Should i consider cloth diapers over disposables?

Question

Well having looked at some articles about cloth diapers I love the idea of saving money and more important helping the environment however, I'm wondering how do they work, I just don't want my baby or house to smell like urine or poop or have to put poop filled diapers in my washer.

I'm just thinking with a newborn I'll have enough to worry about with breastfeeding, trying to cook a few times a week, housekeeping, my fiance' and I's laundry and trying to get a nap in there somewhere I see cloth diapers (I will admit, from an inexperienced persons point of view) as an inconvience.

Have any of u yahoo moms used them?
Are they as inconvient as they seem or will it just become routine after a while instead of what I think?

Yea that's how I look at it as my baby using the same stained smelly cloth diaper all over again, and I do intend to go back to work so spending an hour standing over poopy rags and washing them by hand, i'm sorry, but that's a little to much, especially when I wan just untape a disposable, wipe it's little but and throw it away.

However I will look into the whole diaper pick-up service, but I'm also trying to stick to a budget.

Answer 1

This part of the second answer made me laugh: "besides, its just baby poop
there's never that much of it "

Hah! "Just" baby poop? Yeah, right! My son is 4.5 months old, I change him frequently, and still, nearly every day, he proudly presents a VERY full diaper for me to change.

I use disposables, and really, if you buy in bulk, it's not too bad. I consider it a very good trade, as opposed to having to deal with them stinking up the apartment until I could get to washing them--especially because I don't have a washer/dryer in my apartment. It would really be just way too much of a pain for me--But that's just my opinion.

Answer 2

Lauren J and Laura S are absolutely right with their answers, but there are also other things to consider if you were to use disposable diapers. I used cloth diapers on both of my kids and they never had rashes or leaks and this was back when you had to use diapers and pins and the old plastic pants over the diapers. Disposables take decades to biodegrade, the average child during the diapering phase of their lives will use 3000 - 3500 diapers. That's a lot of waste to put into a landfill not to mention the human waste, the pee and the poop that get thrown away with the disposables, but there are more problems than that with disposables. Go to this web site and read the first page about all the negatives concerning disposables. One thing is the absorbent crystals hat wer banned from tampons in 1985 because of it's link to Toxic Shock Syndrome. The rest of the site is good for finding eco-friendly items for your baby. I want to add that I am urinary incontinent and have to wear diapers myself 24 / 7 and I've tried both disposable and cloth and even as an adult, I will wear cloth diapers only for the same reasons I would only put cloth diapers on a baby. Good luck.

Answer 3

I used cloth diapers on my son for the first fifteen months. Yes, disposable is easier, but cloth is better. You will need a diaper pail-with a lid on it. And, the poopy diapers-you rinse those out in the toilet first, to get the poop off. And flush the poop on down the toilet. Since baby's skin is more sensitive, what I did was I used "Dreft" for washing his clothes, and diapers. I would use "Biz" in the wash with his diapers, and, to make sure they were well rinsed, (using coin operated washer/dryers), I would run the diapers thru a complete wash/rinse cycle after they were washed and rinsed the first time. That is how I made sure all the soap and "Biz" was rinsed out of his diapers. It was well worth it. And, no, with the diaper pail with the lid on it (and I think some water to help soak them) in the pail, I didn't notice any problem with a bad smell in the household. Could/would your man be of help at least in the first 6-8 weeks, for you to rest when the baby sleeps, by maybe helping with housework, and diaper washing? Regular bleach would be way too harsh, and even "Biz" can be kind of strong on a baby's skin-that is why I would wash/rinse them in a second cycle before drying them. Wishing you the best! Take care.

Answer 4

Look, I am all for helping the environment. I know the statistics. When I had my first I thought I would try cloth diapers and do the right thing. Let me tell you, when your infant is going through 8-12 diapers a day and those damn cloths just leak everywhere, I was more than happy to switch back to the pampers.
I say try the cloths for yourself and then make your decision. I guarantee you will switch. Hopefully you are a better person than me and can stick with the cloths. Best of luck!

Answer 5

Cloth diapers always sound like a good idea, but they are a lot of work! If you are trying to save money you are going to have to clean them all yourself which requires emptying the dirty diapers in the toilet, most people soak them in the toilet to get all the soil off, then soaking them in bleach and finally washing in the washer. If you get a service it is a little less work, but no less expensive than disposable. Personally, I think the adjustment to motherhood and breastfeeding is hard enough without the added stress. I think like anything else they do become a routine, but they are much less convenient.

Answer 6

There are a lot of different brands of cloth diapers, just like there are a lot of brands of disposables. The cloth will cost more in the beginning, but they will last and last if you care for them and can be used on your next baby also if you choose to keep them. There will be a little more laundry, depending on how many diapers you decide to purchase. You will want to keep them in a separate hamper, and for the poopy ones, wash them out in the toilet to get all the poop off before you toss them in the wash. Never use bleach or fabric softener, because this will damage the fabric and lessen the absorbency. You can bleach the stained ones by lying them in the sunshine. Sunlight bleaches natural stains, so you don't have to use any chemicals. To find the diapers that will work for you, you may need to experiment. I have decided to use prefolds and liners, but since I use daycare for my youngest, I have disposables for her, too. But now, since we use cloth most of the time, a pack of disposables will last about 2 months, vs. 2 weeks.

Answer 7

There are these diapers called gDiapers that are flushable but better for the environment.
Check this out:
http://www.gdiapers.com/
I am a future mom-to-be (only 18 more weeks to go!) and will be doing a combo of cloth and gDiapers.
The worst thing about cloth diapers are that you have to do laundry every 2-3 days depending on the # of cloth diapers you have (people recommend about 3 dozen). You don't wash them by hand.
There are so many different types of cloth diapers out there these days that some of them are almost as convenient as disposables.
Check out these: http://www.cottonbabies.com . On that site, look at the Bumgenius 2.0 diapers. They are expensive to start but they're supposed to be excellent. I ordered 6 and will be ordering 6 more for my stash.
You can also go the cheaper route of buying prefolds (diaper service quality) with covers/wraps and inserts. I bought mine at www.mothercommuneboutique.com .
I bought some of those too on top of Motherease One-Size diapers from www.motherease.com .
I personally hate doing laundry and live in an apt. building so I'm buying as many as I can to stretch out laundry to at least every 2-3 days.

Answer 8

If you want to try them go ahead, it couldn't hurt anything. If you aren't sure that you'll stick with them you can buy a package of size 1 diapers and just save the recipte in case you want to take them back. For the stains you are worried about, soak the diapers in Clorox 2. You will have a lot to worry about when you have this child. You can use both if you really want. Maybe cloth when you are at home and disposable if you go out.

Answer 9

My girlfriend got a gift certificate for three months of cloth diaper service at her shower, but she wasn't planning to use it. She thought she might as well, and she LOVED it. If you do the diaper service, you can still get something like a diaper genie to store the dirty ones. She would just take them out of the genie like you would disposable ones, put them in the bags the service provided and put them on the porch once a week. She ending up doing this for her second baby, and now plans to do it for her third that is on the way.

She said her service cost about $15 a week, which you can easily spend on diapers. She said there are little velcro-type holders now so you can put them on just like disposable diapers and not even use pins.

And the best part- her kids feel the wetness and dirtiness more, so they actually potty trained themselves by 18 months! If that's the case for you, in the long run you'll save so much money on diapers, as most of us are struggling to get our kids out of diapers before the age of 3.

Anyhow, it makes me wish I had done it with my kids...

Answer 10

I had my children back in the day before disposable diapers. In this day and age I would say that disposable diapers are more sanitary and in the long run probally cheaper. It's not such an inconvenience when the baby is new but dirty cloth diapers from older babies are a pain in the butt. Your baby is also more suseptable to diaper rash and bacterial infections from cloth diapers. if I were using cloth I would have a diaper service. Good Luck.