Anyone have experience using cloth diapers?

jlt3357

Before I got pregnant I thought about using cloth diapers but now I'm not sure if I am up to the task. I hear that they are cheaper than disposables but only if you launder them yourself because the services are expensive. Anyone have experience using cloth diapers? Any advice/tips?

LoveLo2010

I would be interested to hear every one else's answers too. I have been lurking on the cloth diaper board and there is a ton of info. 

 

I personally plan on cloth diapering and I've already started my stash with some that I found on clearance

 

 

CourtneySue

I LOVE mine. Flip during the day BG 4.0 at night & wash all of my own. I know it is chaeper if you dont get sucked into all the "cool" print diapers. Check out the CD Board & there is a ton of info there. Many Will suggest to buy a trial pack & find ou what works for you but that costs a bit more. I just went to the store & asked a bazillion questions to narrow it down.

pinkpepsi

See if there was a service offered in my area I would probably do cloth diapers. But We already have so much laundry being a family of 4 and we are soon to be a family of 5, so I really don't know if it would be worth it. I would love to hear everyones idea's/experiences though!

MrsT0522

We are cloth diapering...I think I am finally getting used to all the terms used in the CD world, and we are narrowing it down to which ones we want to use.

We are lucky in that we have a store a few blocks away that sells a ton of different CD's, so we can go in there and play around with them instead of blindly buying online. 

ChibiMommy

We cd and I love it. I haven't had any problems but my m/s is getting tough. lol  There isn't a diaper service near me so IDK about those.  We save so much money and we will save even more this round because we already have most of our diapers. They are adorable and I can't help but keep buying them. lol 

LMK if you have any more specific questions.  

klp28

We've been using cloth since A came home from the hospital and we absolutely love it (my H included)!! I would recommend it to anyone and it's SO much easier than it seems. For us, it's just one extra load of laundry every 3 days. I would definitely say do a trial or make sure to buy a variety so you can figure out what works for you and your baby. I am going to have 2 in diapers when this baby comes and I know this is when we will really see the money savings! GL!

ebt1978

i used cloth diapers with my son from about 6 months until he was potty trained...around 2 years, 4 months.  i thought they were wonderful.  i used the bum genius 3.0 one size.  i did launder them myself.  i have one of the washers that is front loading and i would just run a cold prewash and then a sanitary cycle.  then i dried the cloths and air dried the outside part.  really easy and honestly you just get used to it.  they have made some improvements with the bum genius since the ones i bought, so i think im going to buy new ones for this baby even though i sill have all the ones i used before.  they never got nasty or stinky.  i highly recommend them and wouldn't do it any other way. 

pinkpepsi

I like hearing all of the positive feedback. Maybe I will consider doing this and look into it a lil more. Thanks for posting this!

jlt3357

How is the leakage factor? I know from previous nanny experience that occasional blowouts are going to happen but how leak proof are they? I was in a store today that caters specificaly to cloth diapering and the options were overwhelming!

ChibiMommy

When the diaper fits properly, I've never had any leakage issues. When it was time to switch to a larger size we did have some issues with him filling a dipe with pee. lol 

We had more leaks with sposies. 

punkrockabye

We definitely plan to CD. We'll start out with mostly prefolds. We don't have in unit laundry so we're going to buy a small portable washer that hooks up to the sink. We'll use it some for our clothes too. DH handles our laundry in the basement laundry room, 3 floors down and one building over, so I figure I can manage the diapers and whatever we may want to just wash in the mini washer. 

I'm one of the lucky ones (it seems that way anyway) whose DH is just as in favor of it as I am. He loves the cost savings, diminished trash, and health and safety benefits for LO. He'll probably be intimidated by the prefolds right at first but no more than I will be; it's just something we'll jump into and learn from mistakes... and with the results of cloth diaper mistakes, you probably learn pretty fast! 

MWAJ

jlt3357:

How is the leakage factor? I know from previous nanny experience that occasional blowouts are going to happen but how leak proof are they? I was in a store today that caters specificaly to cloth diapering and the options were overwhelming!

They are 100% better at preventing blowouts than huggies or pampers. One of the reasons I loved CD is because of the blowout prevention.

As far as leaking pee, it depends if the diaper fits right. You do have to change the diaper more often with cloth (depending on the material). 

I went a little over board on the cute diapers with my son, so we won't have to by much this time around. 

You can also sell used diapers on Spot's Corner on hyena cart. They have a great resale value, so it can be really cheap CDing. 

CourtneySue

MWAJ:

jlt3357:

How is the leakage factor? I know from previous nanny experience that occasional blowouts are going to happen but how leak proof are they? I was in a store today that caters specificaly to cloth diapering and the options were overwhelming!

They are 100% better at preventing blowouts than huggies or pampers. One of the reasons I loved CD is because of the blowout prevention.

As far as leaking pee, it depends if the diaper fits right. You do have to change the diaper more often with cloth (depending on the material). 

I went a little over board on the cute diapers with my son, so we won't have to by much this time around. 

You can also sell used diapers on Spot's Corner on hyena cart. They have a great resale value, so it can be really cheap CDing. 

Totally! When we travel & use sposies we always have leaks. Our CD never leak. We swear that BG 4.0 made our son sleep through the night faster, because he is a big time night wetter.

sabrina_nb

We've been CDing since DS was a few months old and we love it!  It's so much easier IMO and I love not having to buy diapers all the time. 

KBabySmiles

We CD and love it. I had way more blow outs and leaks with disposables than I do with cloth. We do all our own washing and it's really not a huge deal. It's just another load of laundry every couple of days. I honestly HATE doing laundry, but don't mind diaper laundry. It's just part of the routine now.

The CD board on the bump was a HUGE when I was getting started. They have a faq link that details pretty much anything you would ever need to know. 

If you're not totally sold but want to try it out, Jillians Drawers has a try cloth program that is super reasonable. You put a deposit down, they send you diapers and you try a whole bunch of different brands to determine if/what you like and then you can send back what you don't use or send them all back if you decide it's not for you and they credit your card back. I want to say they only charge like $20 or something. 

Since every kid is shaped different, not all diapers work for all kids. So it makes sense to try a few out before buying a whole stash that may or may not work. For example, BG's are too wide for my DS, and he leaks out of them and they aren't as comfortable as some other brands. We use mostly FuzziBunz in our house, but I have lots of friends whose children don't wear FB well. So it really all depends on the child...

Lou&Beth

My mom did cloth diapers back when I was a baby so thankfully she knows some stuff about them, but with all the new options out there it's a little confusing. I've been reading on the cloth diapering board, there's some pretty helpful info on there. They have a FAQ section that answers all the questions of how to clean them, store dirty diapers, how to deal with them on the go, basically everything I needed to know was answered on there. Definitely in the long run they are much much cheaper.

stever

I'm another CD'er who loves it! We have mostly BumGenius and some Thirsties and Happy Heinies and we wash them ourselves. I ditto the sentiment about it being rough on the m/s, but all in all it's worked out really well

pixieprincss

We've CDed DS since he was born. Honestly, I would never consider a service. The options they have  in terms of diapers are limited and most use harsh chemicals to clean the diapers which negates some of the enviornmental benefit. Plus, then you have endless cost and nothing to sell at the end like you would with a stash that you own. Washing them at home is very easy--we're just talking an extra 2 loads of laundry a week (depending on the size of your stash). We use some of EVERYTHING. When DS was NB, we liked Kissaluv Size ) + Thirsties covers, then we went through prefold + Snappi love. These days, we have some of everything--prefolds, flats, pockets, AIOs, hybrirds, etc. For us, they all work about the same. A stash of all Bum Genius was never in our budget and, for us, just is not necessary. (Actually pockets are my least favorite just because I don't like stuffing.) Check out the CD board!