Cloth Diapering

MissMandyD · June 2014

DH and I are planning to use cloth diapers and cloth wipes. I have already started slowly building my stash and doing research on brands. I have been having lots of fun learning about cloth diapering and the community of people who are really passionate about it.

I just wanted to see how many ladies on this board have cloth diapered or are planning to. If there are enough of us I thought maybe we could start a check in on a bi-weekly basis. What would people think about a check in?

So who is cloth diapering and why?

wildflower75 · June 2014

I use a cloth diaper service that delivers to my house.
I LOVE IT!!!
I first learned about cloth diapering from my mother; she used it for my brother and sister (they are 11 and 17 yrs younger than me). It's better for baby's skin, better for the environment and it turns out being cheaper than disposables!
My daughter has never had a diaper rash!

Not sure what I would share on a check in post...I've only gone to the cloth diaper board once I think...

French76 · June 2014

I am planning on cloth diapering also. I have found there is so much information out there that it is very overwhelming. I'm kind of at the point where I don't even know how to begin. This is our first and and no other friends/family have used cloth diapers, so I am definitely open to some information sharing and check ins.

ADH0906 · June 2014

@french76 You might already have checked it out, but there's a cloth diapering board here too. They have some good recommendations for resources and getting started.

That said...I have an interest but am totally overwhelmed. I don't know that we'd do anything more than part-time CD'ing, but even then it's hard to figure out what you want if you've never done it before. I plan to get one or two of each type for the newborn phase (or maybe do one of those combo trial packs that some companies offer) and see how we like it. It's scary to imagine not having a stash built up, but I figured one type would stand out to us and we'd use half CD, half disposables until we get a supply built.

If any experienced CD mamas are reading this and think it's a terrible idea, please let me know...I'll be the one hours-deep into YouTube videos of diapers with the glazed, panicked look in her face....

MissMandyD · June 2014

French76 said:

I am planning on cloth diapering also. I have found there is so much information out there that it is very overwhelming. I'm kind of at the point where I don't even know how to begin. This is our first and and no other friends/family have used cloth diapers, so I am definitely open to some information sharing and check ins.

I started watching videos on youtube about cloth diapering a newborn and that made me feel more informed. This is the video blogger I like if it helps at all...she does vlogs on all things cloth diapering and she talks about lots of options, brands, methods, washing and pretty much everything you can think of. I found it really helpful!

https://www.youtube.com/user/ObbsAndLala

wearenutts · June 2014

I cloth diapered my oldest from about 4 months on. I plan on CD this one as well and almost have my NB stash built up. I just need a few more GM Workhorse diapers to round it out.

@ADH0906 I think starting with a trial would be good. You can see what you like and what works for LO without putting too much money into it. Some types or brands work better for some babies while others are a disaster. I did part time with my daughter when we started. My sitter during the day didn't want to deal with the cloth so we sent disposables with her during the day and CD at home and on weekends. It still saved a bunch of money. We ended up leaving the sitter (not because she wouldn't CD, but for other reasons) and put DD into daycare. They hadn't CD before but gave it a shot once they checked out how easy it was.

I like the idea of a check in!

JJsMum · June 2014

I've cloth diapered both my boys, and will this one as well. I love it! I will say though, I did not like cloth wipes past the NB stage. Having to spray the little wipes before washing them sucked. I also do disposables for the first couple of weeks. Between the muconium and the exhaustion, diaper laundry is the last thing I want to deal with. If anyone has questions I am more than happy to share my experience

Littledeer84 · June 2014

I am planning on cloth diapers during the nb stage while I am on leave. We will see how it goes after we start daycare. I did it for a few months with DD, but couldnt afford to get a big enough stash so it was hard to keep up with laundry. I like the idea of a check in, if only to show off diapers! I have started a stash, and have found the cloth board here really helpful.

Littledeer84 · June 2014

My reasons are I hope to save money, and I like the green aspects of using cloth.

MorganWP · June 2014

I think the check in would be a good idea.

We're switching to cloth. DD tends to leak through her disposables now at night and cloth can prevent that by adjusting the absorbancy. Also we're pretty tight on money as it is so adding another LO in diapers to the mix makes our wallets cry. Cloth will help us save a lot in the long run.

Also My SO was diapered in cloth due to allergies but all the info his mom had about it was really dated, a lot has changed in 25 years. So I went to the cloth diapering boards here for all my info. It helped, especially to see what others like to use. Really narrowed down the options on where and how to start.

wearenutts · June 2014

So those that have CD before what are your favorite diapers and why?

I mostly used pockets with my daughter and liked the Kawaii Bamboo Mom Label the best. I liked those because they had a good fit, weren't terribly expensive and the bamboo made it a little slimmer than the microfiber diapers.

This time I will use GM Flats and Workhorse diapers at least through the NB stage. I wanted to try something different since I used mostly pockets the first time. I'm hopping I will like the flats and use them through potty training this time around. I choose workhorse for night time and when H changes the baby. He likes the idea of saving money but not the idea of changing a reusable diaper lol.

shannonshare · June 2014

I'm planning on hybrid diapering LO. When she's primarily at home, we'd use the cloth inserts, but when we are out of town or something, we'd use the biodegradable disposable inserts. I'm looking into GroVia, which has both cloth diapers (All in One) and hybrid diapers (All in Two).

Given that most cloth/hybrid diapers start for babies at 8 lbs, what has anyone done beforehand if LO is born smaller? Use disposables until he/she is big enough? I saw a PP wrote about using disposables for the first few weeks, but not for this specific reason.

DaniW1984 · June 2014

We are going to cloth diaper! Have started a Bottom Bumper stash, and have some 7 Generation & Naty disposables in case .

miss.brittany · June 2014

We use cloth with our DD #1. We LOVE them. It's really not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. DH and I both have full time jobs and we still make it work. We use Bum Genius freetimes so they are one size and all in ones. We also have a few Charlie bananas, Rumparooz, and Bumkins. The Bum Genius are better quality and more absorbent. By far our favorite. Only downside is all in ones were too big for DD #1 until she was 3 months old. But she's 16 months old now so we've been using them for 13 months and we still love it.

Now that we're pregnant with DD #2 we are even happier about our decision because we can continue to use them and the savings will be even greater! I've already bought newborn diapers because I want to use cloth from the beginning this time.

miss.brittany · June 2014

@shannonshare‌ Lots of brands make newborn cloth diapers so they fit tiny babies! We've bought some for this baby, because our oldest was too tiny for cloth until she was 3 months old. She was quite the peanut!

shannonshare · June 2014

miss.brittany said:

@shannonshare‌ Lots of brands make newborn cloth diapers so they fit tiny babies! We've bought some for this baby, because our oldest was too tiny for cloth until she was 3 months old. She was quite the peanut!

Thanks! What disposables did you use until she was big enough?

hgielrebmik · June 2014

I decided to use cloth on our second child (now 22 months) and I love them. I have one size pockets, and they work great. There are so many resources and I love that the cloth community is growing so much. Its so fun to have the colorful diapers hanging out to dry. We will be using cloth again this time, but I will use disposables for the first few weeks, as I did with DS. After that the one size worked great for us and we are still using the same ones. Gotta love the savings! (We do use disposables when we travel...its just easier.)

wearenutts · June 2014

shannonshare said:

I'm planning on hybrid diapering LO. When she's primarily at home, we'd use the cloth inserts, but when we are out of town or something, we'd use the biodegradable disposable inserts. I'm looking into GroVia, which has both cloth diapers (All in One) and hybrid diapers (All in Two).

Given that most cloth/hybrid diapers start for babies at 8 lbs, what has anyone done beforehand if LO is born smaller? Use disposables until he/she is big enough? I saw a PP wrote about using disposables for the first few weeks, but not for this specific reason.

A lot of people gather a newborn stash. Even some of the hybrid and one size diapers that start at 8 pounds are still too big for baby at 8 pounds because the leg holes are too big for newborn chicken legs. A lot of one size won't actually fit until 3-4 months when baby fattens out a bit.

In my opinion a NB stash is so worth it. I will pay about $150 total for my stash once it's complete and with buying disposables I would pay around $300+ just in the first 3 months with how often a NB needs to be changed. NB cloth has a high resale value since it's not used very long.

Some people use disposables for the first week because they don't want the meconium staining the cloth.

JJsMum · June 2014

shannonshare said:

Given that most cloth/hybrid diapers start for babies at 8 lbs, what has anyone done beforehand if LO is born smaller? Use disposables until he/she is big enough? I saw a PP wrote about using disposables for the first few weeks, but not for this specific reason.

I prefer to use pockets and AIO, but like PPs mentioned, sometimes those don't fit until closer to 3 months. My boys were about 6 weeks when we started using them. For the NB phase (after the first couple of weeks) I used Green Mountain Diaper workhorse diapers and rumparooz covers. That was the combo that I found worked best and was easiest to change quickly on a NB.

I think I spent about 100$ on my NB stash and about 250$ on my pockets and AIOs. Not cheap when starting out, but I did this all with DS#1 and all of my diapers are still in pristine condition for #3. I've occasionally bought disposables, we always keep some on hand for emergencies (I was delayed getting diapers washed) or for travel, but I bet I've spend under 800$ (including my cloth stash) for diapers for 2 kids. Plus I'll be able so sell them when we are done and recoup some of the cloth cost. I just can't complain about that!

bennikki · June 2014

We CD and use cloth wipes. I really like it, DH doesn't like to discuss diapers in general, so I'd say he doesn't really have an opinion except he refuses to do the diaper washes (he's convinced he's going to get pink eye). I have no problem doing the diaper washes, so it works out just fine for us.

I ordered 3 dozen newborn size prefolds and made wool covers from recycled sweaters before DS came along with 40 one size pockets. DS ended up being too big/long (23 inches) for newborn diapers when he was born, but didn't yet have enough "chubbiness" in his thighs to fit the onesize one, so he was in size 1 disposables for the first couple weeks until he started to get chunky enough.

I don't plan on getting any more diapers for the new baby (I'll just do more washes than I do now), so if this one ends up being too big at birth to fit the newborn ones, it will be disposables again until this one fits the one size diapers.

I love that I'll only have to keep one type of diaper in my diaper bag for two kids. My sister had two kids in diapers at the same time, and she hated having to make sure she had enough of both sizes in her bag at all times.

As far as wipes go, I'm not impressed with the expensive "cloth wipes" you find online, so I just cruise the clearance isle at Target and Walmart and grab the 10 packs of wash clothes for $.99 at the change of the seasons. I also don't keep any sort of fancy wipes solution on hand, just a spray bottle of water, so when it's time to wipe, I put a few squirts of water on the wash cloth and do my thing. I do keep disposable wipes on hand for the gigantic poos when I don't want to mess with rinsing the cloth wipes.

Arctic_Seal · June 2014

I used cloth on my daughter and intend to as well with this kid. I have mostly FuzziBunz One Size Elite. They worked well for me. I did do disposables at night and if she got a rash.

French76 · June 2014

MissMandyD said:

French76 said:

I am planning on cloth diapering also. I have found there is so much information out there that it is very overwhelming. I'm kind of at the point where I don't even know how to begin. This is our first and and no other friends/family have used cloth diapers, so I am definitely open to some information sharing and check ins.

I started watching videos on youtube about cloth diapering a newborn and that made me feel more informed. This is the video blogger I like if it helps at all...she does vlogs on all things cloth diapering and she talks about lots of options, brands, methods, washing and pretty much everything you can think of. I found it really helpful!

https://www.youtube.com/user/ObbsAndLala

Thanks! I actually did stumble across her vlog about a month ago and it made me feel better. I guess I am just second guessing myself about what/how many I will actually need.

Thanks for the advice, ladies.

DreadGamerWife · June 2014

We plan on CDing Schroeder - especially once we found a local day care that has no issue with it. Since she will be in day care, we will be using primarily AIO once she outgrows newborns.

DaniGrace89 · June 2014

My husband and I are intrigued by cloth diapering. We have decided to start small- we will do prefolds and covers...and aren't 100% committed.

Maybe that's not the way to enter into this! We figure any little bit counts. So even if we just do it at home (disposables when we go out), and stop after 6 months (once we introduce solids), it is still helpful. We may just fall in love with it and keep doing it the whole time.

ASousa · June 2014

We cloth diaper our 15month old, we use bum genius 4.0 pockets. We tried a few different types but the pockets worked best for our life style. We do use sposies as well. I bought a stash of newborn aio (all in ones) but if we use sposies for the newborn stage I am ok with that too. As for daycare I own a daycare center (not an in home daycare) we currently have 3 children in cloth. By the time out addition joins the crew we will have 6 in cloth. When going to daycares I would bring the diaper and wet bag with you too show them. People think cloth diapers are a lot more complicated then they really are. As for daycare, I would say that for my staff to learn aio and pockets were the easiest, anything you take off and put on like a "normal sposie".

femail · June 2014

We plan to cloth diaper. I bought my first 4 diapers at a garage sale this past weekend, PERFECT condition! They're the 2 in 1's, and are one size. I'm still not sure if we'll start with cloth right away or use disposable during her first few weeks of life.

I've also heard that babies who are cloth diapered potty train more quickly. Is this true? If so, that's another huge pro in my book!

JJsMum · June 2014

@femail, I've heard that cloth diapered kids PT faster, but my 3.5 year old is still only partially trained

Although, that might be more because he's being stubborn than anything. He seems to think it's a game to tell us AS he's wetting his pants

KingsDaughter76 · June 2014

I have cloth diapered for 16 years now...and will be using cloth on this baby too. The best leakproof cloth diaper system I have EVER used has been Motherease diapers- both the onesize and the sandies paired with either a wool cover (woolybottoms) or the Motherease airflow cover! These diapers last and last and have a high resale value too. Love Love Motherease!

KingsDaughter76 · June 2014

Oh and if you don't want to use cloth wipes- just use disposable ones! You can use them and throw in the pail with your cloth diapers and wash and dry as usual. Then just pull them out of your clean diaper pile and throw away. Simple and I have done this many times- though most often I do use cloth wipes.

MissMandyD · June 2014

So I just scored 5 FuzziBunz XS for $9.95 each at a sidewalk sale! Had to share. That brings the newborn stash up to 8.

miss.brittany · June 2014

@shannonshare‌ We used Pampers Swaddlers until our first was big enough for the cloth we had purchased.

For this baby I've purchased some flats and covers, some Charlie banana pocket newborns, and some rumparooz all in ones that claim they size down to newborn. Then once this baby is big enough she and her big sister will be in our bum genius freetimes until DD #1 potty trains!

narabug · June 2014

Nicb13 said:

JJsMum said:

@femail, I've heard that cloth diapered kids PT faster, but my 3.5 year old is still only partially trained Although, that might be more because he's being stubborn than anything. He seems to think it's a game to tell us AS he's wetting his pants

Any idea why that would be? I haven't heard that before....

I've heard it's because they can feel the wetness better than with disposables, but don't have any experience with this myself.

MissMandyD · June 2014

Nicb13 said:

JJsMum said:

@femail, I've heard that cloth diapered kids PT faster, but my 3.5 year old is still only partially trained Although, that might be more because he's being stubborn than anything. He seems to think it's a game to tell us AS he's wetting his pants

Any idea why that would be? I haven't heard that before....

The theory goes that since they can feel when they are wet more than in a disposable diaper it helps with awareness.

femail · June 2014

MissMandyD said:

Nicb13 said:

JJsMum said:

@femail, I've heard that cloth diapered kids PT faster, but my 3.5 year old is still only partially trained Although, that might be more because he's being stubborn than anything. He seems to think it's a game to tell us AS he's wetting his pants

Any idea why that would be? I haven't heard that before....

The theory goes that since they can feel when they are wet more than in a disposable diaper it helps with awareness.

Sorry, didn't get a chance to come back to TB until this morning. I honestly haven't heard why cloth diapered kids supposidly potty train faster, but it would be a pretty sweet pro.

DanielleB27 · June 2014

We did/are doing cloth with our first, and plan to do so with the twins as well. We started cloth because my husband did the math on paying for disposables, offered to do the laundry, and had me convinced! It has been a great experience!

I'm curious as to how CD 2 little ones (and one slightly older one) is going to work out. I like the flip covers (got some similar nb covers from the frugal fanny) and prefolds. We'll have to wait and see how much of a stash we're really going to need to keep from doing diapers every day! (and if the nb covers really go all the way to nb based on their size)

TheOtherJacobsons · June 2014

I did a diapering poll in March. 34% of votes or 76 ppl were for CDing.

Diapering Poll

jbuck909 · June 2014

I'm planning on it, for sure! I haven't started my stash for baby boy yet, but a friend got me into it. I'm down for a check-in!

HappyCianci · June 2014

We used disposables with my son, but we're switching to cloth for number two. I already have my newborn stash: GMD flats, prefolds, and a few workhorses, plus about a half dozen PLU covers in different brands. I wanted simple, simple, simple, which for me means all cotton diapers that I can wash and dry quickly and easily. The pocket diapers/AIOs have no appeal for me at all, though I admit they are cute.

Some recent studies about how environmentally friendly cloth diapering is have found it a draw between cloth and disposables... so while I love the idea of being green, I'm not sure if cloth really is. For me, the desire to cloth diaper comes from a desire for self-sufficiency. I want to care for my baby by my own labor and a few modest supplies, rather than relying on a big corporation selling me a throwaway product over and over again for years.

racheljcyu · June 2014

I plan to CD as well. Most likely will use disposables the first few weeks until I get a hang of being a new mom. I have a decent stash of 20ish newborn diapers mostly THX, blueberry simplex and fitted. I also got a pack of 6 bamboo prefold which I am still deciding on the cover. And I think at newborn stage I will start CD during the day first then see how it goes. I like the idea of AIO but I think that means more laundry so I want to try tri-fold prefolds in covers. There are a couple diaper service that serve where I live but they only offer prefolds so I figure I should try on my own first. If I don't want to do laundry down the line, I can get diaper service and still get benefit of CD, probably still turn out costing the same. Well, maybe it depends if I am able to find daycare that accepts CD. Anyone live close to Diamond Bar, CA and know a daycare that uses CD?

lisamahrt · June 2014

I have been cloth diapering now for 14 months with my first and am going to cloth diaper my next child as well!

hippohat · June 2014

I did cloth with DD and loved it. I started out with prefolds, thinking it'd be cheaper, then I realized how quickly she outgrew them and I needed to buy more, and that I'd need to keep upgrading sizes. I had also bought a few BumGenius 4.0s and loved them, so I bought enough BG's and continued with that. She wore them from 3 months to 2.5 years, no problem.

Keep in mind that any baby outfits with pants/legs need to be roomy to allow for the diaper - it wasn't a huge problem but I shopped knowing that. As she grew older it wasn't a problem anymore, just the first year or so.

I had some issues with a few of the velcro enclosures, and in general I like the snaps SO much more. She could take off the velcro ones easily, but no way could she undo one with snaps! Avoids that whole issue. I'm replacing the velcro ones with snaps and will need to replace the leg elastic in each. I'd like some new fleece inserts, but otherwise they're in fantastic shape after so much use.

Wish I had started using cloth wipes sooner - they are SO easy. I made my own with flannel. I used a simple solution to wet them on demand, and I'd like to try using essential oils this time.

My stash is tiny, I got by with 15 BG's, just enough for 2 days, with a sposie overnight. I'd like to try to find an overnight cloth solution with #2, just don't know where to start. I never had leaking issues during nap, just at night. I also did disposables for long outings, so I always had some on hand, just a LOT less. I also didn't feel guilty buying the pricey Pampers I liked since we used so little.

I didn't do newborn diapers - those first weeks were stressful enough, I'm glad I didn't try. I just used Pampers sensitive, but there are more options (and more affordable now!) for more natural ones.

I chose CD's because of money, the lack of chemicals, the environment, and it fits my slightly homesteady-ness. I can't say enough great things about CDing, and have introduced them to so many other moms.

eta: yeesh, I'm windy today! Sorry!

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