- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Cloth Diapering
i say yes he says no
my fiance and i have been discussing cloth diapers. I think it's a great idea and could save a lot of money but he says no way. Either way i'm going to buy some and try them out (first child), but those of you that use them what are the pros and cons?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: i say yes he says no
My DH was the exact same with our DS. When we got pregnant with DD, I brought it up again. I showed him that they can be just like sposies, but will save us money. Once I figured up how much we've spent/spend to get DS to 2 1/2 (hopefully he'll be potty trained by then) he was all for it. I promised I would do the dirty work and all he would need to worry about would be putting the diaper in the pail.
For sposies/wipes for DS we've spent about 3300 (this doesn't include what we will need to get him to 2 1/2 (he'll be two in May). So to get him to 2 1/2 (november) we will be spending roughly 3600 (give or take a little)
For my stash I've spent about 500...and that's it. I figure saving 3,100 is plenty of reason to do it. Plus they are so freaking cute!
DH wasn't totally sold on it at first either, but DD is allergic to disposables so he had no choice <insert evil laugh here>
he loves it now! i'm not sure of any cons. maybe because i will. not. let. him. touch. the cloth diaper laundry, lol. so for him it's the same as putting on a disposable, it just goes in the pail after! he has even told some of my friends DHs he likes it when they've asked about it
as for general pros and cons: pros- they're adorable, they save a lot of money, they can be good for the environment, oh and did i mention they're adorable? cons: you have to wash them. but seriously, once every 2-3 days is not the end of the world!!
My DH was not on board for our recent switch. I ordered a pocket and showed it to him and he was fine with everything but the poop aspect. I explained how it worked and then threatened him with a cloth diapering class. I also pointed out that I do 100% of the laundry and 90% of diaper changes, so he really had very little say in the matter. He finally gave in and said he didn't think it was a good idea to make extra work for myself, but if I really wanted to do it he wasn't going to give me a hard time.
We used disposables for DS1 from birth-PTing, and honestly I never calculated the exact cost but ~ $50/month. I just recently started CDing DS2 and I only have about 17 pockets/AIOs that cost about $350 so I figure as long as I CD for at least 6 months I'm basically breaking even, and if I CD until hes 2.5 and PT like his older brother we'll be saving a ton of money.
I will say that if we have a 3rd child I don't know if I'll do newborn CDing or not. And if I do it will just be a rental program, until the child can fit into our one size diapers, and also stops sh*tting 10xs/day.
MH was adamant about not doing cloth, mainly because our parents did, and they (mostly his mom) were trying to talk us out of it, because they only had experience with them 30 years ago.
I took him to a store and showed him all the different kinds, and he cam around. (It also helped that the male owner of the store explained things to him in a "guy way")
I would suggest taking him somewhere to show him that it's not all pins and swishing in toilet.
My pros: Saving money, trash, much better for LO's skin, better for the environment in many, many ways.
My cons: figuring out a good wash routine. After trying lots of other things I think my answer is that I have ridiculously hard water. The poop doesn't bother me. We've put DS in sposies while we've been working on stripping the diapers and rebuilding our stash and poop is just as smelly and gross in a sposie. Technically you're supposed to put that poop in the toilet too, human waste does not belong in a land fill. Plopping in a toilet or even dunking and swishing is no big deal IMO.
Pros: Save lots of money, better for the environment, baby not sitting in icky spoosie chemicals all day, cute cute cute designs.
Cons: Takes (slightly) more time than disposables in terms of dealing with them, takes significantly more time researching and testing out the right diapers and cleaning routine. There's no one size fits all diaper, system, or method.
Despite the cons, in my opinion, CDing is a no brainer. Really. Huggies should be worried.That's how easy and painless it all is.
My opinions from using Bumgenius 4.0 pocket diapers
Pros:
1. way cheaper (especially if you register for them)
2. can use them on more than once child (again, cheaper)
3. No worrying about running out of diapers/ last minute runs to the store
4. Less trash to deal with (we pay by the bag)
5. Don't smell all chemically
6. Less leaks
7. Better for sensitive skins
8. Encourages earlier potty training
9. Way cute
10. Just as easy to put on as disposables
Cons:
1. You might have to touch a little pee or poo (really no biggy when you're a parent IMO
2. A little more work (~3 extra loads of laundry/week)
3. It takes a little playing with - what kinds work for you/ what detergent works for you/ your washing routine/ changing size settings for one-sized diapers. I will say, we risked it and bought all BG 4.0's. They work and fit perfectly, as does our detergent, and he fit in them at 3 weeks because he was such a hefty fella
4. Most don't fit right away, it can take a couple weeks for LO to be big enough (but who wants to do extra laundry in those first couple weeks anyway?)
Check this out if your fiance needs a little convincing besides your own word:
https://jilliansdrawers.com/newtocloth
My hubby posted this to Google Plus today in response to a friend who is a new father commenting on Huggies.
Personaly, I can't advocate enough for cloth diapers. We haven't had diaper rashes, except after a apendectimy and being on antibiotics. We also have almost no leakage problems. Sure, I wash diapers every two days but they've been so nice overall!
Pros: Saving money in the long term, contains poosplosions better than 'sposies, not filling the landfill with dirty diapers, more comfortable against baby's skin, lots of options for different families/babies, cute prints
Cons: Extra care to launder (extra rinses, special detergent, line drying PUL, etc.), trial and error with diaper types and insert types, extra step to put diaper on (depending on type), needs to be washed every few days to prevent smell in room
Honestly, what I would suggest is investing in a small stash and giving it a try. Tell DH that you can sell the diapers if they don't work out. Once he sees them in action and how well they contain poo, he may jump on board. You may have to do laundry at first until he warms up to them though.
Cons - Having to deal with the stupids who think it's gross you're cding.
Really, that's about it. I don't even mind the laundry.
I would do a trial. It will probably be easier to sway him once he sees it's really not difficult at all.
I've been CDing for almost a year now. I honestly can't see any downside to CDing. It's better for your wallet, the environment, and most of all your LO. I see only upsides.
Diagnosed with PCOS March '10 - Started 1000mg of Metformin
After 3 unsuccessful Clomid cycles, FSH+Ovidril+IUI+Progesterone=BFP!
Time to make Emilie a big sister!
May '16 2.0: Letrozole+FSH+Menopur+Ovidril+IUI+Progesterone=BFP! first beta-45.44, second beta-148
I do not regret CDing at all, but I think anyone who says there are no cons is blowing smoke up your @$$, sorry. I can think of lots of issues I wouldn't have if I were using sposies.
Laundry... it's not just a regular load, you have to do a soak and then a double-rinse wash and then it can take more than one cycle to dry if you're using the dryer. Once they're done you have to stuff them all unless you're using fitteds/prefolds (which take more time at changes instead).
You can't just buy a bunch of diapers and have them all work/last from NB to PT. "One-size" does not really fit all, some diapers might not work for your particular kid, and accidents happen... diapers get lost or ruined and instead of being out $1 you're out $30 and need to cry for a while. DH and I cannot figure out the diaper sprayer so we have to spend extra $ on disposable liners to get us from "solids poo" to "solid poo".
Speaking of poo, it's really not that bad (esp. with liners) until you're, say, out in public with a wiggling toddler and the toilets are 10 feet away from the changing table, or in another room entirely. Sometimes dumping the "flushable" wipes and liners clogs our toilet (even when we only use 1 or 2) so we have to keep a plunger handy.
Speaking of diaper issues, hope and pray that you never get ammonia/stinkies/repelling/yeast problems, because everybody you talk to will have different advice for what kind of voodoo rain dance you should spend your entire weekend performing to fix the problem. Then there are other issues like my BG 3.0s with the unspeakably awful velcro. My mom spent countless hours ripping out the old velcro and I spent the same hours replacing the velcro with snaps... which were very much Not Free. I anticipate having to replace the elastic at some point too, bc it's not going to last through LO2. Just saying, CDs may last through multiple kids but they'll probably need some work.
Leaks. Always with the leaks. I tried every piece of advice I could find, but we are now using sposies at night. When toddlers get older they start "holding it" more and I'll change two dry CDs and not 10 minutes later his jeans are soaking wet because he let loose. Even when he was younger we had issues though... if he sleeps on his tummy or the dipe gets compressed funny at his leg or I wait 5 minutes too long to change him, I'd better have dry pants handy. Once he went through 4 pairs of pants in one day. And since I'm on the topic, you do need to change more frequently... I can barely go 2 hours without changing CDs, but sposies are good for 3+. And even then when they leak it's not catastrophic like CDs.
Finding clothes that fit over them can be tough, especially young kids in OS.
There are lots of pros obviously or none of us would be doing it! I just don't believe in acting like it's the same amount of work and nothing ever goes wrong.
Bend over, because I'm about to blow.
The laundry has never bothered me, I loved trying out the new kinds (and still do), the poop doesn't really bother me either. There is nothing about cloth diapering that got me upset enough that I'd call it a con.
The only issue we had was a persistent rash that came from the wrong detergent, which if I would have thought about of course it would have given her a rash because I'm allergic to it, too.
If I was using sposies I'd be paying for a larger trash service can, I'd be paying out the butt for stuff that I just throw away, I'd STILL be dumping poop into the toilet because that's where it's supposed to go even according to the sposie directions, and I'd be dealing with even more persistent rashes since I have yet to find a sposie that doesn't give my kid a rash.
::watches smoke rings rise into the sky::
I love our cd, but seriously, half this board is about cd issues. It's a choice that works for my family but I'm not all rose-colored glasses about it.
OP: I asked my H to try it through the newborn phase, then carefully researched user-friendly options that were least likely to leak (so read this board carefully and note which types of cd tend to have which types of issues). I read reviews and called/visited several stores to get their opinions. My newborn diapers were not the most cost-effective choice, but won over my H and we're still at it 15 mos later. In the long-run we're saving money (among many other benefits) so it was worth it.
Do you think that's because, maybe just maybe, people don't post when things are going swimmingly?
So the problems we're seeing are just the 1% "squeaky wheels"? For every thousand posts here (and on countless other CD sites), there are ninety-nine thousand CDers who have never encountered any kind of inconvenience or problem.
Sure, that seems likely.
OP, I apologize if I rained on your parade, I really do enjoy CDing most of the time and have done my share of evangelizing. I just get annoyed sometimes by what I perceive as the "thin blue line" of CDing. Please keep in mind that 95% of the time, things do go smoothly.
Actually, I don't. Half this board is normal, run of the mill issues with cd (which even you have had) and half is the good fun stuff. Just like with other diaper choices, you take the good and the bad together. It doesn't make me like cd less, some of us are just more realistic about the whole picture.