Every parent reaches that breaking point where you will buy any product that promises to help your child sleep through the night. Â It does not matter what the product is. Â It does not matter what the product costs. Â You will spend it, you will buy it, and you will hope that it works.
I was deep in the throes of a sleep regression when Facebook and Instagram began feeding me an endless stream of ads for Coterie diapers. Â Endless, I tell you. Â These diapers were my own personal raven, rapping at my digital chamber door, crying out, “Nevermore (will you ever sleep again).” Â So I broke, and ordered them. Â And I must have been truly exhausted, because when they showed up three days later, I couldn’t even recall doing placing the order.
Coterie diapers promise the they are designed with “sleep in mind.”  They also promise to minimize diaper rash, prevent blowouts, and stop leaks.  Is there anything these diapers can’t do?
The diapers promise to help your baby sleep by reducing the number of times they wake up due to wetness. Â The diaper allegedly absorbs 70% more liquid than a similar diaper and dries 3x faster. Â They also claim to use a softer cotton to make the diapers as smooth and cozy as cashmere.
But enough patty cake, I’m too sleep deprived to keep beating around the bush. Â Let’s answer the critical question: Did the diapers deliver? Â No. No, ladies, they did not. I loathed these diapers. Â Loathed, I say.
The ads for the diapers were full of glowing testimonials that promised me a life changing experience. Â What I got was two leaky diapers in two days (the only ones I’ve had in three-months of diapering), and not one extra minute of sleep. Â And sure, the diapers are soft, but that’s not really your primary concern when choosing a diaper, is it?
But my primary issue with the Coterie diapers is this: When you have a baby, you live and die by the blue indicator strip on the diaper that tells you when your baby is wet. Â The line on the Coterie diapers is so faint that it is completely undetectable in the dark, at 3:00AM, when you’re so tired that you could scream from the pain your eyelids are feeling. Â And not being able to see the strip gets annoying very, very quickly.
Bottom line, at $80 for a one month supply, they’re nearly double the price of the Huggies that I buy at Costco. Â For that cost, they should deliver what they promise. Â But I found the diapers leaked, made it difficult to know when the diaper was wet, and didn’t seem to absorb more than a standard diaper. Â Within two days of buying them, I was sorry that I had wasted the money. Â Now they sit in the top of Sloane’s closet, serving as a reminder to delete Google Pay for the duration of this sleep-deprived infant phase.
This post contains no affiliate links or other payment options.  Like all items on Saw It On Social, I bought these diapers with my own money, and no gifts were received or would have been accepted.  I was deeply disappointed to waste my money on this viral product, but hey, we all make mistakes some times.
I feel you. I don’t think anything stopped our waves of pee-blowouts (my kid can pee through an overnight with the additional inserts) or sleep regressions, it’s just that one day they just… stopped.
Hang in there!
New parents need a block on their credit cards from the hours of 1:00-4:00am. No good purchases are made during those hours.
This made me crack up. 1) I’m frantically rocking my three-week-old as I type this (who is also named…Clara) and 2) it’s like ambian shopping–especially with Christmas coming. I did all my husband’s gifts last night at like, 3am and woke up saying, “why the hell did I buy him a CANDLE?!?!”
I still cannot explain why so many things arrived on my doorstep in that newborn haze. Tag on a 12 month Canadian mat leave during lockdown with nowhere to go, and I’m pretty sure I personally bought Jeff Bezos’ latest yacht.
My son always had such heavy wet diapers when he was a baby! The only fix I could come up with was to use a size larger diaper during nighttime. I hope you can get some regular sleep soon…for me that was the HARDEST part of the infant stage!!!
You’re doing great Mama!!
A couple of things we did with our son that helped were going up a diaper size at night (so if they should be in a 2, put them in a 3 at night, etc.) and dream feeding. IF you baby responds well to dream feeding, there is really no need to change a wet diaper if the baby is sleeping. Modern diapers wick away moisture very effectively, it is not the “sitting in a puddle” that we would have had as kids. Soiled you do want to take care of, that can still cause a rash.
For daytime we just use the Mama Bear Amazon brand – they work well and have a good indicator strip. For night, nothing works as well as the Huggies OverNites.
Also on sleep, if you haven’t heard of her, Taking Cara Babies has a really fantastic sleep course for newborns. Our son started sleeping through the night after we started following her method consistently (in full disclosure, I think the newborn/young baby course is worth the money. The one for 6 months+ is a lot more expensive and it’s basically just the cry it out method so I probably wouldn’t pay for that).
I second this, completely. I took her class (watching those clips while breastfeeding or pumping, pretty much, they’re nice and short) and it was easy information delivered in a way I could comprehend even though I was completely sleep deprived. It saved me.
That was exactly how I watched them too! At first I found the videos a little cutesy, but they were simple enough that my sleep deprived brain was able to understand/remember/implement.
If you are looking for an alternative to Taking Cara Babies for reasons that the internet will share, may I highly recommend the ladies over at Nurture by Naps- https://www.nurturebynaps.com/
Also, we’ve really loved Dyper. https://dyper.com/
Sleep depravation is so so hard in the newborn phase, hang in there!
Instead of spending money at “Taking Cara Babies” ($$$) read/ watch the two books she ripped off – “Happiest Baby on the Block” the “ABCs of sleep” (which is basically the Ferber method). She and her husband also donated to Trump’s reelection campaign repeatedly if that matters for you.
I found “precious little sleep” very helpful, if not very frank sometimes. It even made me laugh!
I assume you already know and use them, but if not you should look into Huggies overnight diapers. They start at size 3 but you can realistically use the 3’s when baby is in size 2 regulars. My sister didn’t realize overnight diapers existed until their kid was 1. Thought it might be good to share juuuust in case. They are more absorbent than the Huggies Plus line at Costco. 🙂
For us, the regular Huggies (little movers and little snugglers) worked the best. We also used the FETCH app with the Huggies so that we could redeem our Huggies purchases for Amazon gift cards. Definitely recommend if you like the Huggies brand!
Ours was not a good sleeper…. the nights felt endless and we bought and tried the sleep training courses but no relief. Then one day, when he turned 15 months he decided he was going to sleep through the night and has been a good sleeper since! We didn’t do anything different, he was still fed to sleep.
I’m glad those sleepless nights are over, but they do end, fancy products or courses or not 🙂 Hang in there. It was tough but in hindsight I barely remember them!
Diapers are a totally personal thing but, for what it’s worth, we found CostCo’s Kirkland brand diapers to be amazing. In in the 2 and half-ish years our kiddo was in them, we had only 5 blow outs/pee throughs… TOTAL. Also, they were wicking enough that, once she was sleeping through the night, we never bothered changing them. Diapers are so good these days that you don’t need to change a sleeping kiddo. (Learning that was life altering.)
FWIW, I ended up using Dyper, another social favorite. I tried the Babylist diaper sampler that included Honest Company, Dyper, and Coterie, as well as Pampers, Huggies, and Seventh Generation. Dyper fits my son well, keep him dry (with booster pad for overnight) and are soft, chemical-free, and made from bamboo.
I’ll tell you what my best friends forgot to tell me until my second kid: Target “Up and Up” store brand diapers are just as good as Pampers, come in massive packs, and are noticeably cheaper. Definitely worth it! Hang in there; the sleep situation will get better soon.
Wirecutter agrees! https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-diapers/
Ditto the Up & Up brand overnights. Great for road trips too 🙂
I’ve been reading Cap Hill Style since 2009 when I was working in DC. The fact that you had your first baby right around the same time as me and are now bringing this content into my life feels like a hug from the universe.
Ditto this! Due in less than 30 days and I appreciate the mix of content. 🙂
I used to put two diapers on my kid so she wouldn’t wake up wet. A but bulky but it worked.
I definitely empathize! We went up a size for the overnights. Also the Up and Up brand worked just as well for us as Pampers – we would stock up when they ran sales (e.g. buy $50 dollars worth of baby stuff and get a $10 gift card).
These were a huge help for us: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QQ2T278?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder-t1_ypp_rep_k0_1_20&=&crid=3KKBWLQRY73EY&=&sprefix=overnight+diaper+ins
You add them to the baby’s regular diaper for extra absorption overnight. Good luck!
I actually love Coterie — we’ve used for two kids! They did what the ads said for us (unfortunately given the price haha) — helped with diaper rash, solved our blowout problem, last overnight for us (without bursting like some others have), and my toddler would even ask to return to the “white ones” after we switched to overnight pullups post-potty training. I do wish the indicator strip was darker, but we don’t usually change pee-only diapers overnight past the newborn stage unless they seem super full (in which case you can tell, indicator or no!). That said, I think what works for fit is more personal to your baby than diaper companies would have you believe.
came to say the same thing! Coterie 1000% worked for us, we started in a mix of Huggies/Pampers, my son had TERRIBLE diaper rash, and a size-bigger Coterie cleared it up in just a few weeks. like someone else said, diapers are truly a personal choice, but the softness/feel and absorption of these diapers have been a game-changer for us.
Totally agree about the fit, which makes sense! My oldest pretty much had to be in pampers to not leak/blow out. Luvs brand worked better for my second two.
Hang in there mama! The lack of sleep can be absolutely brutal but you’ll get there!
I primarily used cloth diapers and the occaisonal Target brand for my now 5 year old and plan to do the same with the next baby (bc I still have the cloth) due in early 2023) but it’s good to know that these are probably not worth a subscription. I did a monthly wipes subscription before and have been wondering if maybe a pack of diapers per month from one of the dozens of diaper companies advertised to me lately is worth it!
I’ve also been wondering: What are you using for a diaper bag (diaper bags?) now? I still have my ToteSavvy inserts from my first child, but no longer have the tote bag I used with it and I’m not finding anything inspiring or interesting out there. Everything looks uncomfortable, flimsy, or too heavy even empty.
As a mom of a boy who always managed to pee out of his diaper at night, I totally recommend overnight diapers. My son has been potty trained for two years but we still use overnight diapers to avoid middle of the night accidents. When he was little I also used diaper pads inside his diaper to absorb the extra liquid. It’s worth giving these a try if you haven’t https://www.amazon.com/Overnight-Alternative-Nighttime-Prevents-Protection/dp/B0083973FK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2PTABH81YFAYZ&keywords=diaper+pads&qid=1669745451&sprefix=diaper+pads%2Caps%2C119&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=A3JAJ7OHW1Y26Y&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzTTFNUjJHSzRLMUw3JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTc4NDE1MThUQVk3V0M5UkZCMSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzIyNjQ3MjUxNFUxV1EzVjY3NCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
I second the booster pads – my first leaked through his diaper almost every night until I started using these.
Thirding the booster pads… we use the Sposie ones with my 2 year old. They really help! also recommend the Huggies overnights.
What worked for us was sizing up and using Luvs. Good luck!
Same with Dyper. I was so disappointed by the fit and sizing. I guess it’s kind of nice that they don’t have a design, but that’s certainly not worth the up charge to me! Very happy with pampers pure.