Anyone here use cloth diapers?

monkey_love

I'm thinking about switching to cloth diapers, but don't know a thing about using them. There is a CD service in my area, but the cost for disposables is so much cheaper, so I thought I'd meet in the middle and use cloth diapers but not the service. If you use cloth diapers, can you tell me about your experience? How do you wash them? Is it a lot of work? Would you recommend them to other moms? Etc....

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TIA!?

hikerbeth

I did use them for cost and environmental reasons.

How much longer will your DC been in diapers?  Will you use them for future children?  You need to weigh those factors before you invest in your cloth diapers.  Initial investment will be several hundred dollars.

I would recommend going to a site that offers a cloth diaper package (I believe jillians drawers has one).  That way you can try out some different kinds of diapers to see what works best for you and your child before investing the $$.

We went with a combination of prefolds/wraps, pocket diapers, and all-in-ones depending on the situation (ie: day vs. night, home vs. daycare).

Washing was not a big deal.  I washed about every 3 days with a fragrance free detergent (I used a washable liner for the diaper pail and just threw that in with the diapers).  No swishing in the toilet, just dump off the poop and wash.  Stains come out in the sun.

When my DD was a newborn, it seemed very overwhelming to use them and I did use disposibles until her umbillical cord fell off because they were easier to fold down, but after I got the hang of it, it was no big deal, I'd just throw in the extra load of wash in the evening and make sure it was in the dryer before I went to bed. . . and then there were clean diapers in the morning.

I did use disposibles for travel and when carrying around the bulk of cloth was not reasonable (ie: we were going on a long hike for the day) and it really made me realize how much landfill space I was saving by using cloth the majority of the time and that was really worth it to me.

I did switch to pullups (disposible) ones for a few months before she was potty trained. . . I just couldn't invest in training pants for that few months.

Kapalua

Beth pretty much covered all the bases...just wanted to add that I love using them and it is super easy.  I use prefolds and fitteds with covers mostly since that was the most economical way to go.