Now that I have 2 kids in diapers I'm astonished at how much money I spend on diapers as well as how much trash it makes. I'm considering (don't hold me to it!) using cloth diapers for when we're at home.
Anyone have experience with cloth? I need recomendations because there are about a gigillian different kinds out there and frankly, it's making my head spin! I'm looking for something simple to use and that won't take me 50 cycles to wash. And where is the best (cheapest) place to buy them?
3 comments:
We're using them for Madelyn. I used them for Elyse for awhile until she started leaking through them.
I use Fuzzi Bunz. I bought them awhile ago so I don't remember where I bought them. I think diapers.com is a good place to get them. They work great. I use disposables at night because they were leaking through on occasion.
We wash them by doing a cold rinse and then washing them. We are lucky to not have to pay our water bill on base so I can't tell you how much extra that would add to the cost. I know a few friends who said the increase in the water bill is significant so you might want to check on that before diving in.
Overall, using them was much easier and less gross than I expected.
I used cloth with Noelle for at least 6 months (until she developed a weird rash and I was afraid to go back after her rash cleared up). But I've considered stripping them and trying again... disposable diapers are REALLY expensive!
My favorites are the BumGenius, and we're lucky enough to have a store here in STL that carries them. It's called Cotton Babies, and the great thing is that you can find them as 'seconds' or 'repairables' for WAY cheap! They also have a few bins that people use to sell them used, also very cheap. You'll want at least 15 diapers to cloth one baby full-time. They need to be on a rotation or they will wear out very quickly. You can find repairables for usually $3-5, seconds are usually $5, and you can find BG 2.0 on sale for $10. The BG 3.0 are more expensive, usually $15 or more. The inserts can get pricey, too, especially if you use hemp (which is thinner and usually more absorbant, although I didn't really notice a big difference). Cloth diapers do need to be changed more frequently than disposables - at least every 2 hours. And they are bulky enough to make you pull out the next bigger size in clothes for the bottoms.
The detergent I used (and bought there at Cotton Babies) is called Planet, and a little goes a LONG way. You don't want to use too much detergent on cloth dipes - very important, because it prohibits their absorbancy. At Cotton Babies, they give you very good written instructions for laundering, but basically you'll do a cycle on cold and then another complete cycle on hot, followed by an extra rinse to get the rest of the detergent out.
Make sure they teach you (wherever you end up buying the diapers) how to correctly put them on. There are spaces you have to check to be sure they're closed... It can be the difference between leaking and not - I'd be happy to show you, too. :)
The other thing that I did that helped the gross factor quite a bit, was use a liner of a single folded sheet of Viva paper towels. That caught all the poop and was so easy to just toss, and Viva paper towels are WAY cheaper than the liners they sell.
Also, breastfed poop is completely water soluable, so you don't have to scrape or rinse off Wesley's diapers - bonus! You probably want to try just doing the cloth with him at first.
This makes me miss the cloth! Al really prefers cloth to disposables (but of course, he didn't have to deal with the laundry at all!). There is something nice about it, it feels very domestic to me and I think they're more comfortable for the babies.
Ladies -- thank you so much for your info. It is very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to share with me. Who knew there were so many options for catching "waste"! haha. I might be making a trip to cotton babies soon!
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