Parenting after a Loss
tell me about cloth diapering
I really know nothing about it, and I'm curious.
Some questions....
is it more/less expensive than disposables?
do you wash them yourself or use a service?
are they easy to put on? I am picturing the old cloth diapers my mom had that she fastened with diaper pins and they were rectangular cloths.... are they still like that, or are they shaped to fit the baby?
is it messy? I am guessing you dump the diaper contents (if it's not just wet) in the toilet? Then what? It seems like it would be a mess, but what do i know?
anything else you want to share?
I feel guilty when I look at how many diapers we throw away each day knowing they are going to sit in landfills...
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Re: tell me about cloth diapering
I use a service so my experience is a little different then the other girls.
I think using a diaper service is comparable to the price of disposables. Most services offer only pre-folds (the rectangles like you remember) but because of the different diaper covers/wraps they can be used without pins. I use pins or a snappi because Michael is so skinny and I feel like they stay on better that way.
I use a disposable diaper liner on poop days so that when he poops, I just peel the whole mess off and drop it into the toilet.
It a LOT less expensive depending on what kind of diapers you use. We are planning on buying 24 of "pocket" diapers, which will run about $400 up front. However, we currently spend $40 a month on diapers, give or take a few dollars depending on what coupons we have. So, we will break even by the time Josie is 13 months old. Considering that most girls don't potty train until about 26 months, we are saving $40 a month for over a year. And we are going with one of the expensive kinds. you could easily spend $200-$300 up front and save even more.
I wash them myself. I was scared of that at first, but it's no big deal really! All diapers go into one big pail..the pee diapers go straight in. The poop diapers we dunk in the toilet and swish it around to get most of the solid stuff off. Then it goes in the pail with the other diapers. As long as you keep the poopy diapers really wet [almost dripping], the will NOT stain. We put them all together in washer on a cold rinse, no detergent. After that is done we do a hot wash, cold rinse with detergent and then into the dryer [we will line dry in the spring/summer to save more money]. It's one extra load of laundry every 2-3 days, depending on how many diapers you have.
Most of them fasten like regular disposables!! the ones we like have snaps, so they fasten at the waist and the leg. But other than that that look exactly like disposables, but a little fluffier.
as for poopy diapers again..if the poop is watery, you can dunk and swish, it's peanut butter like [which it's not for long], you can scrape it off into the toilet, or there are also disposable liners which can flushed down the toilet. Once it's solid, well formed poop, you just dump what you can into the toilet.
It is scary at first because there are soo many different kinds of diapers, and so much "stuff" to know, but once you actually try it it's not bad at all. Maybe adds 5-10 extra minutes of work into my day.
if you are interested, definately do a trial run..they will send you a few different types of diapers to try out at little cost to you. We are doing the Jillians Drawer trial and love it..you just send the diapers back to them after a few weeks: https://www.jilliansdrawers.com/cdcm.html
here's another website that explains alot about cloth diapering:
https://babyrabies.com/2008/09/07/cloth-diapering-the-specifics/
and here's a picture of Josie in one of the diapers we are currently using. It is called a Thirsties All-In-One and is JUST like a disposable.
Sorry that was so long!! But "The More You Know" lol. I love cloth diapering and I was scared to death to try it, but it's really terribly easy.
2 beautiful children
proud mommy!
Very interesting! I'm suprised, for some reason i thought it was more expensive than disposables. I may have to bring this up to DH.
Thanks for the info!
We wash them ourselves w/Planet detergent, in a seperate wash from everything else.
We use a combo of:
We have a sprayer attached to our toilet, so poo gets pre-washed in there. It's really not that messy at all. We keep those in a pail until they go in the laundry. The wet diapers go in a cloth bag hanging next to the trash bag in a 13 gallon trash bin. (If you want to see a pic, page me.)
I think pp's have mentioned it, but go to JilliansDrawers.com for a special trial offer. It basically costs $10 to just give a bunch of diapers a try.
You can click on the link below for more information. Hope you decide to give it a try!
is it more/less expensive than disposables? - i believe less. we registered for cloth diapers and got most for our shower. so for us it was a lot less!
do you wash them yourself or use a service? - self. i do a load of cloth every other day.you will be doing so much laundry one more load will not make a difference. and honestly, sometimes i'll throw them in with the regular wash!
are they easy to put on? I am picturing the old cloth diapers my mom had that she fastened with diaper pins and they were rectangular cloths.... are they still like that, or are they shaped to fit the baby? - we use kissaluv newborns and bumgenius. soooo easy. they close with snaps (kissaluvs) and velcro (bg). they still have the 'old school' kind and a lot of people do like those, but we don't use them. no more pins either.
is it messy? I am guessing you dump the diaper contents (if it's not just wet) in the toilet? Then what? It seems like it would be a mess, but what do i know? - we've had blow outs with sposies, but never with a cloth. (we use sposies at night and when traveling.) we have a 'mini-shower' which attaches to our toilet. you can rinse in the toilet before washing them. or you can just throw them (the really poopy ones) in the wash and do a rinse cycle. BF poops come right out in the water.
anything else you want to share? - i love Jillian's drawers. I buy all of my cloth stuff from them. i also live close to ithaca, so i can go to their store. i registered with them and they are so helpful. they have a great website.
also, post on the eco-friendly board. they will have lots of suggestions too.
i'm so glad we do cloth. i really love the diapers and feel that for us it was the right decision.
is it more/less expensive than disposables? for me, It's been more expensive because I've become addicted to getting cute diapers! I have a bunch to sell on diaperswappers.com so I can get the cost down and appease my husband!
do you wash them yourself or use a service? I wash them myself. My wash routine is just like earthboundmisfit's - a cold prewash with detergent (washes the poop out), a hot wash/cold rinse with detergent, and an extra cold rinse. It works great for us and I have so many that we only wash diapers every 3 days.
are they easy to put on? I am picturing the old cloth diapers my mom had that she fastened with diaper pins and they were rectangular cloths.... are they still like that, or are they shaped to fit the baby? We are using mostly Bum Genius One Size Pocket diapers, but also use Thirsties Fab Fitteds with Thirsties covers. I also have some Happy Heiny's that I haven't tried yet and some prefolds (the rectangle ones you're familiar with) and some Blueberry All-In-Ones that I'm not really happy with. I told you I was addicted!
is it messy? I am guessing you dump the diaper contents (if it's not just wet) in the toilet? Then what? It seems like it would be a mess, but what do i know? I am exclusively breastfeeding and do nothing to the poopy diapers. We just drop them in the pail and wash them with the rest of the diapers. Once DD starts solids, I have the flushable liners that NoVa was talking about. You just put them into the diaper and pull it out and flush it when baby poops.
anything else you want to share? I love CDing. The diapers/covers are so super cute that they can become a fashion statement in and of themselves. DD has not had a single diaper rash since we started CDIng and we've never had a blowout. She wears them at night, too and, so far, has had no leaks (she sleeps about 9 hours without a change). I definitely recommend checking out diaperswappers.com and jilliansdrawers.com. Jillian's Drawers has that really helpful trial program for you to figure out what kind of diapers will work for you and they also have a great "Gently Used" section where I've gotten a lot of our diapers. Most of my stash is used and that has saved me LOTS of money!
Good luck!!!
It is so much less money. Modern cloth diapers are economical, cute, comfy, easy to clean and wash, and so worth it!
Check out this tutorial for cloth information. It should help you get started.
I wash the diapers myself. It is a very easy routine. It takes a couple days to get used to but after that it is just routine.