Cloth diapering has become a very natural part of our family life. My family and friends have gotten used to changing them and no one is surprised anymore. But why do we do it?
1. Diaper rashes- My daughter has a very sensitive backside and she got rashes from her sposies in the first two weeks of her life no matter how often I changed her. She seemed to be allergic to one of the chemicals in the diapers When we switched to cloth we didn't have so much as another hint of rash until she started teething.
2. Cost- My first set of diapers cost about $80 for all my wraps and diapers.
My second set cost about $100. I wash about twice a week, and air dry, so my monthly cost is $8 or so. If I use my ancient gas dryer the cost goes up to $20 or $25. My friend tells me that sposies run about $40 a month, I've seen other estimates online upwards of $60, but I'll use her number. So, my total diaper cost for the life of my daughter, 26 months, so far has been about $450 (that's with $82 for dryer uses). For sposies it would have been at least $1040, that's without the cost of having garbage men come and tote away all the used ones. So far I've saved almost $600, but wait, it gets better. When Bean is born I can reuse the same diapers. So when Bean is 26 months old I will have spent $270 instead of $1040. So over the course of two children I will save about $1360.
3. Earth friendly- Cloth diapers are biodegradable. They don't have a negative impact on the environment. Disposable diapers supposedly will decompose after 200-250 years. Willow has used somewhere between 5000 and 5500 diapers so far. About 250 of them have been sposies. I like the 250 diapers in the landfill better than the pile of 5000-5500. I want my baby's bigest impact on the world in 200 years to be something other than her pile of diapers. I use unbleached diapers and organic laundry soap, so there's very little chemicals involved. The production of sposies uses all kinds of chemicals and leaves chemical waste.
4. Effectiveness- When we have used sposies we have had leaks of poop on Willow's clothes. In her first two weeks I had to change her onsie at least 1/3 of the times that she pooped. With the cloth diapers since then she's gotten poop on her clothes maybe 5-10 times. The cloth diapers are so much better at containing the messes. Between this and the rash factor i don't even use sposies when we travel anymore. I only use them when we don't get the wash done fast enough.
5. Convenience- Surprised to see this on the list? Well, I never run out of diapers, there's always more in the washer. I don't have to go out and buy them. If the money is tight one month, I don't have to worry about how I'm going to get more.
6. Smell- There are few things in this world that smell worse than a diaper pail. I'm in my first trimester right now, so this one is even more important to me. With the cloth diapers we can rinse them with the diaper sprayer before putting them in the basket, so there is little to no smell other than wet cotton. I admit we don't always rinse the wets, so sometimes there is a pee smell, but it's still better than than a pail of sposies.
7. Early potty training- My daughter self initiated potty training at 18 months. Other cloth diapering families I've talked to have reported training complete as early as 14 months. The reason, I would guess, is that the kid can feel the wet. There's no moisture lock liners or feel-dry surfaces. If the kid is wet, they know it, and they don't like it.
I use bummis superwhisper wraps and prowraps with prefold diapers. The bummis wraps cost about $12 new and you only have to buy two sizes. The prowraps only cost $7.50, but you have to buy three sizes. Both work very well. I buy second hand wraps, which are much cheaper. Prefolds cost $1.50-$250. These I buy new and I get the thickest ones available because they don't cost much extra and they last much longer. With this system you only need a few wraps because you only have to wash them when they get pooped on or if they've been wet several times.
There are many other types out there. Most are more expensive. Some are easier to use.
What kind of diapers do you use? Why did you choose them? I want to hear from sposie users too.
Comments (25)
We cloth diaper as well, and have since my son was 7 months old (he'll be two next week). I wish we had started when my daughter was a baby, but she's developmentally delayed and is still in diapers, so she's benefiting from the cloth as well.
We use a combination of fitteds, prefolds, all in ones and pocket diapers. I've never really added up the cost of what I've spent, but every time I buy something, I sell another diaper. I may have spent more for what I was buying that what I sold a few times, but all in all, it's been a relatively even trade.
Hear, hear.
When I mention that I cloth diaper, I get really negative comments. Mostly about utility bills (although, I have been known to hand wash and air dry). My husband's aunt even said, "Wait until your baby has a runny poop." Well, she has...so I wash the diaper. It costs me nothing but time.
I love cloth. Fuzzi Bunz are my favorites. We've been using cloth since Andrew was three weeks old. I would've started at the hospital but his legs were too skinny for EVERYTHING (i couldn't even make the prefolds tight enough). But....he's fat now so it's good. :)
I spent about 100-150 dollars on diapers and covers. I only wash twice a week and I line dry everything. He looks so cute in them.
People tell me I'm "Brave" for using cloth.....didn't know that was the definition of brave. ;)
We are currently using disposable diapers but I want to switch to BumGenius.
I use BumGenius, Bummis, and dipes that I make myself. I loooooooooove cloth. Wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
Has anyone tried http://www.gdiapers.com/? They have a washable shell & the diaper liner is flushable. That'll save on laundry & still earth friendly!
we use a combination of pre-folds and all in ones. I am thinking of getting some fitted ones when I order his cloth training pants. I mean it's not like I won't have diapers for my next child.
@Shinbi_Belldandy@xanga - I have, but I find them to be expensive. They also didn't work as overnight diapers for my son. We use them when we are travelling.
I started using CD's for all the same reasons too. But we don't use them 100% of the time. Yes I agree with you that CD's contain runny poop messes much better than sposies...they've never leaked for me with poop. But They've leaked pee often, but I guess I'd rather them leak pee than poo, lol. I use the BG 3.0's because I didn't want to have to keep buying different sizes of cheaper diapers. I'd be willing to use a system like the one you are, but I've already spent so much money last year on the all in one pcket diapers. We also had a stash of Fuzzibunz in all different sizes given to us from a friend. Such a generous gift!
@Shinbi_Belldandy@xanga - They didn't really work for us. I ended up using them as prefold covers instead. :)
I don't have kids, but when I do I'd like to use cloth diapers. Disposables are just such a waste. I thought most people who use cloth had a diaper service that came to take the dirty and bring clean, but it looks like most people here wash their own. How do you get rid of the poop? I wouldn't put a full diaper in the wash, but I also wouldn't want poop sitting in a garbage can all day. It also seems unsanitary to wash them out in the sink or tub. Just wondering, but I guess I don't actually have to worry about this for awhile :)
@XxFireXboltxX@xanga - We use Fuzzi Bunz and LOVE them! Aren't they fantastic?
@RoAngie467 - We started with second quality Bum Genius diapers and they were an awesome way to get in to cloth diapering without getting too complicated. Unfortunately our daughter can't wear velcro diapers anymore because she'll pull them off so we use Fuzzi Bunz because of the snaps.
I wanted to use cloth for the convienence factor of not having to budget for diapers and never having to worry if we were low on diapers. We had two kids in diapers for about six months and it was nice to not have to get two different sizes and keep track of whether both kids had enough diapers to get us through until we could get more. We started with Bum Genius one size pocket diapers but we moved on to Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heineys and some other brands. I think one thing I love the most about cloth diapering is it can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. We bought everything either second hand or new but second quality and it's all been in awesome shape. Now my 19 month old refuses to wear disposables even though she did for the first eleven months of her life with her biological mother.
@tryingtofind_me@xanga - Most people either have a sprayer that hooks to the toilet and rinses the poop off in to the toilet. We don't, we just drop the poop from the diaper in to the toilet and it's not a big deal at all. I honestly thought it would be so gross to deal with but it's not worse then changing a disposable.
when i have kids i want to use cloth diapers. they sound so much more natural and healthy
@Kait82521@xanga - Hmm, I didn't think about the velcro straps. My son already pulls off his disposable diapers, LOL.
@RoAngie467 - We never had a problem with my older daughter but my younger daughter just doesn't ever want clothing or diapers on. She really likes being naked lol! Fortunately she can't undo the snaps on the diapers so that's been helpful!
I LOVE cloth diapering. My son is three months, and I already feel like I've saved so much $, not to mention messy poopy blowouts are WAY less common than when I've occasionally used sposies. I've bought all my covers (bummis pro wraps) used, which I use with prefolds. I never plan to switch. It's good for environment, he doesn't get diaper rash, and it's super convienent for our lifestyle.
Hmm, only one drawback- my baby does seem to enjoy the freedom of the trimmer cut of sposies when I've used them (on trips). To counter the bulkiness of cloth, I try to give him some extra naked time. I figure it also helps him air out (hehe).
Added bonus that you didn't mention- cloth diapers work well as burp cloths.
@Shinbi_Belldandy@xanga - I have used them. they seem great at first, but in my opinion instead of being the best of both worlds, they were the worst of both. Buying liners is just as expensive as sposies, plus the cost of the covers. Plus, babies grow more quickly out of the gDiaper design (at least my baby). Added to that, you still have to wash the covers, but no prefolds or flats. It takes a while to have a "full load" of just covers, so in order to not waste water I washed them by hand. Which I HATED. AND, the liners were def not absorbant enough at night. Now I just use the gDiaper covers with prefolds so as not to waste them. I like the idea, they just didn't pan out for me.
I use mainly Happy Heiney's and Bum Genius 3.0. I prefer the Happy Heniey;s because I think the velco holds up better. I did not start cloth diapering until he was he was around 8 or 9 months. And I never saw a difference in my water bill.
@tryingtofind_me@xanga - I don't have the nozzle for my toliet. But I do use flushable liners (I believe that they are from Kushies) that I put in the diaper. When he poops, I can just take that liner and flush it. Poop gone!
This is the site I order all my CD supplies from. They sell the toilet diaper sprayer thing too.
http://jilliansdrawers.com/
I love cloth diapers and I honestly don't know why more people don't do it! I still use disposables when we take day trips and stuff and I hate it every time I have to a)buy them and b)throw one away. I use gdiapers with cloth liners and Yucky Ducks. When she was a newborn, I used Kushies. The startup cost is the tough part, really, but after that you never have to buy diapers. Ever!
best way to clean cloth diapers is to pre-rinse them off in the toilet using
a Hand
Bathroom Bidet Sprayer. So convenient and if you are trying to help the
environment (and your pocket book) you can give it a double whammy by virtually
eliminating toilet paper use by using it on yourself also. That is what they
were originally created for. I think Dr. Oz on Oprah said it best: "if you
had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn't wipe it off with paper, would you?
You'd wash it off" Available at http://www.bathroomsprayers.com they come
in an inexpensive kit and can be installed without a plumber. Now we're talking
green and helping the environment without any pain. One review: http://jonathanandandrea.blogspot.com/2009/04/spray-it-or-scrub-it.html
I've used Fuzzi Bunz through 2 kids and loved them. I also used the flushable liners, which made everything less messy or smelly. I liked your points for cloth diapering vs sposies and have found the same is true for me.
I am sold on cloth diapers definitely. It's nice. I use an assortment of styles and brands including some snap diapers made lovingly by a friend. If I were a better seamstress I'd try doing it myself. Mainly I use prefolds and those are nice b/c it's a uniform system, they dry faster the above mentioned reasons. But those all in ones are nice to stick in the diaper bag for outings. No difference from a throw away diaper.
My tip is to dry them in the sun whenever possible. A natural disinfectant and whitener.