apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Catie, save the money. I really do not understand this thing of spending money on another device for the baby. I personally hated the pail from the days of babysitting in college, so since I made a decision when I bought my trash bin that it had to be so big or so small that I had to take the trash out daily on my way to work or in the evening before going to bed. When we had our baby people started offering to buy me a pail, I refused - some mothers looked at my with disbelief - how can you do that??? The way we do it is fold the diaper carefully (the loaded one) and bring it to the kitchen and in goes with the trash, which doesn't stink at all and the trash goes out a few hours later when the bag is full (wash hands immediate). My son is 11 months old, eats real food (so it really stinks) I have a ubber sensitive sense of smell - so does my husband and we never have had a problem. Don't spend the money on a pail, spend it on something more fun for the baby.

Catie -

another suggestion...we use G-diapers. they are flushable, so we don't have dirty diapers stinking around all the time. we just have our regular little can in the bathroom that the wipes get thrown into ('cause why doesn't someone make economical flushable wipes for infants?!?!?) and we're able to empty the trash can at the same time the kitchen can goes out (i think every 1.5 weeks or so)

We use disposables, and for our older son (you only really need to worry about this when your children start eating solid food-- that's when you get the stink factor) we try flushing the poop out of the diaper into the toilet. It's a little on the gross side, I admit. However, technically, human solid waste should not be going into landfill trash. I believe that there is fine print to that effect on the disposables package! It really keeps the smell down. So I side with the PPs: don't bother spending extra money on an expensive pail. Double line your trash can, put baking soda in the bottom of the liner bag, and take your trash out often.

I just can't see spending that much money on something you will only use for a few years! I used a Diaper Champ for my first child, and it was nice to use regular trash bags, but man it started to stink once she started on solid food! At first just when we would change the bag, but now it just plain stinks all the time. For my second child we got the Diaper Genie II (which I hear is a huge improvement over the original). I do have to buy liners, but my son just turned 2 and it still does not stink. Occasionally I will overstuff it a little, and there is a smell when I empty it, but otherwise I have been very happy with it.

Are you flushing the poop? Poop is supposed to be shaken off disposables before folding and putting in the trash. Raw sewage should not go into landfills-- it is a major source of groundwater contaimination--and all disposable diapers say this on the packaging. It seems that many people don't do this, hence the stink.

If you are flushing the poop, then the diapers can go directly into any trash can. We use an open one and change the trash ever few days.

The cans that try and contain the smell are always more offensive to me. At least with the open can they air out.

We have this and yes, it works fantastically. We bought it at a smaller store in our area and the owner had one and said that once his kids got out of their diaper years, he was able to clean the can, get rid of the smell and it is a bathroom trashcan now. He said his kid is 7 now and the can still looks good as new and has no residual poop smell.

I have never smelled poop in the room at all. To be honest, when you open it to throw a poopy diaper in, you'll get the whiff of poop but close it and it is sealed up for good and I smell nothing foul at all.

My only tip for it is to avoid buying the special vipp bags. Regular tall kitchen bags work just fine.

just take out the trash often. simple as that.

I understand that you're supposed to flush the poop, and I do when it's, ahem, really solid, but hasn't anyone here ever experienced a blowout? Or something equally grossly non-solid? I don't get how you're supposed to flush that. Sorry if this is gross, but then, we are talking about diapers and poop and all that, so apology rescinded!

I've been curious about the vipp too. The pricetag's too steep for me, though. We use a lidded metal trashcan, just one from target or something like that. I think the metal doesn't absorb the smell as horribly as plastic would. I wipe it down with bleach etc. every so often and change the liners (plastic grocery bags) a few times a week. I think the lid helps cut the smell down, but honestly, it's not perfect. I suppose if you just make it a habit to take out a bag every time you leave your condo, you're in pretty good shape though. Maybe that's not practical.... Anyone else have experience with the vipp?

A Diaper Genie worked just fine for me. When my son was first born we were in between homes and living at my parent's house. In one SMALL room. A diaper pail was a must. I never smelled anything.

I'd get a smaller VIPP, either a 13 or 14. It is a purchase that will last you a lifetime, it is not just for baby. The 13 or 14 are a better because they are bathroom sized (great for after the diaper stage).

The VIPP can be used for either cloth or disposables. We used cloth for both our babies and never had a stink -- the pail gets emptied every other day, and all poop gets flushed. The plastic should get washed out with soap once a week (I like using Sportwash, which is particularly good at killing odours).

As for the stink of disposables (which I have always found quite awful), the key is to dump the poop in the toilet. Landfills are not designed to accommodate raw sewage, and as someone already pointed out, it is a major contaminant of ground water, a precious and very limited resource.

p.s., for blowouts and soft poop, wipe out with toilet paper as best as possible

I would skip spending the money on a diaper pail, and put it into a really good kitchen garbage can. We bought a Brabantia can 8 years ago and it still looks good as new - and completely contains the the smell of our 2 kids in diaper household. The lid broke about 3 years ago, and they sent us a new one for free (as is their policy). Similar to other posters, we use the kitchen can for diapers as the more kids you have, the more regularly you take out the garbage anyway!

I wouldn't get a pail either. We just had a small open garbage can next to the changing area, used grocery plastic bags and emptied it when it was full... if there was a poopy diaper we'd just tie it up in another plastic bag (yes, too many plastic bags) and throw it in the kitchen garbage. Never had any problems with smells! Also my son was poop-trained by 18 months (but still isn't pee-trained at a little over 3) so we didn't have poop issues for too long, thank goodness.

Another thing that helps:
Put some kitty litter at the bottom of the garbage can/pail. We do this in our kitchen as well. It really does help.

Oh geez. I feel you should spend your disposable income in the way you would like.

The bottom line is, if the pail is plastic, it will absorb odors, and there isn't a thing you can do about it. You can try and be fairly successful in the short term, but in the long term plastics end up smelling bad.

Echoing the thoughts of these other smart mamas, I had no pail and used a combo of disposables in our kitchen trash {we have a simple human butterfly type and never had stink issues} and G-diapers.

I wanted the VIPP too, but $320 is ridiculous for a trash can! and you'll be twice as motivated to start EC at an early age, changing poopy diapers is no fun and we had a fast transition out of them by around 18 months as well.

Try baking soda? Also, we've been using some kind of natural air freshener thing - you just stick it in the garbage compartment of the Dekor, and it seems to help.

I REALLY have to speak to an issue I see all over AT, and which, of course, I was sure was going to surface when someone wrote that they were considering a VIPP trash can.

The attitude as stated by birdmaiden:

"$320 is ridiculous for a trash can!"

Living in Europe, I see the other side of things.

VIPP trashcans are built by hand in Denmark. They are super-high quality. They last a lifetime. They are not a diaper pail -- they are a trash can that can be used as a diaper pail.

The VIPP workers are well paid, and are able to sustain a middle class life, they have social benefits (including healthcare), and the company is environmentally responsible. VIPP is a very ethical company.

And on top of it, it is a great piece of industrial design, worthy of showcasing.

If spending $175 on a trash can (I advocate getting the smaller VIPP 13, a bathroom sized model, so that the trash is emptied daily, instead of a the kitchen-sized VIPP 15) will result in purchasing fewer cheap Chinese toys or goods, which are not made to such exacting standards, whose workers are not well paid, whose quality is poor, and whose factories and corporations do not give a damn about the environment, well, so much the better.

Even with purchasing fewer goods, we do not always have the means to purchase ethical goods. However, the $175 or $320 cost of a VIPP trash can reflects the true cost of a well made ethically produced product, and is not "ridiculous". In North America, we have simply grown too used and too reliant on WaMart prices, without considering the social consequences of such lures.

End or sermon. ;-)

This post is EXACTLY what I needed. I've been getting the baby itch lately even though my husband and I are in no way prepared to start a family. Thank you for the extra super strength dose of birth control. ;)

Hear, hear mschatelaine! We got a lot of flak from family recently because we bought an expensive dresser to use as a changing table in our son's nursery. But the piece that we bought is extremely well made and made in the US. We wanted something that we could use for years or use in another room of the house, not something cheap that we'd have to replace in a few years. I'm all about having less things, but better quality.

mschatelaine -

you made some very good points. sermon appreciated.

I bought the Vipp as a diaper pail and it lasted all of 3-months before I couldn't stand the smell any longer. We use it in the office now.

We have the Diaper Genie II now and it's worked perfectly fine for us. We don't smell anything, even when you open the lid to drop in a new diaper. You have to buy the refills, but they aren't that expensive and one refill lasts a good while.

Great post, mschatelaine. I thought about buying the Vipp myself, but with all the other expenses of a new baby we didn't have the money to lay out on the Vipp, even the smaller model. We have the Diaper Dekor II and it's worked pretty well. My baby has been eating "real" food for about three months now, and the pail isn't stinky yet. But then we remove the bag frequently, we don't wait until it's filled to near-bursting. When the little door is opened as we stuff in a new diaper some odor gets out, but that's just inevitable.

We have the Vipp 16 (bought at discount, as it had a tiny dent) and love it! We use Simple Human Charcoal Odor disks from the Container Store and spray it down weekly with Renuzit Odor Spray. The metal does not absorb any odor. We plan to use it as a regular trash can after the diaper days. Yes, it's pricey, but a long-term investment, IMHO.