorb well for us. Several blow outs. Little would wake up with wet pjs

  • I used Kudos and loved the softness and stretch pull tabs. Also the ruffing on the back helped big time with avoiding blowouts. However the price for the amount of diapers was just not sustainable for my family. I would run out very quickly and only bought them in store so it was sold out quite a bit

  • Loved kudos. Never really had leaks. Worked great for their skin. Just hate that it was a subscription and ship situation. Sometimes my two toddlers would poop six times a day each and it was hard to know how often to order.

  • Used Kudos the first (almost) 2 years. Far superior during that time - we had no leaks. I just really had nothing bad to say. However, as of recent they have revamped them - not for good. They are now sold at Target and they leak. Almost too stretchy… etc etc

  • Kudos recently changed their diapers when they went into target and they’re absolutely horrible now! They break apart and leave the absorbent material all over babies bottom now. They used to be our favorite but we had to make the switch to coterie

  • Kudos felt very papery to me? They were fine but nothing to write home about. Would try another brand before going back to them if we ever cancelled coterie.


PARASOL

  • Parasol always leaked but they’re cute and soft

  • Have used pura and parasol, pura seems to steadily have quicker availability/pricing has worked better for my family. I love how soft parasol is, pura is still relatively soft but parasol definitely takes the cake. Both do great overnight as well!

  • I love both Kudos and parasol. They are super soft & thick. I buy kudos more bc they’re are slightly cheaper than parasol & they are really good for overnight diapers too

  • I just started trying these after finding them at target and really like them. Super soft, fit well and I don’t have any complaints. The designs are kinda weird and they could just go white and do fine in my opinion but there are worse things lol. The inside top sheet is bumpy or like dimpled and I feel like that works better for younger babies. I should say the fit is generous on parasol actually which I like.

  • Parasol is great quality but they use petroleum based chemicals in their liners (so does thrive!).

  • Parasol is my fav! Sooo so soft

  • We LOVE Parasol diapers & wipes. The diapers are so soft and my 5 month old has never had a rash.


HEALTHY BABY

  • Healthy Baby and Pura are suuuper soft

  • I wanted to love them but I just couldn’t. They’re soft but they’re so thin. I felt like they were not very absorbent, didn’t hold poop well, and they fit so awkward. They’re very wide so maybe for a really chunky baby they would be better but our son is soo tall and 76th percentile for weight but since he’s so tall 

  • I’ve only used health baby for my now 20 month old. We tried to switch to honest but he broke out in a terrible rash. We also tried pampers pure, but for whatever reason the Velcro always managed to rub his thighs during sleep. I did need to start double diapering at around 14 months because health baby just didn’t hold up overnight. They are expensive, but I just didn’t have the energy to look into other clean options

  • I’ve used healthy baby before for my youngest.  They leaked a lot so we stopped using them.  I loved that they didn’t use any harmful chemicals and were supposed to be healthy for baby but all the leaks weren’t worth it especially because they are expensive

  • I like on babies, they didn’t work for my toddler. The 3 channel thing got weird when she leaned out and would like wad up weirdly and then she’d leak out the leg. I don’t mind them on non mobile baby, although I prefer some scrunch in the back I feel like it contains blowouts better. They’re pretty expensive to not like REALLY love. But I can appreciate you get what you pay for.

  • Healthy baby is 11/10!!!! Amazing amazing amazing. Hands down the best and affordable also available at target

  • Healthy Baby are super soft. I would recommend sizing up. We have had a few blowouts.

  • I have tried pura and healthy baby. I find them very similarly, but I prefer pura over HB because HB tend to be so soft I find they slip and leak more easily. I really love pura!

  • Healthy baby couldn’t start using until she got a little bigger because at the time they didn’t have newborn but if they are even a little too big will definitely leak and if she poops and moves around too much it does come out but haven’t liked any other diaper so this is my top choice

  • Healthy baby are thin and don’t hold much. They also run smaller we thought. Couldn’t wait to be finished with the boxes we bought. 


JOONYA

  • I use joonya pull-ups and love them! Easy to put on (even for toddler) hold a lot of pee and have only had them leak a few times with massive amounts of wet. Haven’t seen how they hold up for poops as we only use overnight

  • Joonya are like paper thin.

  • We switched to Joonya and absolutely love them!!!! Nothing to complain about.


ECO PEA

  • Ecopea is hard/stiff as a rock lol


Real Life WIPE Opinions

ATTITUDE

  • Attitude diapers and wipes are terrible. I ended up giving them away


Kudos

  • Don’t love the kudos wipes. They’re eh. Not wet enough for my preference

  • a little soapy in my opinion. My biggest issue was when I would get one wipe, multiple wipes would come out. I liked the wipes overall. 

  • I also used the Kudos wipes and again they felt like a slight step above honest brand  but more expensive

  • feels…soapy? no major performance complaints but wouldn’t necessarily repurchase

  • Kudos is ok

  • Kudos— were good quality wipe. Just too expensive.

  • 5 for kudos diapers and wipes! Only blowout proof diaper I’ve found! Wipes were thick and good quality!

  • Their wipes are great and thick I feel like I don’t have to use a ton to clean up. Definitely worth the money and the subscription makes it so easy!

  • My husband didn’t like the smell of kudos but they’re super durable and work well.

  • Kudos wipes are good and THICK

  • 10/10 my all time fav wipes. Thick, clean ingredients, and work sooooo well! Good packaging as well - easy to get out and has a good closure so they stay moist. 

  • I personally like kudos!! Super “wet” not too dry. Pulling them out of the package is the worst thing but not even that bad


HEALTHY BABY

  • Healthy baby was my favorite but they no longer sell them at target. They were thick and nice

  • When Target sold Healthybaby wipes they were my favorite.

  • Love healthy baby

  • We used healthy baby for a bit. They were great diapers but their sizing is about half a size smaller than others. Loved their wipes.

  • Love their wipes!


PIPETTE

  • Pipette wipes will drain your bank acct

  • Pipette are gentle but I didn’t like how thin they were, never got again after the first pack

  • I love Pipette. But they’re just hard to find so I don’t use them anymore.

  • I liked these. They’re thinner than kudos but still decent. we liked kudos better so we stopped using Pipette but I would say they fall middle of the line for me


JOONYA

  • LOVE Joonya (thick, quilted, 10/10)

  • I love joonya!!!!

  • And I’ve only tried the joonya wipes but I found them incredibly frustrating to pull from the package one-handedly. Maybe that was a one off? But I constantly shook the package and ended up with a mess everywhere

  • They are so clean, my child can literally stick them in her mouth and I have zero worries. We use them for everything.

  • Joonya wipes are THE best! Swear by them. They don’t dry up like the others and are super soft


PASAROL

  • Love love love the parasol wipes, they’re soft, ideal size, and they’re not dry!

  • The wipes don't have a weird odor that most other wipes do. I only ever need 2/3 for poop which is great!

  • Parasol wipes were trash. I was using double and they just didn’t cut it. Wanted to love though.


KINDER BY NATURE

  • hate hate hate Kinder By Nature. Terrible packaging, super thin/small wipes, need a million, kinda dry -40000/10 lol

  • Kinder by nature— we have on autoship. Ok wipe. Use bc of the ingredients. Thinner and smaller than normal wipes though.

  • I hated the Kinder by Nature wipes and they gave my baby a rash.

  • Kinder by nature are the best and cleanest I’ve found.

  • Kinder was good but the packaging was awful in my opinion. Didn’t buy them again

  • Love kinder, they are thinner but still clean well

  • We use kinder by nature but they are sooooo thin!!! I feel like I have to use so many to clean a dirty

  • wanted to love but they’re thin and the packaging sucks. They’re hard to get out and the plastic seal doesn’t stick after a while so they dry out fast. 

  • Kinder by nature are very soft and moist. Incredible but horrible trying to pull single wipes out. They all come out together.

  • I love kinder, the packaging can be difficult to keep closed so recommended to get a wipe holder to keep them moist!!!

  • I like the texture and the amount of moisture in the wipes. But there isn’t a good way to keep the pack closed so the top ones dry out easily. The wipes also stick together so you pull out too many.



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