A couple of my blog friends have written about cloth diapering lately (Josey and MODG) and Kelly and I talk about it almost daily. It's gotten Steve and I thinking...
Should we switch over to cloth?
Will it save us money?
It it a huge pain in the ass? The cleaning, the stripping?
Is it messy?
What are the pros and cons?
From what I've read, it can be just as easy as disposables with the exception of throwing the dirty diapers in the wash instead of in a landfill (the hippie in me thinks this is great). And let's be real- cloth diapers are cute as hell.
The cons I've read are- clothes don't fit as well and you have to have a suitcase for a diaper bag.
If you use cloth diapers give me the scoop- I want to hear it all. Do you love it or hate it? Which diapers are your favorites, least favorites? What's the best way to get them clean? What do you do overnight? Are AIO's or inserts better?
My MIL (hi mom!) is probably reading this post and ready to run over here and talk some sense into us for even considering cloth.
Can we do it?
we LOVE cloth. we have been using cloth diapers since she was 3 days old, and i cant say enough awesome things about them! we mainly use prefolds and covers, but we have just gotten into using some organic cotton all-in-ones. both systems (prefolds and all-in-ones) are super easy, and there is no way i'd stop using cloth. we don't have blowouts like i hear about from disposables, and we have saved SO much money by using cloth!! not to mention, it is great for her skin (zero diaper rashes!!). i TOTALLY recommend switching! i have been meaning to write a post all about it, but i just cant seem to find time to post as much anymore- i have no idea how you and josey do it!
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about it, but go with what you want! Best of luck!!!!
ReplyDeletehi there--saw your blog post title on another blog i follow and wanted to jump over to comment. we LOVE cloth too. we've been using them since we got home from the hospital (LO is now 2 months old). we do prefolds and covers, and hope to check out pockets next month for going out trips. i will admit that we currently use a diaper service, however, i am firing them next week when my new prefolds arrive (from gre.en mtn diapers...tons of useful help on their site!) b/c the services' are getting too small and i'm already washing the covers every other day, so it's no big deal to throw the prefolds in there too. for the first few weeks, we used them over night, but then LO started to awake from just being wet, not being hungry and so we switched to disposables so he'd only wake when hungry b/c i had.to.sleep.more. this worked for a few weeks until this week...three mornings we've had major poop up the back blowouts thanks to our disposables whose lack of waste band just couldn't contain everything. so i've gone back to cloth diapers over night--with a doubling up and/or adding a liner we've made it 12 hours in cloth diapers...no leaks, no blowouts, happy kiddo who goes back to sleep after a couple of mid-night feeds. as for your other questions, well, from that story, i'd say it is far far less messy than disposables, especially as i've also started using a snappie with our prefolds to keep the covers cleaner for more changes. i just put the diaper in a lined pail and will throw the lined and diapers all in the wash together-i have changed soaps to a clean rinsing one and just use that for all our clothes now-a cool rinse, hot wash and extra rinse, then dry-yes, maybe a bit more water is being used, but it's only an additional load every other day and way less than the trash bags full of disposables i've carted out even with our limited use. my diaper bag isn't huge--i'm using the ver.a bra.dley diaper bag that i keep a few prefolds, a couple covers and a wet bag in. we've had zero rash or redness thus far and i think cloth fits better than the disposables, but it does take a few tries to find the right cover/brand. having bought some disposables along the way, i will say that this has got to be saving us money!! plus, they are freaking adorable!! after having poop everywhere earlier this week, i will absolutely not be switching back ever, but instead will probably branch out to pockets for overnight and AIO's for going out....maybe...but i really do love the prefolds, so i might just keep trucking along with them!! hope you decide to give them a chance!
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to reading all the info you get! I love the idea when I finally have kids.
ReplyDeleteWe love our AIOs, and I highly recommend going that route if you have a resistant hubby or daycare provider.
ReplyDeleteYou will DEFINITELY save money.
It's not messy - and cleaning is easy. I do one cold rinse of the diapers, then throw in her clothes and such and do a regular hot wash w/extra rinse, then dry. Easy peasy.
We used disposables for 2 days last week after her shot (the cloth was pushing on the sore part of her leg) and we had lots of blowouts and a fussy baby. I keep a disposable or two in my diaper bag in case of emergencies, but we use cloth 95% of the time and love it!
coming back to add this cool program someone just tweeted about: http://jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10/tryclothfor10 . what a great way to figure out what works for you, DH and LO without ending up with a lot of things that don't!
ReplyDeleteI bought a stash of cloth diapers when I was pregnant and fully intended on using them... until I realized how many diapers we were going through in the first few weeks and how I did NOT have the time or energy for extra laundry. Then we got thrush and I didn't want to deal with the extra sanitation (sunning and making sure to add a extra rinse with vinegar) so that's my excuse for why we haven't started them yet. I wanted to use them SO badly, but I haven't yet. It would be awesome to save money on diapers because it pains me to be spending so much on disposables and putting so much waste in the trash but I haven't done it yet. It's a great idea though! I can't bare to get rid of them yet, he is only 2.5 months so hopefully I can use them in the future! :)
ReplyDelete(I do know when you formula feed, you have to rinse the poop diapers before you put them in the wash because unlike breast milk poop, it's not water soluble.)
We just bought our cloth diapers - I'm so excited to use them when she arrives! Our plan is to use disposables in the hospital and then transition to the cloth when we get home. The kind we bought are All-In-Ones that fit newborns up to toddlers. We're starting with some really cheap ones we found on E.bay (40 plus 40 liners for $167) but we've also heard really great reviews from close friends about gDiapers and Bum Genius. Also, to help avoid some of the messiness, we're using the biodegradable liners (i.e.: poo-catchers). I found 100 on Ebay for $6. They're a thin mesh liner that lays over the bottom of the diaper to catch solids. That way, instead of spray bottling solids off, we can just lift and flush them. We still need to buy a spray bottle and a wet bag... and we'll probably have some sort of bin for the messier diapers to soak in before being washed. I hope it all works out for you! Can't wait to hear how it goes!!!
ReplyDeleteI am so late commenting on this post...because commenting from my phone is a bitch. Anyway, I know you can do this if you want to...because you are awesome :) I am loving it so far. The hardest thing (and its not that hard just takes a little time) is finding the right diaper with the right fit for Blakely. She has thunder chunk thighs all of the sudden so I am trying to find ones that don't cut off her circulation but also catch the poo. It is actually super fun to try out the different diapers to see what works! I'm planning on sending you the ones that don't work for B so you can try them on E. Except it is hard to part with the cuteness...just sayin'.... ;)
ReplyDeleteI keep meaning to write my one-year update to cloth diapering, but keep forgetting. Thanks for reminding me! Let me just start by saying that I've gotten my friends, daycare, parents, in-laws and others to love using cloth. If you ever have any questions, feel free to let me know!
ReplyDeleteIt can be super easy and it's just finding what works for YOU that might take a couple weeks. The BEST advice I got was to start with a small stash of several of the top recommended brands and chose what works best for YOU! Babies sizes are just so different that you can't just go based solely off recommendations. Ultimately, Drew has big thighs and we ended up loving (actually I'm obsessed) with Fuzzi Bunz and we exclusively use them now. We prefer the perfect fit as opposed to the one-size as they were very bulky on him when he was young.
To answer some of your other questions:
- At night I add replace the normal insert with hemp inserts and they hold his urine for up to about 14 hours!
- My favs are Fuzzi Bunz. I would highly recommend snaps in whatever brand you chose as velcro goes bad over time. Fuzzi Bunz has a lifetime guarantee on their snaps.
- Your diaper back really won't be much bigger unless you are leaving the house for more than 4-5 hours. I generally have one CD and a wetbag in my diaper bag and then a couple 'sposies for emergencies.
-J.O.S.E.Y is right... it's easy. You just do cold, hot, cold with CD detergent and you'll be set. I swear by Charlie's Soap but my best friend prefers Rockin Green.
And my biggest piece of advice would be to NOT get overwhelmed. There are SO many accessories and crap on the web that CD people say you HAVE to have, but you might not need. I would just start with a small stash and see how it goes first, then build from there!
Hope that helps!
Oh man, if you can do it, more power to you! I have so much respect for people who do cloth. I'd like to, but I am scared of all the laundry! I can barely do laundry as it it now, with no baby yet. But I also HATE the idea of disposables sitting in a landfill. Arrrrrg! Keep us posted on what you decide.
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