Is it worth it on a 3rd and maybe final baby?

teenybean

For our first we lived in a one bedroom without laundry and both worked nearly full time, so we did disposables, but I thought about it a lot. With our 2nd life was crazy and I didn't really even give it 2 thoughts. But this time I'm thinking maybe. My husband will be anti this. He doesn't want the extra laundry, likes the hygienic nature of disposables, and I agree with him that environmentally its probably a push, except for the landfill portion. But I think I just want to be part of the club Ha! We never really had a nursery, and with a third baby its all been there done that. So this could be a special new thing to take on just for them.

We had a super explosive baby number one, he exploded basically all his diapers for about 9 months, so we washed a lot of poop anyway.

I'm just wondering if the expense and learning curve is worth it for one kid? I work short hours now but am mainly home and do most of the home-making chores and laundry so if he didn't want to deal with it he doesn't have to and I'm not opposed to mixing and matching cloth and disposables if need be. Both my boys potty trained more or less on their own, pretty early between 2-2.5 years old.

opinions...thoughts...advice on where to start?

Thanks ladies.

PipSqueak0313

I did a diaper service for a few months with my first then switched to sposies, used only sposies on my second, and use mainly cloth on my third....totally worth it for one child. Even if you try it, an honest try, for a month or two and decide you don't like it and selll off all the diapers have you really lost anything?

mrshudson618

You can spend anywhere from $150-$500 for a good stash of cloth diapers, while 2 years of sposies could easily go into the thousand plus range. You have done this before, you know how much sposies cost- what was your price point for buying diapers? $0.15 each? Even the best shoppers can't usually get them less than $0.10 each. At $0.15 each, 6 diapers a day x 365 day x two years= $657.

That's a REALLY low estimate considering most pay more per diaper, and 6 diapers a day is a LOW average, especially once you factor in the first couple of months where 15-18 diapers a day is more realistic.

So change it to $0.20 per diaper, average 9 diapers a day, and figure 2.5 years instead of two and that number quickly jumps to $1,642.50. It could still go higher much easily if you aren't a bargin shopper/couponer, or if this one doesn't potty train early.

I don't know what you pay for laundry, but these are some rough numbers to think about when comparing costs.

The learning curve is not as bad as you think, and remember that you capfuls always buy used, sell your stash when you are done, or both!

freezorburn

I think even if you were to do it for only the newborn phase for 1 baby you would save money. You'll get through the learning curve after your first few diaper changes and your first load of laundry.

This is a great place to come if your run into problems or have any questions.

The environmental part is a big piece of it for me. I visited a working landfill when I was in grad school. To say it was awful is an understatement. It's not something I will ever forget. 

Start with the FAQ, I think there's a link to the Cloth Diapering 101 series on YouTube.

www.greenmountaindiapers.com has a lot of good info and pictures especially if you are interested in natural fibers and going the prefolds/flats + covers route, which is very economical and durable. And probably provides the best fit for containing runny NB poo.

www.jilliansdrawers.com offers a NB trial or NB rental program that you can customize. You could do a trial or rental and also buy some GMD prefolds (doesn't have to be either/or) to fill out what you would need for the NB phase -- we recommend about 36 changes to wash EOD.

ElleBeeDub

Definitely worth it. My sister just had her 5th (and probably last) kid, and he's the first one she's used cloth with. She LOVES it.

Also, I agree with Pip. You can always try it and sell your stash if it doesn't work out. I've bought and sold quite a few diapers, and I've broken even on pretty much all of them.

lookame3639

Chickypoo2468 said:

In just laughing bc you said YH likes the hygienic aspect of disposables and then you said you were washing poop out of clothes bc of blowouts for 9 months. .

Not to mention all the used/dirty disposable diapers you find in parking lots or wherever because people don't want to take that in the car or walk to the nearest trash can.

I'm done having kids after this little girl is born. She will be the only kid i have in diapers. Like pp said I'm testing out the newborn phase and if anything that'll save us money.

TugboatSheila

Also it's a total snowball effect. 

At first you want to bang your head against the wall because there is so much information out there. But then you start to find blogs, youtube channels and forums that make sense and get a feel for what would (might) work for you. Then the sifting through information becomes fun and a challenge. If you're crazy, like me, creating excel sheets helps. Looking at the numbers help and the best feeling in the world is finding a good deal on a diaper!!

As you start to buy the diapers and ask questions here and get everything together it gets easier. I'm awaiting the arrival of my first baby and we're still getting the things together that we need but resale value, environmental aspects, less chemicals on baby and saving money were all things we took into account when deciding what worked best for us.

teenybean

I actually used prefolds as burp clothes for both my barfers! So I actually have quite a few around. The poo blow outs from number one were mentioned that I had already dealt with washing poo a lot and I'm not scared of it.

I know the key for me and my husband is consistency. Is there one type (I don't mean size...obviously that would change over time) that anyone used mainly the whole time? Like to me using a prefold and a cover seems the easiest and most consistent. The same basket of prefolds sitting on our dresser next to the covers, simplistic folding, no last minute "oooh should I use pocket or oh my pocket is empty all I have is a cover whoopsie" moments are really important for me to avoid.

Can you simply use prefolds and covers for the duration? and why all the options and switch ups? It seems like many people have many types running. Is it just curiosity? cuteness? like variety? I would totally prefer to just have one style to avoid confusion. Is that possible?

CLLDLL

Yes you absolutely can just use prefolds and covers the whole time.  In fact if you want really simple you can use one size of flats the whole time & just change up the covers as baby grows. With the possible exception of needing doublers or fitteds for night time if you have a heavy wetter.

That being said we recommend variety for a couple reasons.  The biggest is fit.  Honestly it's pretty unlikely that one brand of diaper will fit a baby well at all times from birth to potty training.  As baby grows and their body changes different brands fit better than others.  Some brands work great on tall skinny kids and others work good on chunky thighed kids.  Some brands work great during the immobile infant stages but work terrible when baby starts toddling around.  And which brand is different for each baby. You won't have that issue with prefolds or flats though.  You can always customize the fit with those to your kid, no matter how they grow!!

We also recommend variety because it's nice to have different types of diapers for different uses.  I love all-in-twos (AI2s) for my diaper bag.  I can bring one extra cover and a handful of inserts instead of a handful of diapers.  Less bulk.  Some like fitteds for night time.  They give a lot of absorbency and don't leak for tummy/side sleepers.  Pockets are great for adding absorbency when you need it.  AIOs are great because you don't have to search for the right insert to stuff in.  But pockets dry much faster than AIOs.

Also CDs kind of become an obsession.  You just want to buy.all.the.prints.  And in my case you want to try.all.the.diapers in case you're missing something you'll love.  

If I were to do it all again, and my goal was a stash that was usable and inexpensive, I'd get 12 flats, 12 prefolds in each size, and round it out with 6-12 pockets, AIOs and AI2s in the NB size and the OS.  If you need to use a daycare, I'd have 6 less flats and 6 less prefolds and replace them with 12 pockets or AIOs in velcro/aplix.  I find that just works best at daycare.  They never get the snaps tight enough. ETA:  Oh and 6 covers in NB/size1 and 6 covers in OS to go over the flats/prefolds.  Only 4 if using a daycare.

sumati

You could totally just do pre-folds and covers.  It is all up to your preference.

I fall in love with certain prints and I like to have a variety to things to try.. I figure that if it doesn't work for me, I can sell it and get my most of my money back and buy more of what works for us. But most of my stash is all the same type of diaper.

mrshudson618

We have done prefolds and covers for 10 month now, and have tried some pockets and AIOs, for nighttime and or babysitters, but 99% of the time it's all prefolds.

teenybean

The prefolds I have are legit, but I would probably just keep them for their current use. We make spitter/barfers, so we use those and receiving blankets for the top end. I would most likely keep it all consistent for downstairs and start with a fresh set, because I sense opposition from the male counterpart. I don't want to discourage him from changing diapers...that's a bad idea in my mind. In all honesty since I am the main laundry person keeping things simple is probably more for my own sanity. Cute baby and kid socks are cute but after awhile folding the same white socks for many people has its appeal. So I was just wondering if there was a "need" for variety or just preference. In fact because people have such a wide variety of things they are running with that is what made it seem sorta overwhelming.

Is it hard to get clothes to fit over cloth diapers?

I am sorta leaning toward starting with the green mountain prefolds and workhorse with covers. Those look nice and simple.

Whats the main diff between prefolds and flats besides areas of absorbancy? Why do people prefer one over the other.

I'm a pragmatic sort. I've never separated my baby laundry from the adults and don't plan to do any special detergent either. I know the diapers will be washed apart because they'll already be sorted apart in the pail, but do I need a fancy washing routine or detergent?

Talk to me about pails and stink. If you have an upstairs and downstairs in your home do you have 2 changing areas/pails? We never did a genie or anything with our disposables, but after they transform from breastfed poop to "real" poop and the number of poops slows down each day, we would take the diapers immediately to the outside trash, with a dump of pee diapers outside once a day. Trash got dumped to outside trash once a day when they were in breastmilk poop phase. We're kinda not into stinky stuff in the house.

thanks everyone for the input so far. Glad I asked

CLLDLL

Flats a mostly one sized. They take more folding up front, but are really similar in absorbency to a small to med. prefold.

Prefolds come in sizes. ( depending on the brand 3 to 5 different sizes.) You still have to fold them a bit before putting on baby, but less than a flat.

I prefer flats because they dry faster and can really be used from birth to potty learning. You can also make a flat from pretty much anything. Receiving blankets, kitchen towels, etc. I still like prefilds a lot too though. The bigger sizes hold more than a flat and the smaller sizes are less bulky on a newborn.

The only clothes I've had trouble fitting over cloth is footie pjs. We just size up sooner.

We used sposies on our oldest. That diaper pail stunk. CD pails really don't stink. Seriously. You dont want an air tight pail. Instead something with no lid, a loose lid, or even a wetbag with a zipper you leave partially unzipped. More airflow = less stink for CDs. The only time I've had a stinky wetbag was during really nasty toddler diarrhea or when I went longer than 2-3 days between washing.

As far as washing, if you stick with simple flats or prefolds you can use powdered tide or homemade detergent with no trouble. Just make sure it doesn't have fabric softener added. That will make your diapers not absorb. If you use anything like pockets , AIOs or fitteds you'll want to stay away from brighteners and enzymes too. Www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com has a good list of recommended detergents.

HTH!

mrshudson618

One of the main reasons people like variety is that babies change shape so much as they grow. No two types or brands fit the same, so some are better for the pre crawling chunky thighs, while some fit better on slimmer babies.

While some covers are cut differently, prefolds or flats give a pretty custome fit so tht shouldn't be a big issue if you are going that route.

Another reason for variety is for different purposes. While we use prefolds most of the time, we do have a few pockets and AIOs. Sometimes these are nice to throw in the diaper bag for a quicker change on the go, or to have for babysitters to use since it eliminates a step, and is more similar to sposies. For a while we were using pockets at night.

freezorburn

In addition to the above I find that pockets and AIOs are a bit quicker to get onto a squirmy baby/toddler. But I still love prefolds and flats when I can manage to get them on DS. Can't beat easy-washing natural fibers. They tend to absorb better than MF too.

Also it sometimes happens that the way one diaper or cover is fitting might leave a bit of a line on the skin where the elastic is. It's nice to have some different diapers that are cut differently so that you aren't always compressing the same skin all day long.