So... if you have used them, which brands do you recommend and what features are especially important?
Thanks mucho.
Love,
Matt, Laura and the tiny.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Advice?
I have a quick questions to all my moms out there. We are considering the cloth diaper for our little one (not the dish towel and safety pin ones). I was wondering if any of you have ever tried cloth diapers, and perhaps I could get some advice? These diapers have come a long way from the dish towel days... They make them look just like disposables, and have inserts that you remove and flush for the numero doses. They are (in the long run) more affordable than disposables and are better for not only babies, but the planet. Soooooo, I'm not a tree hugging hemp wearing lover of nature necessarily, but when I hear that you can get all set up with these cloth diapers for about $700 and use them for multiple kids as opposed to spending $2000 PER CHILD on diapers, I thought What the hay? I'll look into this.
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I'm doing the whole cloth diaper thing too. I don't know if in your research you've come across diaperjunction.com, but they have sample packs to buy with various types and also do a 30 day trial on quite a few of the more popular kind. The 30 day trial obviously isn't helpful right now since there's no baby to test them on.
Hmm...here's what I know.
Do the cloth diapers save money in the long run? Absolutely! They are also vastly different from the wretched ones of the 70's. That being said, there are a few setbacks that those who use them have to get use to...
The cloth diapers obviously have to be washed in the washer and you have to be careful about doing so. Those who just 'throw them in,' so to speak, end up leaving behind unsanitary conditions that the entire family's clothes are washed in. Yep. Not properly washed means you're washing your family's clothes in poop that never fully washes out of the washer.
My mother friends say you need to wash them by themselves and then to do an empty load with bleach afterwords to make sure. Some pediatricians will even tell you this isn't enough, but I don't know what research they're basing those opinions on.
The other drawback? Public bowel movements become a major affair. There's no throw-away diaper with this scenario and you have to be willing to stow the diaper away until properly taken care of. My friend's father (and I'm giggling while I write this!) was so irritated at being stuck at work with their cloth-diapered baby and no where to properly clean it he threw it out that moment, went down the street, and the babe's been in Pampers ever since. Quite a funny story when he tells it.
So...truthfully, they are absolutely financially worth it if you're willing to spend the time and energy they take. I know moms who love them and put up with the drawbacks and moms who hate them for those two very reasons.
Good luck with your choice!
So,I'm not a fan of cloth diapers. I would have done it had my husband let me get the service where they come pick up all the nasty ones and give you fresh ones, so you don't have a poop laced washing machine. I do feel a little guilty that there is a giganitc landfill somewhere filled with my kids business, but I don't buy or use styrofoam, so I feel like that is a fair trade :) Maybe you can do half cloth, half disposable. Like when your going out to stores or whatever and don't want to haul a nasty diaper, then use disposable, but those days when your home sewing, and baking and being a perfect mother and wife, you can use cloth. :) All I know is that Target diapers are all the rage. They worked for both of my kids and are HANDS down the best value. Plus Target always puts out coupons for the bulk size box which is the cheapest anyways.
Also this was a really long answer. Carry on.
Laura! You're having a baby! SWEET NEWS! I've totally been out of it since I decided Facebook was stupid and deleted my account. I have a blog too, but it's private, so e-mail me and I'll add ya!
DawnJolley@hotmail.com
Glad to hear you guys are doing so well!
Okay, so I know you posted this a long time ago, but I think my nesting recently has also made me very opinionated - I posted 3 times on my own blog today, whoops! Ha ha.
WARNING - this is probably going to be long...
Anyway, I am SO not the tree hugging hippie loving earth saving kind of person. I think you probably already know that. However, about a month before we moved over here Ryker had the WORSE diaper rash in the world.
Prior to this incident he did not have hardly even a single diaper rash incident. The doctor prescribed oral meds, topical meds, we changed his diet, etc. but his poor little bum was just super red and bleeding and it was just plain pitiful.
SO, we decided as a last resort we were going to try out some cloth diapers. Afterall, like you said, they have come a LONG way! The first brand I bought was just a kind of in between cloth diapers and disposable diapers brand called gDiapers. DO NOT GET THESE DIAPERS. They are ridiculous. The idea is great, however the silly insert doesn't stay in place and you end up with a baby's bum that looks like it had no diaper on to begin with. It was just gross in general. I still have one or two of these so I can show you what they look like if you want.
After that incident I immediately turned to my all-knowing facebook family and presented pretty much the same question you just did. I got one REALLY good response from one of my "tree hugging, hippie loving, earth saving" friends who honestly uses cloth diapers with her girls, along with making her own soap and other random crap like that. HA HA, still love her! Her advice was very useful and I can send you the message she sent me if you would like.
At any rate, we went ahead and bought 2 of the diapers she recommended, bumgenius 4.0 one size fits all with the buttons instead of velcro. THEY ROCKED BIG TIME!!!!
Seriously, I have never seen poop fall off a material the way it did off of those. They hold a ton of pee, and are fabulous. Ryker's crazy bad diaper rash went away within 3 days of using the cloth diapers!!!!
Yes, I was doing diaper laundry like crazy because I only had 2 of them and couldn't afford any more at the time, remember it was just before we moved over here so we were making no money, just waiting for the government to say we weren't terrorists.
Unfortunately, we moved into the hotel and there was no way I was going to use cloth diapers in a hotel that charged $3 per cycle to wash and you have to wash diapers at least twice and then dry - so $9 once or twice a day? NOPE not doing it. AND they were public laundry and it was all the way at the other end of the hall and and and you get the picture.
So we went back to disposable diapers. The diaper rash comes and goes, I usually slap a cloth on him as soon as it appears and it is gone within a day.
I would probably recommend either putting a disposable on her when you are out and about or at least having some on hand at all times. They are SO much easier when you are dealing with diarrhea and other nasty stuff like that.
So yeah, that's my sort of opinion. I really liked them, they take a lot more care (but with a newborn you are going to be washing poop off everything for several months so whats an extra load of laundry?) They cost a LOT more money up front, my friend suggested 12 per kid minimum, but they can save a lot of money on the back end.
OH YEAH, if you DO do cloth diapers, you may as well do cloth wipes. That was a real eye opener to me. So I'm wiping Ryker's bum and it dawns on me that I have nowhere to put the nasty wipe (I usually roll it up in the diaper and then chuck). With cloth wipes you can roll them up in the diaper until you get to cleaning the diaper.
Sorry this was so long. It's late, I'm tired, and I have opinions :)
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