Our little girl, whom I affectionately call Elly Belly, is not very little at all. She flew off the growth charts in weight at 3 months old when I was exclusively breastfeeding her. She remains an inch off the charts to this day. Her height isn’t far behind in the 95 percentile.
Having spent time searching the internet for answers on what to do when your child outgrows size 6 diapers and what to do when your child is gearing up to outgrow size 4t-5t in pull-ups, I thought it might be of some help to parents with chubby children if I compiled my findings here.
First and foremost, ignore the critics. The only person you need to listen to is your pediatrician. Odds are there is nothing wrong with your child.
A word about the diaper sizes:
Being a first time mom, I thought the weight range listed on the diapers were time-tested and accurate. Perhaps they are if you have a normal size child. If you have an Elly-sized child, take the weight recommendations with a grain of salt. Elly outgrew all the diaper sizes long before she reached the upper weight limit listed on the boxes.
So what does come after size 6 in diapers?
You have a few options:
1. Pampers does carry a size 7. We opted not to use them due to the overwhelming smell of baby powder.
2. You can switch over to pull-ups. I would recommend the Huggies training pants because they can tear open at the sides, which is a nice feature when your child is still having her bowel movements in diapers.
3. You can switch over to cloth diapers. I found Green Mountain Diapers to be a great resource when deciding which supplies to buy. Keep in mind that you need that same grain of salt for weight recommendations. Elly outgrew the cloth diaper covers listed up to 35 lbs when she tipped the scales at 30 lbs.
Now at 17 months, Elly is wearing pull-ups sized 4t-5t when out on the town with Daddy or when gardening with Mommy.
It’s the largest size carried by Pampers and Huggies. So what comes after pull-ups?
Again there are a few options.
1. In disposables, the next tier contains youth diapers, such as Attends Briefs.
2. Disposables offer another option: nighttime diapers. Pampers offers Underjams, diapers designed for children who haven’t mastered potty training at night. These go up to 65 lbs compared to 50 lbs with the pull-ups. But, who says they can only be used at night? Go ahead and use them during the day.
3. You can switch to cloth diapers. You’ll have a limited selection, since most AIO and pocket diapers will be too small or won’t allow room for growth. Elly is currently wearing toddler-sized pre-fold diapers with Bummis XL diaper covers. Both should continue to fit her in the coming months. However, we’ll have to switch to a different design when it’s time for potty training. I have my sights set on Happy Heinys Training Pants. They have a wide selection of sizes.
4. Switch to cloth, but use underwear. Mumtaz Soakers on Etsy offers both lined underwear, which is really for the child who is currently potty training, and nighttime waterproof underwear, which can be used during the day for the child who isn’t ready for potty training.
Of course, you could always hope that your child becomes potty trained before she outgrows the pull-ups. Unfortunately, our Elly has shown no signs of being ready for this step.
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