Clothe diapers?

Question

I just saw a website for these cool cloth diapers. My mother used them for her first two babies but said it is so much work. Is it,and can I get the opinions of women who have used them or who had tried to use them. What do you think?

If my question seemed unclear, what i mean is can i get the opinion of women who have used any type of cloth diaper. It doesn't have to be the one i saw on the web. Thanks!!!

Answer 1

Congratulations on going cloth.

Cloth is awesome. What website are you looking at? Are they pocket diapers?

There are a lot of WAHMs that make pocket diapers cheap (cheaper than Bum Genius or Wonderoos etc.), that is where I got mine.

I spent a total of about $300 for my one size pocket diaper system. This supply of diapers will last me from 8 pounds (birth or slightly after birth for smaller babies) until she is out of diapers (I bought 24 diapers, 28 doublers and 30 wipes).

$300 seems like a lot of money, but I never have to spend another dime on diapers or wipes EVER. That same $300 would not go very far if you were spending it on disposables. You can spend between $2000-$3000 on disposables for the life of your diapering days. You can get a diaper system for cheaper than $300 if you go with prefolds, but I decided pockets were for me because they are easy. No folding or pins or anything.

Also, when you cloth you can reuse them. Disposables go into a landfill and don't decompose for 500 years.

You have to clean the diapers yourself, but that is not as gross as some people will have you believe. It is a lot easier to rinse and toss a load of diapers in the laundry than it is to load the baby in the car and run out and buy disposible diapers because you ran out.

Join a cloth group or look online. There are tons of websites out there singing the praises of cloth.

Oh, you asked about the work. You have an extra load (or two) of laundry every other day to do. If you purchase a diaper sprayer that connects to the toilet, you can rinse your diapers right there in the bathroom before you toss them in the washing machine and that works out great. (Breastfeed babies don't need their poo rinsed off the diaper.)

I don't think having to do an extra load (I can fit all my wipes, doublers and pockets in one load) is that big of a deal.

Disposables are easier. Put on baby, take off baby, put in trash. But they are so much more expensive and not really worth it in the long run.

Answer 2

I love cloth diapering. It is a little more work than disposables, as you have to wash them, and, depending on the type you use, folding and pinning. But it is not really hard, and it is so worth it when you see how much money you are saving and how much better it is for baby's skin and the environment. I use mostly prefolds and fitteds, with wool covers. I do about 1 wash every 2 days. I use prefolds with snappies and dritz pins, and the fitteds have snaps on them, they go on like disposables and then a cover over them.
http://www.diaperpin.com is a great place to get info about cloth diapers. And http://hyenacart.com is a great place to get work at home mom made diapers.

Answer 3

I love the cloth diapers! I have used them for almost 6 months now. I do a load every day or every other day. I use the fitted hemp/cotton diapers with a snappi clip and bummis cover. The hemp are naturally anti-bacterial so we haven't had any problems with rashes or anything. I also got a sprayer that attaches to the toilet to rinse off messy diapers. It was about $35 and so worth it!

Answer 4

I used cloth diapers 30 years ago for my firstborn, and one weekend when I was sloshing the diapers around in the pail, trying to get the stains out, and my fingers were cracking and bleeding from rinsing out diapers all the time, my father-in-law asked me why I was going to all that trouble when disposable diapers are better anyway!! He pointed out that the disposables have a layer of non-stick paper that keeps the wetness away from the baby's skin. You can buy those inserts for cloth diapers, but why bother? Unless you have a baby who happens to be allergic to all the plastics in every brand, it makes much more sense to use disposables. They are very cheap now, compared to the way they were when they first came out over 30 years ago. Since "grandpa" was of the depression-era generation, I figured if it were really that much cheaper to use cloth diapers, he would never have given me "permission" to do it the easy way!! So I switched right then and never went back to the cloth diapers.

If you like the way they look, you could buy one package of cloth diapers and use them once in awhile, for kicks. Go for it. But I'll bet you won't want to do it very long.

Answer 5

I liked cloth diapers. In the long run they are cheaper than buying disposables, and although they are more work, it's worth it not to be filling up the world with trash that doesn't decompose for years. You have to wash clothes anyway, one more load isn't going to kill you, and the water used is sent to the recycling plant to be used again.

Answer 6

they're definately better for the environment, for some mothers, it's an issue of I don't want to wash my new sweater with my childs feces, understandably. Be prepared to do more loads of laundry but I definately think it's better. If/when you start going out and leaving your child with a sitter, I would post an instruction sheet on how to put the diaper on, the babysitting courses don't cover it anymore.

Answer 7

I was thinking of it too... Benifits would be saving money but then again there is more laundry which can be time consuming and an extra pain in the butt. I am still weighing out my options too. I might try to do both. We shall see

Answer 8

i never felt it was that much more work, an additional load of laundry every day or two. Cloth is great for me, we jsut use the traditional prefolds with pins and plastic covers