Friday, 10 September 2010
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Diaper Dilemma: Mommies Please Help!
Having a baby on the way comes with a lot of questions and concerns. One of the big ones for some, is money. I heard that in the first year, a baby will use $3000 worth of disposable diapers.
Therefore, I have started stocking up now, just to be prepared. However, one of my friends told me that she uses cloth diapers. My first reaction was "Umm..no." Then she told me that cloth diapers only cost about $300 a year.. "Okay, you have my attention."
Now a days they even have "fitted" cloth diapers. They aren't the traditional plan piece of cloth that you fold up. They already come looking like a disposable diaper, velcro and all! They even come in different designs!
So now, I am looking at a split in the road and don't know which to take.
Moms- Do you prefer cloth or disposable diapers and why? If you prefer cloth diapers which brands/styles do you recommend?
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About the Author
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- From: tequilasunrise924@xanga
- About Me: My name is Cassie & I'm 24 yrs old. I am a wife to a sweet,caring,funny & talented Hubby. I am a mommy to a precious baby girl, born on Jan 6th 2011. I can be shy at times, but for the most part I am pretty outspoken. Art runs through my veins, my mother was an artist and I love to draw. I love music of all kinds, but I mainly listen to rock. I would rather have a couple true friends than a group of fake friends. Xanga is sort of like a diary for me I guess. If you want to more, read the blogs duh! <3
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Comments (68)
for our fosterbabes we use Huggies. They are not scented like Pampers. I also found a good store brand and when I go to the US I usually pick up Luvs.
For our own babies we are registered for a cloth diaper service. Its less then half the price of disposables, and I have about a dozen uber cute covers.
I use cloth, for newborns it's usually better to use the prefitted like Kissaluvs... then when they're a little older I prefer pocket diapers like Fuzzi Bunz. Everyone has their own preferences, you really need to do some research- don't get overwhelmed though lol.
Actually- one of the most affordable and environmentally friendly option would be elimination communication.. or infant potty learning. Babies are born to naturally want to be hygienic and clean and not sit in their own waste... babies respond well to using a potty from a very early age. With my last baby I didn't start until 5 months- he's 21 months now and uses the potty full time at home.. he only wears a diaper at night and when we're going out.. so my diaper laundry is great- I only need to do a wash like once a week.
I'm due with a baby in Feb and I plan to EC this baby from birth. There are books you can check out The Diaper Free Baby is one I plan on picking up. I think I will just use prefolds with this next baby, prefold and a snappi and maybe get a few covers, since most of the time the baby will be diaperless in the home.
Good luck :D
a good forum I like where you can learn lots on cloth diapers and they have an elimination communication section is diaperswappers.com or clothdiapernation is another one too.
We had wanted to do cloth diapering, but went with the Walmart brand disposables, instead. For any future children, I'm definitely going to try cloth diapering first. Since we did go disposables, this time, we went with the cheapest one we could find, that also worked pretty good. I just could no longer stomach the price of pampers when all they are is a pee/poop holder and end up in the trash. Though, pampers did feel and smell the best!
I think the biggest reason I want to go cloth, next time, is because of the savings. Plus, you'd really never run out (unless you don't do laundry regularly or something).
research cloth. I used cloth with 3 out of 5. One I couldn't because of rash issues, and my last one I was lazy (truth!)
The cloth are so much nicer now than when I used them. My daughter is using cloth on my grandson. It is the best way to go. (my opinion)
We use cloth and it is really nice. My favorite are crickett's brand fitteds. You could always give it a try and go back to the 'sposies if it doesn't work out.
My son has been in cloth since day one. I know every thinks it's gross and so much work, but we love it. If you do it from the start, having to use a disposable diaper once in awhile actually feels like more work. Cloth is better for the baby butt anyway - not a single rash and my son is 13-months-old.
I LOVE cloth diapers! LOVE them! My favorites are rumparooz. Check them out at kangacare.com :) and I agree with ErinneC up there, you can always sell cloth diapers on CL or diaperswappers if you don't like them. You usually get 1/3 - 2/3 of your money back on them.
I love my cloth diapers! I started with my first child when he was older, so I have medium and large sizes I can reuse. For the one due in November, I just need smaller sizes so I will be spending less than a hundred dollars on diapering birth to potty training (unless I need new covers).
I started with the most expensive system, the AIOs, since they worked just like a disposable and did not require a seperate cover. If you go with AIOs for your entire stash, you will not save money but it is nice to have a couple in each size. I have some fitteds, but I hardly ever use them. I moved to prefolds which are much cheaper than fitteds and don't really take long to learn how to use. Now I am using mostly flats--once you use prefolds flats are super easy--because they dry in less than ten minutes in the dryer and are the cheapest diapers you can find.
I have tried Dappi, Bummis, Bumpkins, and Thirstie covers as well as a couple handmade wool ones I bought. They all worked, but the Thirsties Duo wrap one was my favorite when my son was younger though now I like the Bummis nylon pull-on covers. I like flats and wool covers, but they seem overwhelming for beginners if you do not have anyone around to walk you through some things.
There are so many different systems, but if I was recommending for someone new to cloth, I would say to get a combination of prefolds and fitteds. You should also try pockets and all-in-ones if its in the budget just to try them. For covers, I would recommend the Thirsties Duo wrap in size one. They have two sizes that fit from preemie to toddler though some babies might need an XL normal Thirsties cover. This way you will have covers that will not seem huge on a newborn, but will not get outgrown in less than six weeks later either.
If you exclusively nurse, you do not need to do anything to the diapers beside wash them, which makes washing really easy. Once you start formula and solid foods though and poop needs to go in the toilet, you can either use flushable liners so you do not have to deal with the mess, or get a diaper sprayer to spray poop off into the toilet. Having one of those two items definitely makes cloth diapering much easier.
This is turning out to be really long, but a site I wish I had known before I started cloth diapering is www.greenmountaindiapers.com. They have good quality cloth diapers for sale, as well as tons of pictures and explanations on the differing diapering systems and brands. It is a lot of information, but it is fun to just browse some of the pictures. www.diaperpin.com also is a nice site that has reviews of cloth diaper products as well as forums for any questions you have.
Oh, and I love Pampers if I need to use disposables. Everything else gives my son a rash.
@LadyGwenivere@xanga - Just curious, why do you use different diapers for your foster children and your own children?
I use disposable diapers. I really have never had any desire to use cloth. I find the disposable diapers convenient and worth the cost. I have so much laundry to do already and I don't want to have to deal with washing poopy cloth diapers.
I love Pampers diapers. I used the swaddler ones when my son was a newborn. We never had any leaks. I received some huggies newborn diapers at a shower and used them once. My 3 week old baby leaked poop so that was the end of those. With the exception of one time my son hasn't had any issues with diaper rashes. The one time he did was because he had a really bad case of diarrhea.
We use disposable. We use Luvs for for the newborn size and then we switch to Huggies Little Movers cause they fit my daughter better. I was going to do cloth diapers, but truthfully, it seemed like more trouble than it's worth. You have to clean off the poop before you wash them. I'm already busy enough as it is, I don't have time to scrape baby poop off a diaper for every diaper change (babies go through a crap load of diapers in the beginning!) And as a mother, I have enough laundry to wash without having to add another separate load of diapers to the mix. Plus, it wouldn't help my daughter's diaper rash at all. I know some people will disagree with me, but my daughter has my skin and it's sensitive. Anything that touches her butt, be it cloth or disposable is going to create a rash. Period. With disposables, when you are out and about, you can just toss the diaper into the trash can! No carrying around a stinky, poopy diaper in a plastic bag til you get home to do laundry. Plus, with the water and laundry soap you use, it's not really any better for the environment. Also, no one says you have to keep your baby in diapers until they're 3! My daughter is almost 14 months old and we're potty training her. This way the only time she'll have to wear a diaper is at night and when we run errands just for added convenience.
@operationbeautifulme@xanga - because we foster babies ant its just a lot less of a headache to put them in disposables then have to worry about the cloth diapers coming back from access visits. We have had one baby that came to us in cloth diapers, and so we were able to do it that way. But when it comes to working with birth families, its just easier. With one we also send him in disposables and did cloth at home. it worked, but was a lot of work for me to keep track. So we keep to one.
$3000 a year sounds a bit steep. I think it's more like $3000 over the life of the child in diapers and only if they are diapered for 3 or more years. Plan for an average of 10 diapers a day when the baby is a newborn. You'll use less as they get older and 'go" less, but even if you planned for 10 diapers a day for the entire first year, that would be 3650 diapers. A box of 100 diapers costs between $12-$20 bucks or so depending on the brand. I think the breakdown is around .12 - .20 a diaper. You'll probably spend an average of around $50 a month on diapers tops. That's $600 a year. Less if you buy cheap diapers.
On the other hand, if you buy 20-30 (depending on how often you want to do laundry) NICE one-size-fits-all cloth diapers, you will probably spend an intial $400 or so. But the diapers will last your child not only the first year, but the entire time they are in diapers. And they will last future kids as well. If you buy the old pre-fold style diapers, you will probably spend less than $100 total. So cloth is definitely cheaper.
We bought 30 bum genius one size cloth diapers on sale for "buy 5 get one free" so we spent $425 or so. But Eisley still uses a few disposables. She didn't start cloth until month 3 because we didn't have a washer or dryer and she had a bunch of diapers given to her at the shower. Now we spend maybe $10 a month tops on diapers.
@Lydia_Lynne@xanga - Did you know you're supposed to clean off the poop off disposable diapers before you throw them away as well? It says it right on the box. Our landfills aren't made for poop; it's supposed to go into the toilet where the sewage system can handle it. It's crazy how it's written on every diaper box everywhere but no one knows this.
I've been using 7th generation or Huggies Pure and Natural diapers because they are chlorine free--but they are spendy and I am highly considering going to cloth. She has so many blow outs that I end up soaking and washing poopy clothes all the time anyway (she's quite a pooper lol).
@BarniganFlarn@xanga - I'd never heard of that! Crazy!
Allow me to blow your mind. (At least mine was the first time I heard about this.) YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY DIAPERS. A newborn is perfectly capable of knowing (and communicating, although not verbally) when they have to go potty, and give cues as to when this will happen. The same as you learn a cue for when your baby is hungry or tired, you can also learn their cues for going potty.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=elimination-communication.htm&url=http://www.timl.com/ipt/
CLOTH and i own a business where i sell them to :)
I used Pampers Swaddlers with my boys until size 2 and then switched over to Huggies Supreme. I never had a desire to do cloth with my boys!!! But it's your own choice of what to do.
One of my college roommates swears by cloth diapers, mostly because of money. But, she admits that she ends up having to do a load of laundry EVERY DAY. That makes me wonder if she is actually saving any money then! I don't know, maybe she needed to buy more. She actually started making some of her own cloth diapers and they were very cute but very bulky. When her daughter was 4 months old, her legs were pretty much spread eagle because the diapers were so huge. They looked so uncomfortable for the baby. And then she also does not use wipes, she carried a tiny tub of water with her and uses stripes of cloth for wipes. Between the tubes of diaper cream they had to slather everywhere to prevent a rash and carrying around those nasty full diapers/wipes every where, I was grossed out. Obviously, that's probably not the best way to do it, but she turned me off from cloth diapers.
I use disposables and in fact, I swear by Pampers Swaddlers/Cruisers. I don't find the cost to be that overwhelming, even if they are a more expensive brand of diapers. My daughter only goes through between 3-4 diapers a day (but it was more like 10-12 as a newborn), so when I buy in bulk on sale, I feel like the boxes last for months. I've thought about using cloth at home and disposable when I go out in public, but I think I'm just too lazy. I don't want to work that hard!
If you don't mind the extra work, yes, it will probably save you money to go with cloth. Maybe do a trial period? Try cloth for a few months and try disposable for a few months to see what fits you and your baby best!
Reading some of these comments.. it's not all about money, think about the environment.. do we really need more diapers in our landfills?
I vote no diapers, with some cloth use (like I said in my earlier comment, for going out and bedtime, though some people EC at night.. I haven't gotten a handle on that just yet, but hope to with the new baby).
Thank you guys so much! I guess I have a little research to do.
Is the only place you can buy cloth diapers and diaper cover accessories online??
@the_Coley_he_seeks@xanga - @Nina1981@xanga -
Thanks for sharing. I think this is a wonderful alternative.
@Charsmama@xanga - that means that your diapers are too small :] you need to switch up a size! the same thing happened to me, and my aunt told me "switch up a size, it won't happen again." I went to size twos, and boom, never happened again!!!
You can buy cloth diapers at stores like Target or Wal-Mart.
My baby is now two, and I've always used disposables. I couldn't use cloth because for the first year I was living in an apartment complex, and there were to washer/dryer hookups in our apartment.. : / totally not doable with cloth diapers.