Cloth Diapers and Breast Milk Banks

kva11isho · September 2013

DH and I are considering using cloth diapers once placement takes place - mainly for cost savings, honestly. I've never had any experience with cloth diapers, so I'm looking for some advice. What supplies are needed and how much of each? Most likely I'll put some of these things on our registry, and I don't want to end up with too much or too little. Is there any other advice anyone has on cloth diapering?

Also, has anyone had any experience using breast milk from a milk bank? Any thoughts/advice on that process? I'm just curious.

Dr.Loretta · September 2013

For cloth diapering, see if there's a store near you that does demos. If not, check the CD board as jalara suggested, or google cloth diapering 101. You may also want to consider a cloth diaper trial

maryoosa · September 2013

Also, in addition to HM4HB, like @jalara48 mentioned, there is another volunteer org called Eats on Feets for breast milk.

IdigDirt · September 2013

I use cloth dipes for LO and personally love them. I use mainly Kawaiis with Velcro closure because they are very inexpensive and daycares prefer Velcro to snaps typically though many people prefer snaps because they wear slower so you can use them for a second child. Most of our Velcro is still in good shape after 2 years though. Other good inexpensive brands are Sunbaby and Alva. I have never used Alva but I like Sunbabies though I only have 2 because they don't come in Velcro and I am lazy and prefer it to snaps. I do prefer snaps for naps and bedtime so he can't take them off and make a mess like I have heard of kids doing.
Other things you may need are one or two pail liners (I have 2 so when one is in the wash I use the other), wet bags (I have 5 so one for each day of daycare plus one for weekends but most people wash more often so you could have less), liners or a sprayer, cloth safe diaper cream; I like CJs.

aligross · September 2013

If you are thinking about breast milk banks... have you thought about inducing lactation for yourself? When I told my OB/GYN that we were adopting she asked if we had ever thought about inducing lactation for breast feeding. Seeing as you have a bit of time before your placement would happen, you could certainly start now and by the time baby comes you should be able to lactate! Just a thought!

MagickalNarwhal · September 2013

Breast milk from a bank is typically very very (like, prohibitively) expensive. The local bank here charges $4.50 an oz and its non profit. They also prioritize medically fragile and/or premature babies for their limited supplies so if you have a healthy term baby, you may not even be able to get milk from them.

HM4HB and eats of feets are good resources but I never had much luck there, as again the milk typically goes to higher need babies, and of there are offers of available milk, at least on the sites that are local to me, they are spoken for within minutes typically.

I actually had great luck seeking milk from other sources not specific to milk sharing, like local queer parenting or general parenting emails or Facebook groups, and asking friends with kids to keep an eye/ear out for me. My first was fed an average of 50% breast milk and 50% formula for his first year. My daughter is 2 mo and we have a lot of milk but she's having a bit of a hard time on it so we have her on formula only for a bit.

One consideration is that you may want to check with your social worker to be certain that it's ok for you to feed donor milk until the adoption is finalized, particularly if you are using informal milk sharing resources that dont involve the testing and screening that banked milk does.

If you are interested in inducing lactation, check out asklenore.com for more info. I did the long protocol and unfortunately didn't produce anything. Many women can produce some, but few can produce a full supply, and some (like me) cant produce any.

JoshKrisAdopt · September 2013

YouTube has a lot of informational videos about the differences between cloth diaper brands and what types and styles work best for your situation. Just type cloth diapering into the search. There's tons of them. https://joshandkrisloveadoption.blogspot.com/

ellekae · September 2013

I CDed my daughter, so feel free to PM me with any specific questions. I recommend allaboutclothdiapers.com for reviews and info about styles and brands. FWIW, we used Rumparooz and have been mostly pleased with them. They were expensive to start out, but we only had to get a stash of 24 of them, and it has lasted from birth through 2.5 years... We are potty-training now. Good luck!

sumati · September 2013

I'm starting to slowly stock up on cloth diapers. I bought a few from Zulilly and from Kawaii Baby Diapers. I also got a bunch of chinese pre-folds with covers.. Right now, the plan is to use the prefolds with covers for when the baby is newborn (pretty sure we will get a ton of disposables at baby showers, so will probably use those up first and when we travel). Then all in twos after that.

As for breast milk. I plan to attempt to induce lactation. I have a friend that is very active with the local La Leche League.. and has a wealth of knowledge of what I can do. If I can't induce lactation, she said she can help me with donated breast milk. Try looking into the La Leche League and see if they have any resources near you that can help you find out more about donated breast milk.

CarolinaGirl2014 · September 2013

I have a family member that cloth diapers and she has gotten tons of diapers that retail as much at $44 for as little as $4 each- you just have to buy like 10 at a time. Worth looking into!

ABMomofBBx3 · September 2013

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