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Cloth Diapering
CD experts I need to pick your brains!
So I would love to CD our baby due in September but haven't got a clue where to start.
First of all DH is not at all convinced & MIL is a fierce opponant to CD but honestly who cares what she thinks! (But she can sway my DH very easily, sometimes more than I can!)
We live in the desert in NM & all DH can think about is us running a washing machine every day & wasting water. I told him I think if we can get a big enough stash going we can avoid all that. Then we looked at some costs online & he balked at the prices of CDs. I can't get him to see it how I do - an initial big expense but then no more $$ on disposable for the next 2 years or so plus we can sell/pass them on when we are done!
So my questions are:
1. Anyone else really have to work on their DH/family to get them to come around? How did you do it? Any suggestions?
2. What is a good sized stash starting out? Is it naive of me to think I could be able to get away with 1-3 times washing per week if my stash was a decent size?
I am sure these questions have been used a gazillion times so thank you for taking time to read & answer!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: CD experts I need to pick your brains!
Take your DH down the baby aisle at the grocery store with a calculator and do a little math...a newborn goes through at least 12 diapers a day (more like 15-18) for about 6 weeks. Add up all those diapers...then move to size 1 and 2 diapers and so on and so forth. If you get one-size diapers you can use them the entire time you diaper.
As far as living in the desert, you might be better off with an AI2 system like Flip, Grovia, or Softbums, as your diaper laundry would be less bulky and you might be able to get by with running your machine on medium instead of full loads.
I do laundry about 5 times in 2 weeks because my stash is large enough.
Check out this Bumpie Business List .
To be honest, I did my research and then told my DH I wanted to CD. Then I started getting my stash together. I have never asked him to do any CD laundry and I make sure always to have pockets with aplix (the most like disposable) available for him to use. I bought used and looked for good deals, so the initial bulk purchases were actually pretty low. After I had my DS I started buying and selling more just for fun, but it is completely unnecessary.
For a newborn, you would be good with about 30 prefolds and 4-5 covers. Prefolds and covers are a really easy, inexpensive way to start out. Most people do prefolds/fitteds with covers until their LOs fit into one-size diapers. After the newborn stage, about 24 diapers will be fine. A lot of people on this board have way more than that, but it is not necessary - especially if you are watching your costs.
ETA - You really don't want to wash poopy diapers only once a week. My max is 3 days (even though I have a stash for 4), because I don't want poop sitting much longer than that. You definitely won't have to wash more than three times a week.
See the FAQs at the top of the page.
1. DH was supportive of me CDing, but he isn't into it. I do 95-99% of the diapering, so it doesn't really matter to me how he feels. I found that the less I talked about it and the more I just did it, the more people came around.
2. To wash every other day, at least 24 diapers is a good start.
Our water bill hasn't gone up since we started CDing. it's just an extra load every 2-3 days. And you're going to be doing baby laundry anyway. No biggie. Plus living in NM, you can probably line dry in minutes. Bonus!