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August 2021 Moms
emmylou78
member
Product Spotlight: Diapers
emmylou78
member
So many things related to diapering!
Favorite disposables? Do you buy during pregnancy or are you planning a diaper raffle during your shower? Helpful hints at scoring the cheapest options?
Favorite disposables? Do you buy during pregnancy or are you planning a diaper raffle during your shower? Helpful hints at scoring the cheapest options?
Cloth diapering: favorites brands, types, resources. Do you use cloth wipes? There’s so much to learn
Diapering set ups? Do you plan on a changing table or wing it in the floor? Carry along changing pads?
Diapering set ups? Do you plan on a changing table or wing it in the floor? Carry along changing pads?
Diaper pails (for cloth and disposable). Is the Genie worth the money
Wipes warmers: yay or nay?
Wipes warmers: yay or nay?
Add your own!
Link to previous and upcoming topics https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1mqlBWywDw6uR06rrrZZ0pQ5FdUpa5hMt4aB6jpO4ha4/htmlview
Re: Product Spotlight: Diapers
My other friend is giving me a stash of bum genius diapers and they were another brand I really liked last time.
We don't have room for a change table so baby will be changed on a change pad on the bed or floor.
I didn't use a wipe warmer last time as we used cloth wipes with water so if we were home I'd just use warmer water on them .
As for a diaper pail, we use an open tall laundry basket. If it's closed it ends up smelling terribly
Diapering set ups? Do you plan on a changing table or wing it in the floor? Carry along changing pads? We have a changing table. It is a part of DS dresser (top opens). We still use it 50% of the time for the past 2 years. I only have a changing pad for the diaper bag.
Wipes warmers: yay or nay? Nope. We use cloth wipes and I just have a stack of dry and squirt on some water from a peri bottle.
I know a lot moms who love having their diapers delivered from Amazon. They have it set up for regular shipments. I’ve never tried it, but in case someone would be interested in that method, I thought I’d share!
We change anywhere we are. We do have a large useless vanity countertop in the bathroom and I use double stick tape to tape down a changing pad on there (super fancy). I bought a plastic trash can with a flip lid that we use because it fits under the sink (poop has to be taken out right away).
We do disposable overnight and when we go out/travel (which is rarely these days) just for ease and I love pampers pure for that. She got rashes with target brand and I tried hello bello but they fit weirdly long (maybe better for skinny babies?) And I just like getting my one box of diaper on Amazon delivery once every 3 months.
I’d like to cloth diaper at birth this time so I’m curious what works for little babies, leaning toward covers and flats. Oh and I follow a ton of Facebook groups for Information. I also store them in her dresser, I was using a diaper stacker but they’re too heavy and tore the strings🙈😅
Diapering set ups? Do you plan on a changing table or wing it in the floor? Carry along changing pads? We have a changing table that is connected to the crib and i used it quite often with DD2, she’s getting too big now since her legs hang over. I have a changing pad for the diaper bag and a skip hop one that was gifted but doesn’t fit cloth the greatest. It has a small zipper compartment for diapers and wipes. I also have a wet bag near our toilet and a diaper sprayer to clean 💩 diapers.
Wipes warmers: yay or nay? I attempted to keep pre-moistened cloth wipes in one but haven’t used it in about a year. I just keep my cloth wipes folded in the drawer below the changing table and wet as needed.
I loved the changing table, especially for newborn phase. I put all the cloth diapers into a 31 bag on the bottom. I hate laundry but love diaper laundry strangely! I got them all out to wash them and MH said I looked like a dragon protecting my eggs, sitting and folding them.
We never changed a diaper anywhere else than his changing area in top of his dresser. We have a raised house, however the living area is all on one floor (the second floor- you have to walk up stairs to our front porch.) Therefore we didn’t have to mess with stairs to access the changing area. For the same reason a diaper pail was absolutely necessary because I wasn’t going outside and down steps to throw a diaper out every change.
Someone else mentioned diaper bags- I’m obsessed with Dagne Dover bags. I have a bunch of them and love them. I’ll prob do one of their diaper bags. I had a PBKs one for DS and it fell apart. DH got his own ‘masculine’ diaper bag that is made my ex military guys and loved it.
@surrenderdorothy I have a giant dagne dover work bag and it is SO heavy so I never use it. Hopefully their diaper bag is lighter.
I've had skip hop gray diaper backpack and it's been fine. Holds everything I need, gender neutral so I can make MH carry it and light/sturdy. It's not super cute though.
+1 for the Ubbi diaper pail. When we used with the cloth diapers we just used a wetbag in it.
We also use Pampers disposables and Huggies natural care sensitive baby wipes. We tried a few generic brand wipes and did not like at all.
For any Canadians looking for diaper cream, the President's Choice Zinc Oxide cream (not their diaper rash cream) has the highest percentage of zinc oxide in any other grocery/drugstore brands. It is sold in the baby aisles, but it's label has red writing and the diaper rash is blue. It worked a treat for us, but we were lucky and didn't run into a lot of diaper rash so we really didn't have to use it very often.
ETA: we only used diaper cream with disposables. I think there are some cloth diaper safe balms, you can use liners(?).
I prefer AIOs (all in ones), but mostly have pockets that are stuffed.
Alva worked well for overnights since I added a few inserts (hemp, bamboo and flour sack towels).
I really liked smartbottoms and best bottoms. Kawaii isn't too bad, but runs big and wide leg holes. BumGenius elastics get stretched and give out quickly, so not a fan.
I bought 10 fuzzybuns newborn size to try this round, so curious to see how those go.
@pickle-chips I like the fit of BG, but the elastics issue was frustrating. By the time DD was 2 and finishing diapers, it wasn't as big of a deal since she had chunky thighs. But they wouldn't have fit her for the first year. Bought most of my diapers on FB marketplace as well!
How many cloth diapers do you need? We have been thinking about using a diaper service instead of purchasing outright.
What is the #1 negative and positive (minus environmental factors) about cloth diapers, in your experience?
1. Depends on age and type you get. I started in the nb stage and they go through 10-12 a day. So I used 5 covers (6-8 would be better) with about 20 flour sack towels. Which would last us about 2 days.
As they get older/ bigger it is still recommended to change them every two hours except when sleeping, I believe DS would go through 8 or so a day until about 18 months. Now he uses 5-6 a day not including his nighttime diaper.
As stated above DS has super sensitive skin. I always wanted to CD, but this made it not a discussion for family. Before we started everyone had a comment about how awful it is and how I'd give up. Still going almost 2 years later.
2. My one positive: DS never had had a blowout in cloth, but did everytime we tried a disposable.
My one negative: I hate dealing with bm diapers once they start solids. DW was fine with cloth diapers as long as I deal with the cleaning bm diapers and diaper laundry in general. I love diaper laundry though.
For simplicity, All in ones and pockets are usually easier. Flats and other options can be a bigger learning curve.
To start, you could do a few cloth and disposables.
If you want to get through a full week before a wash, you will need quite a few. I built up over time to about 60 total, and could go 1 week between washes. I was working full time and didn't want to wash frequently. But I started with 10 diapers to see if I liked it. That would usually only last one day since you should still change as often as disposables or at least check for wetness.
Pros for me: can save money (I did it for cost savings and bought a lot preloved and didn't care about cute prints). I estimate I saved about $1800 over 2.5 years. Better for the environment. Never had to worry about sizing or running out of disposables, but did need to make sure to have some clean ones available.
Cons: there is a learning curve to learn a good wash routine, it can feel overwhelming at first, you tote around dirty diapers in a wet bag and you need to figure out fit.
If you have other questions, happen to answer!
I am totally fine for people to do what works, but we have an eco friendly low water use washer, so at one load a week, combined with our daughters clothes we already wash, I don't see us using any more than we would anyway.
Costs definitely vary depending on what you buy. But we spent maybe $200 total for diapers and detergent over 2.5 years. I believe most people spend more than that on disposables. And now we can use the same diapers for baby 2. But I was very frugal in my approach.
Thankfully, our state has a law saying you cannot turn down cloth diapers if you are a center. So we didn't run into that issue.
For newborn: prefolds (green mountain ) and thirsties covers makes up more of our newborn stash. We also have a few fitteds and very cute all in ones (thirsties), but actually prefolds work best.
as they get bigger I like thirsties pocket diapers, bum genius 4.0 and flip covers and inserts. I have a few sustainablebabyish fitted diapers for overnight and also large fuzzibunz. I’ve found that it’s actually really good to have a variety. My 2 kids have fit diapers a little differently so even though they all work, I have different favorites for different situations.
I use some cloth wipes with a little bottle of water or solution.
Diapering set ups? Do you plan on a changing table or wing it in the floor? Carry along changing pads?
i have a very random old plastic trash can with a flip lid and wet bag liner and it works perfectly well. Cloth diapers don’t stink as badly and you don’t want them completely airtight anyway.
Wipes warmers: yay or nay?
Also, I saw a woman on tiktok mention that she stores her poopy diapers in a sealed container until she can rinse them all out at once (just pee diapers were in an open-air wet bag). But as @Clobert said, I thought you didn't want to store dirty diapers in a sealed container, so I'm thoroughly confused on that technique.
I have prefolds, but I only use them in covers (which is an outer shell) and pretty much treat them like an insert.
Prefolds require snappies or pins and a little bit of a learning curve. You still need a cover over them, at least when they get a bit older to where they can soak through more.
This is a prefold and this is how I use it.
This is a prefold with snappies and no cover.
I personally only store diapers in an open air bin in our laundry bin or occasionally a wet bag. I go one week between washes. So I keep an odor eater eater near it and it does fine.
Never tried wool. I hear great things, but they are definitely more expensive. I use Alva pockets overnight stuffed with hemp, bamboo and a flour sack towel. Never had leaks.
Some people save the poop diaper to spray together but I wouldn't. Thankfully my LO has nice ploppable poop so don't typically need sprayer or anything else. And in the beginning EBF poops are water soluble so no need to do anything with poop diapers other than wash.
@hannelorre My sister also really likes thirsties covers. And she mentioned to me about EBF poops being water-soluble, which is something that made me feel like this was more do-able in the beginning when I'm still learning.
Thanks, ladies!
@shoogapoff I have some prefolds. I usually use them in DS nighttime diapers as they are a cotton/ bamboo mix. For that I pad fold and stick in a pocket.
If using with a cover, I fold them as shown above and put the cover on (no snappi). I used snappi's at first, but found them a waste of time.
I rinse poop off at the end of the day or at nap time. I try not to leave it, as I've heard stories of them becoming moldy if they get forgotten about.
Using a service puts the cost significantly higher than disposables from the few sites I researched.
Here is some on environmental effects (conclusions page 35): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291130/scho0808boir-e-e.pdf
As with all baby things, you should do what's best for your family.
ETA: As for daycare, if they do allow it, they won't necessarily rinse it for you so would be good to ask a lot of questions about their policies.
Admittedly that is not a good cost comparison for the average person. I dont know any cloth diaper moms who wash 3x per week and do 3 washes each time. Thats only having enough diapers for 2 days. Maybe starting out, but if you go FT, most get more. I am a little confused why she would wash so often if she had 53 diapers as well. That would be going through 53 diapers in 2 days, statistically very unlikely.
I wash 1x per week, do a pre-wash and a full wash cycle. 1 cold, 1 hot. You normally have to "bulk" the load so most add baby clothes or towels. So I just wash all her clothes like I normally would. So for my situation and almost 90% of CD moms, that's the same. $750 on stash is on the higher end for 50 diapers. That's an average of $14 a diaper, and given she mostly has prefolds, she really spent some money. You can buy quite a few pockets (which are not the pricey ones like the author said lol, AIOs are), for between $5-$10 easily new. Much less for used. I have bought BumGenius all in ones for $2 a diaper used when people pay $25 plus for it.
I know people who spend more, but I was able to buy 60 diapers for $130. Also, if you look at year 2 of the Simple Dollar, CD comes out ahead by their math, even with her overspend at first. Factor in 2 or 3 kids, you are definitely ahead. Most kids also aren't fully out of diapers by 2 years exactly.
I would disagree on the disposable pricing too. I bought pampers on sale and they were .35 cent a diaper and while Walmart charges .12 cents a diaper for their parents choice, a lot of people report rashes with them unfortunately. Parents Choice would have easily cost $400 in the first year, still more than I spent on CD. Add in another year, that's more.
I agree a diapering service more than likely would not be cost effective.
For the environmental study, it brings up good points about it coming down to how people launder. If you have more eco friendly machines, the impact is far less. Also, less frequent laundering or co-mingling loads helps. I know a lot of people will hang dry for preference. Bummed the study didn't talk about the "waste impact" of landfills very much. I am wondering how 3,000-6,000 disposable diapers sitting in a landfill compares. But I can look into that individually.
For daycare, you pick up diapers usually daily. So you dont need them to empty the poop or rinse. I did CD for 1.5 years at a daycare and never once had an issue with rinsing later.
Again people should do what works, but I think there is some misrepresented information on the Simple Dollar. That person doesn't seem to have very much experience with cloth diapering or wasn't approaching it with a very frugal mindset.
I would encourage people to join an actual cloth diapering group to get more accurate information. There is a learning curve and each option has pros and cons. But I see a lot of misinformation and sway to steer people away from CD that isn't accurate.
If people are deciding on their choice from the Simple Dollar alone or similar articles, then, it may not give them the best information to consider.
I just want to make sure people have accurate information. It can be intimatidating and people often say "eww, that's gross" or "you have to wash poop!" that makes even more challenging for some to feel supported in having options.
Disposables are much more widely used and supported. Just trying to balance the picture for those who are considering options. 😊