cloth diapers vs. disposable

CNYAmber

I'm thinking way in advance about this stuff (never too early?)...

I'd love to know if people are happy with cloth diapers. If so, is there a better brand than others? If so, why? Do you use a service that cleans them or do you wash your own? Are there any drawbacks to this (aside from having lots of laundry)? Did you buy or rent them?

 I would imagine that the cost of cloth diapers is really less expensive with multiples than it would be with singletons. If you use cloth, when (if at all) do you find you need to use disposable diapers?

Thanks in advance for advice.

Ruby_Tuesday

I thought the opposite, that you saved more money cloth diapering several singletons than you do with multiples.  The biggest cost with the cloth diapers is the outlay of $ to buy them.  With singletons you only have that expense once then you pass the diapers down to the next kiddo. 

That's about as far as my research into the world of cloth diapers took me.  I'm just not that ambitious. 

Out of curiousity, what kind of support system do you think you will have when the babies come?  I guess I'm asking because I can't imagine adding anymore chores than absolutely necessary to raising quads.

Temp6313048411121614

I used to CD DS1 but quit on a very hormonal day early in my twin pg.  I prefered the cheapie pf's with either Dappy covers (2 for $5 from cottonbabies.com) or my wool cover.  I had an awesome stash of Goodmama's, but ALWAYS went for my pf's.  I washed them myself b/c I chose to CD to save money (yeah, buying all of the GM's really didn't go with that, but whatever).  It would be cheaper to CD singletons b/c you'd need a fraction of the diapers to buy.  CD's, if you buy quality will last through several children.  Check out the CD board.  GL.

KarlsSweetie05

I am going to try CD with twins, but with quads, I don't know if I would be able to keep you.

You might want to cross-post on the Cloth Diaper board too.

As for cost, the initial investment can be high.  However, you can buy used and factory seconds to cut down on costs.  Also you can sell your used diapers and recoup some of your costs.

Another thing with CD is that the "one size" dipes do NOT fit newborns and especially not preemies.  One size do not fit until 10-12 lbs or even bigger.

So with quads, you will be using disposables when they are in the hospital (possibly in NICU).

When they get to 5 lbs-ish, you can switch to newborn size CD if you want to buy them or rent them.   If you buy, the cheapest way will be prefolds with covers.  And you will probably want to buy used because you will need so many.

 

ProwdMommy

I decided that I wanted to CD thinking that it would be cheaper than sposies.  Well now that Amazon has 30% off with subscribe and save and then another 20% that come in Parents Magazine, the difference is really not tha significant esp when you factor in the costs of washing.

OrangeSmoke

Ruby_Tuesday:

I thought the opposite, that you saved more money cloth diapering several singletons than you do with multiples.  The biggest cost with the cloth diapers is the outlay of $ to buy them.  With singletons you only have that expense once then you pass the diapers down to the next kiddo. 

That's about as far as my research into the world of cloth diapers took me.  I'm just not that ambitious. 

Out of curiousity, what kind of support system do you think you will have when the babies come?  I guess I'm asking because I can't imagine adding anymore chores than absolutely necessary to raising quads.

This - I'm way too lazy to CD.  If I had some time, I would much rather spend it snuggling my babies instead of doing yet another load of wash.

SoldiersGreenBean

I am completely on board with CDs.  We CDed DD1, and CD the twins.  We started for the cost savings, and we've more than seen it.

With the twins, I do diaper laundry 1x/day.  It doesn't bother me, because it's a few extra trips up and down the stairs.  We've seen an increase in our water bill, but not our electrical bill (and we use the electric dryer to dry them).  I can't imagine how often I'd have to do diaper laundry with quads, though.

Run the numbers, and see what makes sense for you.  You can do CDs cheap (prefolds + covers, buying used), expensive (goodmamas), or middle of the road (most pocket diapers or all in ones).  As PP mentioned, Amazon's got pretty good deals right now.

Like I said, I'm usually all about the benefits of CDs.  But I'm not sure that I could fathom it with quads.  On the other hand, though, I can't really stomach the thought of how many sposies I'd be adding to a landfill, either.

Haven1

For us, it was a daycare thing.  My daycare lady doesn't do CD, so I would have been dealing with both.  No thanks. I applaud those who do, but it wasn't for us. 

schoolsoutbride

SoldiersGreenBean:

Like I said, I'm usually all about the benefits of CDs.  But I'm not sure that I could fathom it with quads.  On the other hand, though, I can't really stomach the thought of how many sposies I'd be adding to a landfill, either.

Ditto.  I'm doing it with twins and it's not a big deal, but am having a hard time fathoming CDing quads.  

If I were going to do it, I'd do prefolds and covers, which would be cheaper than sposies for sure (PFs are super cheap.)  

I probably wouldn't start until they were old enough to not poop every time they eat (+ some, or is that just mine?)  So maybe start around 3 months? 

Actually, if you started around 3 months (adjusted age if necessary b/c they'd have to be 10ish lbs), you'd probably need 10 CDs a day per kid and could do one-size diapers and maybe sposies at night (for ease).   A 12 pack of Bumgenius are ~$200 at cottonbabies.com x 4= $800 start up costs.  You'd have to do a load every day, but I think you could do 40 diapers in a load (am I crazy here?)  That's still cheaper than sposies and the laundry is pretty easy (no folding, just run load, dry, stuff either all at once or when you change (I'm a when you change stuffer.)

leviandlandensmom

We have 3 in cloth and it's easy for us. We've already saved well over what we've spent and it's not that much extra work. A load every other day for us. We started with pre-folds and covers with the twins and switched them to one size pockets when they were big enough because it was too much for me to have two different systems for my 3 in diapers.

Considering the fact that you have quads, don't expect to be able to use cloth for the first 3 months or so b/c they are probably going to be pretty teensy when they're born. I personally would just go straight to pockets or all in ones when they are big enough for ease of use. Kawaiis are very inexpensive as are gogreen pockets. The more Kawaiis you buy the less you pay if you buy them directly from theluvyourbaby.com, you can get them by the dozen and they are great.

HTH!

jalaiaa

We've used cloth since the beginning and I know it has saved a ton. We use disposables just on vacations. I bought all of our diapers as seconds or used, so that saved a ton. We mostly use Fuzzibunz and BG 3.0s. Personally, I love using cloth. They've saved us a ton and we have a lot less blow outs than with disposables.