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October 2011 Moms
whittier06
member
What's the big deal about cloth diapers?
whittier06
member
I know there are a few October mamas who use them, and more who don't so I'm just looking for some insight. I have a friend who told me she loves that they use cloth diapers and it's so wonderful and so-on. She said i'm really missing out by not using them. Am I missing something?
I don't really have an opinion either way. I'm really just curious what everyone else thinks. Why or why not cloth diapers?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: What's the big deal about cloth diapers?
We have been using cloth since our LO's came home from the NICU. I love it. There was a short time around 3 months when they had outgrown their newborn diapers and were still too small for their one size diapers and I used disposables. I tried several brands and hated them all.
I hated all the trash and the stink with disposables. The cloth diapers don't stink as much, doesn't make sense, but that's been our experience. DS has super sensitive skin and he turns bright red whenever he's in a disposable. He doesn't have any problems with cloth and neither of my kiddos have ever had a diaper rash. I've never had a blowout in a cloth diaper. We've saved a ton of money. I spent about $400 total and am pretty well set on diapers until the babies are potty trained. I'm sure I'll buy a diaper here and there over the next couple years, but it will be much less $ than disposables and I can sell the diapers when I'm done using them. I was really surprised to discover the very high resale value of cloth. There is also the environmental impact of disposables. Yes, cloth has an environmental impact as well, but I feel like it's a much more environmentally friendly choice and that is important to us. I do diaper laundry every other day. It's one extra load of laundry and really isn't a big deal.
Last, but most important, cloth diapers are super cute;)
It can be VERY overwhelming to begin with. Once you get the hang of it - and what it all means, AIO's, pockets, AI2's, etc., etc., it becomes addicting!
Feel free to PM me with any questions or visit the cloth diaper board. There is a great FAQ's post over there and the ladies are very friendly and will answer any questions you have.
The best advice I can give is find a store in your area that carries a decent variety of brands and types. Go to the store and look at all the diapers & ask lots of questions. You'll walk away much less confused:) Then just jump in a try a few. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing. Try an AIO, a pocket, a fitted, see what you like what you don't and go from there!
My BFP Chart
Aug 19, 2010 ParaGuard IUD Removed
Sept 7, 2010 Dx w/Hypothyroidism (TSH 6.7) Began taking Levothyroxine
Feb 15, 2010 BFP with #1
Nov 1, 2011 DD1 Born
DH is NOT willing to try cloth diapers! He says he won't put poop in our washing machine.
Little does he know I just bought 3 of them on amazon to try them out. Ha!
Diapers stink once they have poop in them regardless of what kind of diaper you use. I have never tried CD but friends of mine that used them stopped using them once starting solids because of the difference in poop and once LO STTN because the cloth couldn't hold the pee. So it didn'take sense to only do them for a few months, plus they are extra work. Props to those that use them but they weren't for us.
We use cloth diapers for DS overnight (12 hours). They hold all the pee just fine.I mean that is one of the great things about them, is that you can change the absorbancy to match your kids pee abilities. DS poo really doesn't stink so I can't attest to that. My friend's kid just started solids and she likes it even better than before because she just plunks the poop it in the toilet and throws it in the wash.
Anyhoo, I LOVE them. We have NEVER had a blowout from cloth (vs. when we used disposables on vacation and had a blow out each time DS pooped) and the only leaks we have had were from user error. They are super soft. We are probably spending around $400 total and they last from newborn to 35lbs so we are saving a lot of money.
I think the care is very easy. Since he is not on solids the poop is water soluble so we just throw the wash once every 3 days or so. They clean out right away, we haven't even had any staining. As I mentioned above we used disposables on vacation and I really didn't find them to be any less work.
Plus, they are super adorable!
I am a true part time user of cloth diapers. Since we EBF, the poop dissolves in the wash - no scraping or anything and we do laundry every few days. I try to use 2-3 a day. I figure that is making a small difference in the amount of diaper garbage we generate, and I think they give C a nice break from disposables. My experience is that they actually contain poop better. We only have poop blowouts from disposables. That said, I do find I need to change her more frequently because pee can soak them fairly quickly. I know I could add an extra liner, but I find especially as we're growing out of a particular size (C is about to move into 6-9 month clothing), then her pants don't fit over the diaper with the extra liner in there.
I am glad I do it the way I do. I thought I'd be closer to full time, but we're moving and have a lot going on and yeah, it's laundry. But, we are making a small positive impact on the environment and there are advantages. We only use them during the day.
We use cloth and I love them. The poop is really not that big of a deal. You can just toss the entire diaper into the washing machine without dealing with poop at this point. When the baby starts solids, you can either use a diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet, swish the diaper in the toilet, or if the poop just falls into the toilet, you're good to go.
We have never had a blowout and as pp said, the only time I've gotten leaks is when I didn't put the diaper on properly. For the diapers I paid for myself, I bought my entire stash (with the exception of one cute handmade diaper) on sale during my pregnancy. I also registered for diapers and received quite a few as gifts. I didn't calculate how much I spent on diapers, but I love the fact that at this point, my baby is essentially "free" between cloth diapering and breastfeeding. I take really good care of the diapers so that I can reuse them with any future kids.
As far as overnight, there are several options to preventing leaks. If you use a pocket diaper, you can increase the absorbency by adding more inserts. People seem to have luck with two microfiber inserts and a hemp or bamboo. Other people really like fitted diapers with wool covers. That's the cool thing about cloth-there are so many options that you will no doubt find what works best for your baby. And while the ecological footprint is definitely not zero with all the washing, it is better than using disposable and that appeals to me.
We have been cd'ing from the hospital and love it! We have never had a poop explosion and only a handful of leaks but it was due to his clothes being tucked into the diper. We have never had a nighttime issue. I love the fact I am not putting chemicals on my LOs bottom and that we are not creating all that trash... I can't imagine what 2 years of dispsable diapers looks like! I also bought my whole stash before LO was born so between bf'ing and cd'ing, other than clothes and non-essentials, he has been free!
also we bought a new HE front loader washer/dryer just before he was born to limit our impact on the environment, water and electricity wise, and they are amazing. I do 3 extra loads of laundry a week but the washer uses an insanely small amount of water and my diapers come out sparkling white. In the fall and mild winter days I line dry but on cold days I dry on low for about an hour so I don't think the environmental impact of CDs is even close to disposables, in my case. And if you wash the diapers right and every other day, there is no stink in the bag or pail you are storing them in. And his bum looks sooooo cute 
on and I change him every 2-3 hours and I have a heavy wetter. I think maybe the person changing evey 45 min was washing wrong, so they weren't absorbing correctly. I used newborn diapers for my LO, instead of sized, and now that he has outgrown them, they are washed and packed away, for the next baby! They look aand feel brand new so I won't have to buy any!
I love talking CDs. Let us know if you have any questions! Good luck!
Wow! Thanks for all the input! I can definitely appreciate the bad and good. I don't know where my urge to use them comes from, and I hate doing laundry.
Either way, I ordered some thirsties duo wraps with some prefolds and also one fuzzibuns. I'm pretty excited! I'll keep y'all updated!
So when your kid has blow outs you throw their clothes away? Lol. I never got this logic.
We do both, I prefer CD but we use sposies when we're out because of convenience. There are only a few that currently fit her skinny little legs so we are mostly using prefolds.
Exactly! He's a doofus! Not only that, but I was a CNA for a long time, there are worse things than baby poop. Way worse.
We use cloth 99% of the time, and love it! Long before I got pregnant I told DH I wanted to use cloth because of the environmental impact (only negative to CD is the washing, while disposables use water in their manufacturing plus take up landfill space, etc.), the benefits for baby's skin without all the chemicals, and the money we'll save since we hope to have a couple more kids who will use the same diapers. Like others, I don't know how much I spent on them but it wasn't much and I have enough pocket diapers to do laundry every 2-3 days. The laundry doesn't take much effort and we line dry the diapers and cloth wipes (cheap washcloths) inside the house.
The last time we used disposables for a weekend at my parents DH commented on how glad he is that we've chosen to use cloth instead. I hate the smell of the disposables; I swear I can smell the chemicals (as pp mentioned, not with 7th generation, which is what we try to use when we have to use disposables, but we were given some Pampers and other brands for free)! Lily has only had diaper rash twice and both times were when we had to use disposables for more than a weekend. We have had some leaks (DH somehow seems to get part of her onesie IN the diaper a lot. . .
), but we've only had poop blowouts with disposables. We use cloth overnight now; we used disposables when we had a diaper service for the first few weeks because their diapers couldn't last longer than a couple of hours, but our Bum Genius pockets with an extra liner work for the 12 hours Lily's in them at night. As others said, the beauty of the cloth diapers is that you can adjust the absorbency (it's important to remember this as friends of ours gave up on cloth when their daughter leaked overnight but they never tried adding extra inserts). We use double stuffed diapers overnight and first thing in the morning since she pees a lot in the mornings.
I know things will change when we start solids. I was actually advised that the worst is in the transition period and someone suggested using disposable liners for a little while until her body adjusts to the solids. We might do that, or even disposables, for a short time, but I'm pretty committed to making CD work until potty training (which I've heard/read can happen earlier with cloth since they feel the wetness more than with disposables).
And for your DH's concern about poop in the washing machine: the whole point of a washing machine is to get things clean! If it's not cleaning the diapers, it's not cleaning your clothes (which, let's face it, with babies around, get poop on them, too) properly either.
BFP #1: July 12, 2010 Natural M/C: July 26, 2010
BFP #2: January 30 ,2011 Born: September 29, 2011
BFP #3: January 5, 2013 Born: August 25, 2013
I love cloth diapering! We initially started because of the money saving factor (we only paid about $350 for our entire stash) and have continued for several reasons. For the first few weeks of our LO's life we needed to use disposables because he was too small for our one-size diapers. I absolutely hated using disposables. They were so expensive and he kept getting nasty diaper rashes (we tried a few brands and he even had an allergic reaction to something in the Luvs brand). Once he fit the cloth diapers we have never looked back.
We only need to do laundry every 2-3 days and while we do need to pre-rinse the poops it isn't that bad now that he only goes once a day. We have only had one blow out this entire time and it was because MH didn't put the plastic cover on correctly. Since switching to cloth my LO hasn't had any more diaper rashes. While you do have to change the diapers more frequently, you definitely don't have to change them every 45 minutes lol. We change the diaper every 2 hours or so, and when he is wet or dirty he definitely lets us know he needs to be changed. That is also one of the reasons I didn't like disposables, your baby doesn't feel when he/she is wet. I also like cloth diapering because supposedly potty training is easier and can happen sooner because they already know that wet feeling. I am so happy that I cloth diaper and highly recommend at least trying it out.
Thank you! I just got 11 diapers (if you count the flip inserts) for $72! Now I have 18, do I guess I'd better learn to love them no matter what!