To those who use cloth diapers..?

Question

I was wondering what the pros/cons are? The worst I can think of are stinky diapers...having to wash them...how do you handle that? How many diapers do you have to buy, on average? How hard are they to learn to fold? Any info would be great, thank you.

Answer 1

Cloth diapers can save you a bundle. There are tons of websites with information on which to choose, etc. Honestly, I didn't think washing them was that bad, although I did stop hand-drying dishes, as I didn't want to wash dishtowels in the same machine :)

I have used just about every type of cloth diaper out there. The prefolds (like what a diaper service gives you) are the least expensive, but the hardest to use. You do have to fold them to fit the baby. It's not hard, but it does take practice, and they are VERY bulky. If I were to have another baby, I would get the Motherease starter set. They are easy to use, wash nicely, and they fit throught the baby's diapering life. They are fitted, but have many snaps. As baby grows, you just use the next snap out. You also use a fitted cover to keep clothes and bedding dry. You buy new covers as the baby grows. I know tons of moms who like Fuzzi Bunz, too. I didn't, as you have to stuff the diaper. When my hubby would change a diaper, he wouldn't remove the liner from teh pocket, leaving me to do so at wash time, when it was cold and clammy. Yuck.

Diapers are easy to wash. You just shake off or rinse out any poo poo and toss it into a diaper pail. At wash time, you pre-rinse in the machine if they are very dirty and then wash with a mild detergent (NOT dreft...something like Arm and Hammer or Purell works well). Use less detergent than you think you will need, or you will get detergent buildup, which leads to VERY stinky diapers. No fabric softener. Then, you can line dry or dry in the machine.

How many you need depends on how often your little one pees and poops. I normally had about 2 days worth and washed a load pretty much daily. With a newborn, I'd get 12-24 fitted diapers and 3 covers. One more load of laundry a day is not a big deal if you have your own washer and dryer.

If I were to have another baby, I would figure on spending about $150 on cloth diapers. You can spend less is you buy prefolds instead of fitted ones (less than $100). Then, you are done buying diapers for good! I normally had a few disposables on hand in case I got behind on the washing. Oh, you can save money by using cloth wipes, too. I found soft washcloths worked fine. I would put them in a container with warm water, a tiny bit of baby soap and a squirt of baby oil.

Babies who are cloth diapered tend to potty train earlier, as they can really feel their pee and poop. If you have a rash-prone baby, I would reccomend the Fuzzi Bunz. They have a microfiber liner that wicks moisture away.

You can also get flushable liners to put on top of the diaper (next to baby) to make poo easy to deal with. I found them to be rather expensive, especially in the early months when little ones poop all day.

If you go for fitted diapers, you may want to get some prefolds anyway. They are great for blocking pee sprays from little boys while changing diapers, good if you didn't get to the wash in time and run out of fitteds (they'll go in the Motherease covers just fine), and later, they make excellent cleaning cloths. My youngest is 3, and we still have a stack of prefolds in my linen closet that I use for cleaning, drying cars, and the like.

As gross as it sounds, you can re-sell your diapers when you are done with them. You can get a good deal of your money back this way.

Keep in mind that, alhtough some studies show little savings using cloth diapers, most overestimate the cost of washing, the initial investment, and completely ignore things like gas to run to the store to buy disposables, the environmental impact of manufacturing and transporting disposables to the store, etc.

Since I breastfed and cloth diapered, I found the actual cost of an infant to be very small. I can't imaging having to spend thousands of dollars on diapers just to save myself a little time. I'm home anyway...how hard is it to throw another load in the wash!

If someone else will be changing your baby (like dad), it's a good idea to have the cloth diapers organized and ready to go. If you are using fitted diapers, he should have no problem changing the baby. Make sure he knows that the covers do not need to be changed every time, only if they get poopy or wet. If you are using pocket-style diapers (like Fuzzi-Bunz) have them pre-stuffed and ready to go. Once you get used to it, it takes no more time to change a cloth diaper than a disposable.

Happy cloth diapering!

Answer 2

you do not have to fold anything anymore, hold them in the toilet and flush then wash, they are great, if you go on e bay you can get a whole set for about 100.00 and they will last about 8 months , they have come along way, do a web search and check out all the great new kinds, your child will be potty trained a lot sooner all my kids potty trained by 18 months, they have sample kits and starter kits, i have a lot now but i have 5 kids who all wore cloth diapers it is good for the planet also, do the web search you will be pleasantly surprised

Answer 3

I've just recently started researching them myself. My SIL uses them and she told me to get All in One diapers and the ones she loved the most were made by All Together. She said it's easy to use just like a disposable and it's one that babysitters didn't have a problem/complication changing. If you don't want to swish them in the toilet I have seen a little attachment to spray them with called a mini shower.

Answer 4

One word: Potty Pail. Get it (the bucket and sprayer) and use it. It makes poop a breeze to deal with, and makes disposable liners useless.
http://pottypail.com/

Also, don't worry about doublers until you know you need them. At least don't get more than, say, six-twelve. It adds bulk between the legs, and because of this (but especially because we "improvised" a fold instead of learning a proper one, as I say below) our baby has had the minor-but-significant-but-not-long-term problem of external rotation. It turns out we probably never needed to use doublers to begin with, and had we known, we'd have saved significant money.

Just use premium (not regular) diapers, and be sure to learn a proper fold (like the 3-fold "newspaper", or the even thinner 4-way/quarter fold, which is what we now use).

We bought 4 dozen small (infant?) and four dozen medium (a size bigger than infant). I don't forsee needing anything else, although we are lucky, in that repect, to have a small baby.

If I could start over again, knowing there’d be two kids total, I would have gotten
- three dozen small diapers (premium Chinese prefold, I think)
- four dozen medium diapers
- two small (wool) covers
- two medium covers
- three large covers
- four dozen peanut shaped fleece liners (NOT disposable, rather the kind that wick away moisture to make them feel drier)
- four-to-five dozen velor-sherpa washcloths (be aware to add vinegar/baking soda as a softener periodically, or the velor will become a bit rough after months of use. It softens even after it hardens, though). Just wet them under the faucet to replace wipes.
- one dozen snappis (I’m still using the VERY first one, thirteen months later!)
- Diaper Champ
- Two large waterproof diaper bags (for pail)
- One travel waterproof diaper bag
- PottyPail including bucket and sprayer
- One-two bottles of wool wash
- A big box or two or three of a good detergent (research for kinds that are appropriate and won’t degrade the diapers, kill the environment or irritate baby)
- A big jug or two of vinegar
- A big bag of baking soda
- A monstrously-ginormous drying rack...or two

I spent about $650, but knowing what I know now, I probably could have gotten by with 550.

My favorite covers by far are Rumpsters: http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/rumpsters.htm

Finally, don't be afraid to get "imperfect" (not the right term...maybe "seconds"?) diapers. By this I mean the cotton diapers themselves. They save you about a third, and are 85% as good looking as perfect ones (Their diapers, for pete’s sake, and they’re hidden under the cover anyway...who cares how they look!) . Just be clear with the seller with the imperfections you can expect (bad stitching is unacceptable, minor misshaping or hanging threads is fine). About three of the 24 diapers I bought needed, maybe, a total of one hour sewing, and otherwise were perfect. That is, functionally perfect.

Folding: As far as learning how to fold, it’s trivial. The challenge is doing it as the baby wiggles. I have an extra diaper ready in case it goes screwy, because he’s fighting me, and throw the messed up one on the floor, and use the new one.

Storage: I fold all the diapers, put a liner on top, and then put a folded washcloth on top of that. Then I roll it all up and rubberband it, and throw them all in a big drawer. It’s about one hour effort every week, beyond the washing and drying itself, but makes the actual changing a breeze.

Washing: The only way my wife could accept cloth diapers is if I took care entirely of washing and folding them. Washing them takes time but is easy. I do not spray them at all, just put dirty diapers in the pail. Empty the bag right into the washer (wash the bag every couple weeks) on a heavy soil cycle (with hot water). Every now and then add some vinegar or baking soda for softening (and something else too…I forget…do research). Hang the bag and liners without drying them. Dry everything else on medium heat for twenty to thirty minutes, depending on the load size. Then hang everything. You should find hardly anything left in your dryer lint holder…meaning the diapers have not degraded at all! It takes a day or so to dry fully (I turn the diapers over after a number of hours to speed it up). Do not put covers in the wash (or diaper pail) at all, wash them by hand in the sink every month or so. I roll them in a towel to start drying them, then hang them to finish the job.

Pros and cons: I wrote about this a while ago. Check out my website:
http://jeffyepstein.com/docs/baby/en/articles/jacob_herbert_epstein/getting_ready/cloth_diapers.html

Answer 5

Melissa- what do cloth diapers have to do with potty training early? Please explain.