Cloth diapering part time - worth the cost?

bananers

I had originally planned to cloth diaper during the day and use sposies at night. I know disposables tend to be more absorbent and make the baby feel drier, and with the long hours I work already, sleep won over. But I still really want to CD during the day.

Well, unfortunately, the daycare we really like so far says absolutely no cloth diapers. We're still looking around, but it's looking like a very real possibility that the only opportunity we'll have to CD will be in the late evenings after we pick him up from daycare and before bed (which will only be a couple hours worth of time), and on weekends.

DH is already very skeptical of CDing and it has taken a lot to convince him. Realistically, does it make sense to build a CD stash for this little usage? I hate the idea of the environmental impact of sposies, but it looks like we can't avoid that with the night and daycare situation. I'm afraid the idea of going through maybe one CD per night and then weekends won't justify the cost of buying the CDs in the first place. Thoughts?

KellersPrag

If it means that much to you for the environmental reasons, then I'd say yeah - at least do it the little bit that you're able to. You wouldn't need a huge stash to do that, anyway... as long as you are able to do laundry every day (on the weekends) and every other day or so during the week. The cost wouldn't be high, and maybe down the road you'll be able to CD more.

tjkdlhb

It is worth the cost.  You wouldn't need a full stash if you are doing it part time.

FWIW, my stash cost me 800$ and was much more than I should have spent.  A lot of people spend $300-500 and have a great stash.

If you go with prefolds and covers you can get

15-20 prefolds @ roughly $4 each

3 covers @ roughly $13 each

 and spend less than $100

For pocket diaper, Kawaiis, sunbabies and Alvas are popuar cheap options.

Disposables cost about $0.25 each x 8/day x 365 x 2.5 years til PT. That would be over 1800.

Even if you used 3 a day during the week and 8 a day on the weekend, you'd be spending (31 x 0.25 x 52 x 2.5) over 1000$.

So, even if you spend 200-300 on cloth, you'd be better off financially.

ETA: Diapers can then be used for another child and have great resale value.  Usually you can re-coup close to 2/3 of what you paid for them.

ETA 2: DD sleeps all night in a fitted with a cover.  She only wakes because she's hungry.

nycnola

We are going to CD #2 part time like this- evenings on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday (depending on our schedule for the week), Friday evening while we're home, all day Saturday and Sunday. If a holiday falls the following Monday, we'll CD then, too. Then, we really only have to do one or two loads of cds a week, but we are still saving at least 20ish diapers from the landfill every week. 

caroline1212

I'm totally a lurker here but I'll throw in my $0.02. 

We started CDing DS at 18 months. We did it part time since daycare wouldn't do it. He potty trained at 2.5. So for a year, part time it was totally worth it to us. Of course by 18 months he's wasn't going through as many sposies as he would have at a couple months old. 

I bought the CDs knowing that we would reuse them for #2. I'm probably going to SAH starting in May so the savings will be totally worth it for our new LO, but even if I kept working and doing CD part time the cost still would have been worth it.

We went through maybe 3 cloth diapers a night (2 in evening, 1 over night) so I told myself that was 3 diapers we were saving- times 5 days a week- that's practically a jumbo pack that we didn't have to buy. Plus we CDed the whole weekend, holidays, summer (I'm a teacher) etc.  

 

 

 

FreshBakedBrownies

bananers:

I had originally planned to cloth diaper during the day and use sposies at night. I know disposables tend to be more absorbent and make the baby feel drier, and with the long hours I work already, sleep won over. But I still really want to CD during the day.

Well, unfortunately, the daycare we really like so far says absolutely no cloth diapers. We're still looking around, but it's looking like a very real possibility that the only opportunity we'll have to CD will be in the late evenings after we pick him up from daycare and before bed (which will only be a couple hours worth of time), and on weekends.

DH is already very skeptical of CDing and it has taken a lot to convince him. Realistically, does it make sense to build a CD stash for this little usage? I hate the idea of the environmental impact of sposies, but it looks like we can't avoid that with the night and daycare situation. I'm afraid the idea of going through maybe one CD per night and then weekends won't justify the cost of buying the CDs in the first place. Thoughts?

 Just some things to consider...

1) newborns don't sleep through the night.  My son is 6 weeks old and still wakes up to eat every 2 to 3 hours.  You have to be up to feed him, so what's the big deal to change him too?  You're up, so why would you let him sit in a soiled, although possibly dry feeling, disposable?

2) if you really only use one cd per night, you won't have enough to wash a whole load.  You need to wash at least every 2 days.  It's supposedly bad to let your diapers sit longer.

3) you are much more likely to have poop explosions (out the diaper onto clothes, bedding, etc) with disposables.  Most cloth diaper families don't have this problem - ever.

KatelynEA90

I think it would be worth it.

Also, I don't understand the idea that LO will sleep better in a disposable? DD sleeps 12 hours in a cloth diaper. The other night she went 14 hours. She does the same in a disposable except she wakes up with the front of her clothes wet.

For a few months, you are going to be waking up a few times a night to feed the baby. In the beginning, LO will poop everytime he/she eats so you will be changing the diaper regardless of what kind it is?

Diapers with stay-dry materials work great at keeping baby feeling dry all night. 

Aurora_Borealis

I had originally planned to cloth diaper during the day and use sposies at night. I know disposables tend to be more absorbent and make the baby feel drier, and with the long hours I work already, sleep won over. But I still really want to CD during the day.

I CD a very heavy wetting toddler overnight. She will leak through a disposable, but very rarely with cloth. So for us disposables are a terrible overnight solution. Also, as PP mentioned until your LO stops pooping at night you pretty much change at every feeding. For some babies that is when they are 3 months old. 

Well, unfortunately, the daycare we really like so far says absolutely no cloth diapers. We're still looking around, but it's looking like a very real possibility that the only opportunity we'll have to CD will be in the late evenings after we pick him up from daycare and before bed (which will only be a couple hours worth of time), and on weekends.

When you asked your potential daycare did you show them a modern all-in-one or pre-stuffed pocket diaper? If not they likely think you mean flats, pins and plastic pants which is why they said no. Also, I would be a little wary of any DCP that responds with 'absolutely not' to any parent request that isn't illegal or outrageous. If you do find a DCP that is willing to do cloth make sure you factor in the extra cost of disposables when comparing to the other provider. Also, if you haven't already, buy a diaper to take with you so the provider can see that it's not any different than a disposable.

DH is already very skeptical of CDing and it has taken a lot to convince him. Realistically, does it make sense to build a CD stash for this little usage? I hate the idea of the environmental impact of sposies, but it looks like we can't avoid that with the night and daycare situation. I'm afraid the idea of going through maybe one CD per night and then weekends won't justify the cost of buying the CDs in the first place. Thoughts?

If you're committed to it, it's worth it. But I would seriously reconsider overnight diapering both to make it more worth it and because it's not as big of a deal as you're thinking it is. Most of us here diaper overnight. It's a common topic on the board, though, since it can be a moving target as babies grow and sleep patterns change. What has worked up until a certain point sometimes no longer works. This also happens with disposables. And with pretty much anything regarding kids!

katie6/26/04

We did it part time with DS and I found it to be worth it still.  I only went through a few diapers per day at daycare and we will get to reuse them for our next little one.

jenn1981

I still think it would be worth it, especially since you'll have all day on the weekends. I also think you are misinformed about using disposables "because they keep the baby dry". A fleece liner or a synthetic diaper (lots of brands, ie BG 4.0) keep the baby from feeling wet. If you're already going to be using them each night between work and bed, why not overnights as well? My DD has slept through the night in a cloth diaper since 8 weeks and I've never had any problems, nor would I ever want to use a disposable when I didn't have to!

lageorgiapaperie

I would ask the day care provider if you could get a doctor's note to approve CDing. I've heard it might work!

Also, I love CDing overnight! Before we switched we had terrible leaks with disposables overnight. We went like 4 months w/o an overnight leak in a CD. Then we started having issues when he was sleeping on his tummy, but that's another story.