primer
Posted: February 20, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized 57 Comments »OK, people with babies – we’re looking for a diaper primer. We want to know why you chose cloth or why you chose not cloth. We want to know how much excrement you deal with on a regular basis. We want to know how all this new-fangled cloth diaper cover crap works. And we want to know what you like AND hate about it. We want total honesty and lots of information. I know you all are the right lot to turn to.
We had firmly decided against cloth when we were going to be living here, as I just couldn’t handle the communal washer and dryer and baby poop as a combination. But if all goes well, we will be in our own home with our own washer and dryer and we are therefore interested in at least learning more before we make the decision. Plus, I know from the tiny bit I have paid attention (miminal, admittedly) that you people who do the cloth diaper thing have a whole other world of paraphernalia than Wes and I experienced with my sister (22 years ago) and GMB (16 years ago). We do believe it is a whole new diaper frontier. We make no promises and will do what we deem best, but we know we need more input and info. Thanks.
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All the relatives are gone and my back is a disaster. Between relatives and stress, house stress, pregnancy and the teensiest bit of packing (honestly – I just packed 4 boxes of books and I was sitting down the entire time), something made me seize up and now I am spending my day off with a heating pad. And I am watching the damn Baby Story, which I sometimes allow myself to watch while pregnant. I have to say that it is absolutely NOTHING after seeing the real thing. Not nearly as scary. I don’t mean that I am not still as scared. Just that there is far less mystery involved. So I guess that is a lasting good effect of that still rather traumatic experience. I am pleased that I will get to be the mean Aunt Bri who forever brings a dose of reality to Melissa’s Baby K’s life – "No, it was most certainly not a glorious, beautiful thing when you were born. It was hard as hell and scary as f*ck! Now go thank your mother."
Wes just called and said that it looks like we should be able to move into some part of the house on April 1st. There is no way I am going to count on this too heavily, but if it is true it will be excellent news. Seeing all those relatives, as stressful as it sometimes was, also meant that we received phone calls from both of our fathers offering help and leniency on loans and potential loans and that relieved a good deal of the big time pressure that was sitting on my shoulders (mothers and stepmothers being extremely good at relaying how stessed out we seem even when we are determined not to ask for more help than we already have). It now seems possible that we will only be looking at a week or so of lag time between having to move out and moving in to the rental. And with that small amount of time, we may just splurge on a hotel for the week and pretend it’s a vacation. Gertie the Chihuahua is very partial to the W Hotel.
My favorite topic!
First, what led us to it: we are cheap and somewhat green and my mom did it for me. Cheap comes into play because not only would we pay for disposables, but we also pay per pound at the dump, and wet diapers are HEAVY. We also have our own washer and dryer and both are high efficiency front loaders.
The dirt: I thought we would go all fancy and buy all in ones and such, but after outgrowing the intial teeny ones we ended up just buying more Chinese prefolds and Bummis covers. I can change this combo (with a snappi) in about 30 seconds. Paper diapers actually take me longer! Miss E poops about once a day, and contrary to conventional wisdom, her poop has improved with age, at least diaperwise. To be honest, it just plops right off into the toilet 90% of the time. I use a dry pail and wash every third day, on short cold cycle no detergrent and one long hot/cold cycle.
We have no trouble getting a day care provider who’ll deal with them. And we take them with us (along with a plastic bag) pretty much everywhere.
One confession: we use disposables at night because Miss E’s overnight pee is uncontainable. Also we had trouble with the cloth and the cord stump the first two weeks so we held off on them till after it healed.
April 1st!!!! kick ass news there!
so glad the kin folk have left town and you can catch your breath.
xo
I don’t think I’ve ever commented before, although I’ve lurked for a looooong time. Howdy! Despite having three kids with GI, I’ll hold back on anything else unless asked, but with the third one, just last week, I finally realized that you can slip the envelope-style necklined onesies DOWN over a baby’s hips just as easily as UP over their head. Durr!
What a lovely post, B.
Martha, thank you so much for responding. Will you go back and explain what the hell you are talking about? Most of those terms mean absolutely nothing to me. What is a Chinese prefold or a Bummi cover or an all in one or a snappi. And by dry pail… does that mean there is some other kind to use? Is it just like a trash can?
Soooo much to learn.
I looooove cloth! Everything about it! There is NOTHING I don’t like! I am not even in a hurry for him to PT because I just plan enjoy diapering him!
I would prefer to use prefolds and fitteds with wool covers (nylon covers for outing, much trimmer), but AJ likes pocket diapers. So, we do use mostly pockets (close with snaps or velcro, require no cover).
He poops normally once a day. It comes off the fleece easily (pocket diapers have fleece or suedecloth against the baby to keep him nice and cry) into the toilet, so very rarely is there poop in the washing machine. We do diapers every 2-3 days, two washes each, and our water bill has gone up by about $11 a month since he was born (keep in mind that he requires daily bathing, and sometimes 4 baths a day).
For time consuming, we probably invest 45 minutes a week into his diapers. That includes washing them, hanging them to dry (optional, but we prefer that) and stuffing/folding them. Actually, it’s probably far less than 45 minutes, but that’s a good assumption.
They are no more difficult than disposables, easier even. And they don’t smell as bad.
I chose cloth in the beginning because it’s better for the baby. Cost and environment were considerations, but not the most important. I looked at cloth diapering as a necessary evil, something I was willing to do but wouldn’t really like. I was SO wrong! I’m very glad we chose cloth! When we went to NYC, I used paper diapers so he would fit height wise in the car seat I wanted to use, and we took cloth for naps and bedtime. I HATED using paper diapers, and ended up sink washing the 4 diapers we had brought so we could use them during the day and didn’t have to use the paper diapers. They STINK for the most part. I can’t stand the smell of them, or the fact that they get squishy.
I just ordered new pockets this weekend, brands I haven’t tried before, and I am very excited to get them! I also have about 40 fitted diapers and a dozen or so prefolds. Prefolds and pins are my favorite, but pockets are definitely more convenient.
I would use cloth even if we did not have a washer and dryer. In fact, we didn’t get one until a few months before he was born, and we were not planning on that. So, we likely would have trekked to the laundromat with his diapers as well, and it would be totally worth it.
Can I buy you a diaper?
Oh, this post just reminded me that over the weekend I dreamt that I came and stayed at your house (in my dream very gothic, by the way)and that Gertie needed to go to the park to poop and so I volunteered to take her, but then there was a miscommunication and you thought I was going to steal her back to salt lake and then Gertie bit me.
Lovely dream, that.
As you know, we are using cloth, the same kind as Martha. This is also what you would likely use if you went with a diaper service. Email D. about that, it’s what she’s doing for S. I’ll let Derek comment about the laundering, since he’s the one who does that. He also ordered the diapers online, so he could tell you where he got them, cost, etc. Changing, now that I’m used to them, is just as easy as disposable. We chose cloth because of the cost, environmental reasons, and because I am grossed out by putting the chemicals found in mainstream diapers close to my baby’s butt (you know how I am). We use 7th Gen. disposables at night and when traveling. I like these too. I am a little up in the air about whether to buy cloth in the next size or whether to use 7th Gen., although I’ll probly leave it up to Derek in the end since he does the diaper laundry, and I mostly don’t deal with it. If you went with a diaper service, I think there’d be hardly any convenience difference at all between cloth and disposable. (sorry this is rambling, K. ran me a bit ragged today)
Oh, and the poop. K. poops my god about 5 – 6 times daily. Keep in mind he is a newborn! Apparently he will eventually stop pooping this much. But since he is breastfed, his poop is liquid-y so we treat it like pee for the most part.
We do 7th generation diapers. I would much rather do cloth for a number of reasons, but a laundromat is our only option for washing clothes. Diaper service around here is expensive and not very practical for twins’ needs. If I have another baby and am in my own place by then, I’d do cloth. 7th gen are nice, but let’s face it- they are still expensive and wasteful, just like other disposables. The non-chlorine factor is more responsible than other disposable options, granted.
ps- my boys still poop like 4 times a day, often messy. yes, at 15 months. no i am not giving them juice or loads of fiber. they’re just gross like that.
OK all you dear readers, I’m interested in the cloth diapers that come with “built-in” covers. (I doubt we’ll use a service because that seems to totally eliminate any environmental advantage.)
So, what I want to know is this:
What are the brands of the ones with covers?
Who prefers which brand and why?
Want my superficial reason for using disposable diapers? Okay, all you cloth diapering mamas skip this comment and please don’t flame me. I use disposable diapers because they are trim, I like the way clothes fit with disposable diapers. I do have about four cloth diapers that I was willing to try, but honestly, they are way too much work for me and they leak like crazy at night and I can’t stand a baby waking in the night because their pj’s are wet. That makes me insane. I know lots of people who say that their cloth diapers never leak at night. To that I say: phooooey!
So, I’m an environmental criminal. I can live with that.
We use cloth during the day and disposables at night (another prolific night wetter!) We chose cloth for environmental and sentimental reasons
There is something nice about knowing that she’s wearing cotton diapers and I have come to love her profile with the big ‘ole cloth diaper butt!
This website is helpful and can answer the “what the heck is a pre-fold and what about wet or dry pails?”
http://www.diaperpin.com/home.asp
For the first six months we had diaper service. Ask for it as a shower gift- they pee and poop SO much in those first few months that it is entirely worth it.
Oh, and lagiulia thanks for assuring me that my four-times-a-freakin-day 13 month old pooper is not the only one
Let me add, to be fair that the disposable diapers leak at night as well with my son. They leak less than the cloth and without all the hassle and bigness of a cloth diaper. I have had to make cloth diapers so large to be ‘absorbent’ that there is barely any room for baby. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong though.
Wes- keep in mind that all-in-one diapers take FOREVER to dry, which could also negate your positive environmental impact. And because they take so long to dry you need a lot more of them- they are spendy. With the prefolds you can use a cover a couple of times before washing it.
I would rec. choosing a few different all-in-ones, and getting a few pre-folds and a few pocket diapers (which I haven’t tried) and trying them out. Better yet, get them used from a resale shop or borrow them from friends if you can. We tried all-in-ones in the beginning but eventually chose the pre-folds with covers.
I use disposable. We use about 6-8 diapers a day, depending on the day. About 2-3 of these are poopy and the rest are just wet. We did not use cloth for a couple of reasons. They are still an expensive initial investment. Since we only planned on having one child, we wouldn’t reuse them which wouldn’t save us a huge amount of money. Also, I went back to work after 7 months and the daycares around here will not change cloth diapers.
#1 – Yay on the house!
#2 – Yeah, check out that diaperpin site that Erin mentioned. That’s how I learned most of what I know about cloth diapers.
I was so sure we were going to do cloth and did a ton of research. I knew I was lazy and went with the all-in-ones. Almost every diaper I bought is used, which sounded gross at first, but then I realized diaper-service diapers are all used too… anyway… All in ones have lots of absorbent inside stuff and then something on the outside that doesn’t let water through. This is either a plastic (but softer than plastic pants) coated cloth or fleece. They fasten wit velcro or snaps or something and are as easy get off and on as a disposable.
That said, we have a whole drawer of them and Quinn wears Pampers. Not even organic disposbles. PAMPERS for crissakes! Why? They fit her scrawny little ass, we don’t have to spend half of our lives drying them and they are nice and soft and fit under clothes. Once a week or so we’ll put a cloth one on her for the hell of it and pray she doesn’t poop. She always does.
Don’t underestimate the drying. You will run a whole cycle and they will feel dry and then the damp will emerge from the depths of them. It’s wacky.
Pictures I took of our diapers back in the day: http://flickr.com/photos/hopemcg/sets/72057594102015756/
My cloth diapering links at del.ici.us: http://del.icio.us/hopemcg/clothdiapering
We love, love, love cloth and wouldn’t do it any other way. In fact we can (and may) talk your ears off about it if you let us. Jen is rushing through doing dishes and making lunches as I type just so she can get to the computer to comment…
We chose cloth because A)if you wash them yourself it’s SO much cheaper and, well, we’re broke. We also registered for and received many diapers as gifts, making it even cheaper. B)It felt better to us than throwing away all those diapers. C) they’re cute.
If you want ones with covers attached, your options are all in ones (AIOs) or pocket diapers. AIOs are simply that. One piece, no hassle. Pretty much like disposable, but you put them into a bag/pail instead of the trash. We send these to Jen’s mom’s house. She was vehemently opposed to cloth and thought we were insane and is pretty happy using these. We got some hand me down bumkins and kushies. They’re fine, but I personally wouldn’t use them all the time. Newborn poop has a way of shooting up the back of them, and they don’t have enough gathering on the top to keep it from coming out. But Jen’s mom uses them, so they’re great for daycare situations or hesitant people.
Pocket diapers are shells that you stuff different types of liners into. The most well-known/popular ones (at least around here) are fuzzi bunz. They’re great because they’re fleece lined, which means that baby stays dry. Natalie gets rashy pretty easily, so fleece is good for her. We started off using them only overnight, but have bought more so that we can use them more often. They’re nice because they’re flexible. Depending on your kid, you can adjust how much you stuff them. Natalie is a heavy wetter, but with a few layers of hemp, she can make it through the night without leaks and doesn’t have a balloon butt. During the day we can do slightly less stuffing and they’re relatively trim.
Cloth diapers do have the downside of being bulky, but you can get around that to some extent by chosing trimmer types. Our kid was never gonna look good in jeans anyway, so we’re pretty OK with this, but it does get a little annoying at times to have her not fit something just because of the diaper. Oh, and they don’t fit in your diaper bag as easily.
We also use prefolds (the flat, old-fashioned diapers) and covers like bummis or bumkins. You can just fold the diaper in thirds and stick it in the cover and then it’s almost as easy as a one-piece thing. Jen will also probably tell you about Gdiapers. She’s big on them lately.
Newborn (until they start solids) poop you don’t have to do anything special with. Just toss it in and wash it. Now that she’s fully into solids, we can just shake N’s poop into the toilet and then drop the diaper into the pail. When she started solids, there was a gross transitional period when it was a little harder to deal with, but it didn’t last too long. Same with poop when she’s sick, but we switched to gdiapers until the worst was past.
We had leaking problems early on, but haven’t since. We just needed to get a feel for the diapers and how often to change her.
OK, I’m going to stop now before I write an entire novel. Especially since Jen is now typing away and probably saying many of the same things. Feel free to ask us questions, though. We LOVE to talk about diapers.
Jen and Cait are good cloth advocates – I’m sure they’ll chime in soon.
As for us, truth be told, we’re um, just a *wee* bit too lazy to use cloth. Sure, my native oregonian, green-mama-turning-malka-into-a-recycling-guru self is ALL for cloth. But um, we use 7th Gen. You can get them from 1800diapers dot com, and Fresh Direct has them, too.
And the 7th Gen wipes rock, too. Malka has NEVER had a diaper rash. (except once during her bout of gastroentiritis in May…) But seriously. So if you go for cloth, get some 7th Gen’s for “back up.”
Jen and Cait can also tell you about the “G-diapers” – those are their “travel” dipes. I’ve seen them in action – not bad!
And… (not sure if it’s compatable with cloth dipes), but UNpetrolium Jelly in the yellow tub at Who*e Foods body section is a good “barrier cream.”
Let me know if you want more info…
heh – Cait and I were clearly composing at the same time…
We did use MP3′s outgrown 7th Gens for a couple of trips over the summer, and they were fine. And easier than hauling a ton of cloth. But the more we’ve gotten used to cloth, the harder it is to switch.
Cait and I are answering simultaneously from either end of the couch. I will be interested to see how similar (or different) our answers are!
I have been suffering from a bit of comment inertia but SO HAPPY that things are progressing well for you both on the house and the baby front (let’s not talk about the library renovation proposal!?!?!) and must say congrats on the second tri and the beautiful heartbeat. YAY!!
However, first things first: what a topic to get me out of lurkdom! Did you do it on purpose?
Now, to the cloth diapers, a subject I love dearly. Which explains why this is a fucking dissertation. Sorry. You asked for it.
There are a multitude of options in cloth diapering, and what you choose will be dictated at least in part by what you want to achieve. Frugality? Environmentalism? Style? Natural vs. synthetic products? Ease of use? There are other considerations as well, but I’ll start with those.
Wes has prioritized environmentalism and ease of use (at least I think that’s what he’s driving at with the desire for built-in-covers). I’m gonna go out on a limb here and predict that he will also be just a bit concerned with style. You haven’t said what’s driving your interest, so I’ll cover cost, too.
Environmentalism: The studies that are the most unbiased (i.e. not funded by disposable diaper mfrs) tend to suggest that cloth is preferable in areas where landfill space is at a premium, while disposables pose less environmental impact where water is scarce. Since you live in NYC, where landfill issues are notorious but water is plentiful, buying your own unbleached prefolds (layered rectangles of hemp or cotton – what you most likely envision when you picture cloth diapers drying on a line), washing and line drying them at home would have the least environmental impact. Home washing of other types of cloth diapers, most of which are bleached or at least partially synthetic, is still a reduction in environmental impact from service diapers or disposables. Service diapers, despite their energy cost in washing and transportation, are still green as they don’t end up in a landfill.
Ease-of-use:
All-in-ones (AIOs) are the most like disposables in simplicity. Each AIO is a single unit with absorbent layers and a waterproof lining or cover. They usually velcro closed (similar to a disposable). We send them with Natalie to my mom as she and her housekeeper are comfortable with them (they even made my mom like cloth diapers, overriding her lingering dislike of old school cloth diapers from my infancy). They can take longer to dry than some diapers although we haven’t found that to be a problem. We put two big towels in the dryer with diapers and that speeds up drying. It does take two cycles (for any of our diapers to dry, not just AIOs) but we have a lousy dryer.
Pockets are similar except that are in two (or more) pieces. If you put them back together when you get them out of the dryer, they are as simple as disposables to put on: velcro or snap. Pocket diapers are kind of like pita bread: two thin layers into which you can stuff as much as you need. You stuff them with different inserts depending on how much your kid pees. Stuffind doesn’t take too much time, but is one more step than AIOs.
Covers and prefolds can seem complicated in the beginning but you get used to them pretty quickly. The complexity comes from the many different choices of cover. Should you choose this approach, I can expound on them in more detail later. The basics, however, are that you place an absorbent layer next to the baby and then cover it with a waterproof outer. It take a bit of learning to minimize the risk of leaking, but mainly you need to make sure the cover is snug and none of the inner layer is sticking out.
Other: There are actually more variations than these but I think you’re likely to go with AIOs or pockets if you do cloth so I will stop here.
Style:
Prefolds I just don’t think prefolds and covers are going to do it for you guys and your sense of style. PFs tend to be bulky — limiting stylish clothing options — and unless you go with plain white, the covers are too cutesy for you.
AIOs and pockets These options offer WAY more style potential. You can go with FuzziBunz (among the most well-known and liked pockets — and the diaper of choice at our house) which are trim and come in a multitude of hues but no patterns. Or you can dive deep into diaper mania and go with hand-made (usually called WAHM-made) diapers, either pocket or AIO. Don’t think of them as hand-made; think of them as hand-crafted or artisanal. I’m serious. You will be able to find diapers that fit your sensibilities if you go this route. Check out http://www.diaperhyena.com
Cost:
Prefolds and covers are the least expensive option. You can use the same prefolds from birth through at least age 1 (depending on the size of your baby and the way you use them – again, more detail later if you are interested). You’d need a second set of larger PFs after that, but they’d last you up to potty training. You need about 24-30 PFs if you are washing every few days, but they are cheap, cheap, cheap. Covers can be used more than once if poop doesn’t get on them, so you can use as few as 20 covers over the diaper-wearing years (covers come in different sizes so you’d need 4-6 in several different sizes). All told, you could spend $300 or less for all of your brand new diapering supplies from birth to training (and then resell them and recoup a small portion of that investment).
AIOs and Pockets are significantly more expensive because you need different sizes and each diaper is pricey ($14-19 on average); however, you can get upwards of 50% of the cost back if you sell them when you’re done with them. Because of this, CDing with nothing but AIOs or pockets is still cheaper than disposables.
Washing: Using cloth adds 2-3 loads of laundry a week for us, though we have debated washing less frequently. (I think we could wash 1-2 times a week but Cait doesn’t agree). Loading the washer is a little icky but takes 2 minutes tops. After that, it’s a matter of restarting the washer for the second wash, and then it’s like any other laundry: move to dryer, fold(stuff), put away. I’ll address the poop question separately.
The Poop thing: this is what freaked my mom out, because when she used cloth she had a service. Her memorable quote on the matter was, “You’re not going to put SHIT in my washing machine!!” (No, Mom, for one thing, we’re washing them at our house.) However, washing machines have evolved a lot in the 35 years since my rear was in cloth diapers, and they now get diapers much cleaner and the machines themselves rinse cleaner, so it’s not a big deal. Furthermore, like Melissa said, if you are breastfeeding, the poop for the first few months (or longer, depending on your kid) doesn’t require ANY special handling. You just drop the diaper in the pail (yes, a regular trash can works fine) and then on washing day, dump the diapers in the washer, do a rinse, then a wash, and then into the dryer. With older kid poop, it can be more of an issue, but as long as the kid is not sick, it’s usually no biggie: the poop can be shaken off the diaper right into the toilet and you wash the diaper as usual. Every once in a while there’s a doozie, but the doozies are there with disposables, too. I figure dealing with them is the price we pay for saving money and feeling more environmentally responsible. We have never had blowout issues with diapers, but that does depend in part on the size and shape of your kid. Cait’s dealt with some blowouts on the baby she takes care of on Mondays.
Believe it or not, I could go on a lot longer. I haven’t even touched on the possibility of G-Diapers, which are another possibility all together. But I’ll stop by saying, we LOVE cloth diapers and don’t regret using them at all. We have used disposables on occasion but didn’t find them any more convenient. Plus I am so happy every time I go to the grocery store and get to walk past the baby aisle – the only thing we every buy there are pacifiers and the occasional jar of prunes.
This is the longest comment I’ve ever written. Feel the love!
We use Pampers Swaddlers. And I’ll be honest, we did look at cloth diapering but no laundry facility in our apartment completely meant we ruled it out. And honestly I’m in a sense glad we didn’t do it as our baby has colic *and* reflux so needless to say between the screaming bouts I doubt I could have dealt with doing laundry umpteen times a day. It’s tough enough now navigating the laundry room with the baby. Plus those shitsplosions/blow-outs are no fun to clean up after so again glad we did disposables.
I thought for sure Jen would say more about GDiapers. If you don’t already know what they are, you can look at gdiapers.com. Basically, they are cloth covers with flushable inserts. They’re a good compromise for travelling, and I like them, but the flushing can be a hassle. Especially in a public restroom with a wiggly child in one arm. Of course, you could always just throw away the inside, which is still better than a disposable environmentally. We use the gcovers with cloth as well.
Thank you so much everyone for your comments (and keep them coming!) and especially to my novelist, Jen.
I have actually read a bit about G-Diapers so I know where those are coming from, process-wise. We could be open to trying down the road. If we do disposable (and to be honest, I know we will at least some of the time – travel, if nothing else), we will for sure be starting with Seventh Gen, which we already know about from the twins and others.
Oh, and do cloth diapering people still use the same kind of baby wipes or is that another arena of differing opinion?
Anyway, this has helped quite a bit. Any idea how much more AIO or pockets are? How much is significantly more expensive, Jen? It feels like we would need a class to learn how to do all this. It is a bit overwhelming when I think of being sleep-deprived AND learning to breastfeed AND already knowing how to put on a disposable diaper. But maybe I can just wait to start cloth until I get past that initial shock of life-change.
IF IF IF we get that far. MAYBE MAYBE MAYBE. Ahem. Can’t write for long without doing that.
Okay, Jen pretty much covered it. She did NOT cover fitteds, though. They are, well, fitted! They have elastic around the legs and waist and close with snaps or velcro. They do require a cover. They’re “middle of the road” for cost and ease of use. Easier and more expensive than prefolds, cheaper and not as convenient as pockets.
You want pockets. All in ones suck. They do. They take forever to dry, and you can’t customize them.
The closest possible to a disposable diaper is probably a bumGenius! (the exclamation point is part of the name, I’m not just excited). Check out cottonbabies.com for this one.
Popular pockets-
Fuzzi Bunz (love them!) these are sized (preemie, small, medium, large, x large, xx large, petite toddler) and snap together
Happy Heinys- Sized as well, fasten with velcro, cute prints!!
DryBees- Sized, fasten with velcro
SwaddleBees- Sized, SUPER trim, either velcro or snaps. These make up most of our day time stash
bumGenius!- One size fits all, fasten with velcro and have stretchy tabs
Haute Pockets- One size fits all, fasten with velcro or snaps. I just ordered some of these and I am very excited!
Mommy’s Touch- One size, fasten with snaps. I love these too, and the person who makes them is incredible. When Charlie was last in the hospital she sent me a dozen, on the house, just because she’s a beautiful person. I LOVE these diapers, but they have a lot of snaps (6 on the new one, EIGHT on the old ones)
Pocket Change- Sized, never have to remove the insert (I don’t mind, but some people might… I don’t always remove the insert anyway and nothing bad ever happens)
SuperStars- One size… these were originally Wonderoos and I hated them, but some people love them. Skip them though. Really.
And HUNDREDS, probably thousands, of WAHM made diapers. Seriously. TONS of them.
Charlie does not have a bubble butt for the most part. Pockets are *barely* any bulkier than a disposable diaper, and LESS bulky than a wet disposable (because paper diapers swell up when wet). Prefolds and covers are bulky, wool is super bulky. Fitteds with covers are bulkier than pockets, but not too bad.
Charlie uses cloth overnight and never leaks. A large Fuzzi Bunz with one trifolded microfiber insert and one LizaJane hemp insert and he is good to go. Otherwise we use a fitted diaper with two doublers and a wool cover. He’s leaked about 4 times in his life.
Wes wants pockets. Don’t even bother looking at anything else. I know that’s what he wants. Lots of pretty colors and prints, he’ll love them.
Pockets average $15 per diaper. They are the most expensive cloth option, but still cheaper than disposables. You will probably spend about $1000 on diapers, total, if you buy them in sizes. Less if you buy one size diapers. For prefolds and covers, maybe $300. Probably $600 for fitteds and covers if you buy sizes, $450-500 if you buy one size. One nice wool cover can set you back $40-50, but PUL and nylong covers are $5-12 each. Fitted diapers are about $10-15, and prefolds are $2 each.
And we use cloth wipes. Just cheap little wash cloths mostly. WAY easier than disposable wipes.
Everyone (almost) uses paper occasionally. Even if it’s only to make the kid fit in a car seat…
OK. So someone tell me what you do during the occasional blowouts with cloth. Or with that phase when the poop is not newborn watery or big kid solid? I may sound dense but I really don’t know. Do you have to swirl it in the toilet? Is that a memory of mine? Do you rinse it out in some way or what?
And what about that whole wet pail dry pail thing? Or pails at all? Do we put a trash bag in the trash can that holds the dirty diapers and then throw it out? Or what? How do you deal with not getting poop in your receptacle?
This is making me anxious.
Ok, pal, breathe. I found it very stressful in the abstract but quite simple once we got our hands on diapers. I am VERY happy to bring a diaper roadshow to you and help you figure it out pre-baby. Or you and Wes can come visit DC.
Newborn blowouts you deal with the same whether it’s cloth or ‘sposie. Dump soiled clothes (yours, theirs, both) in the regular laundry. Wipe off kid and anything else that needs it. Dispose of wipes and diaper as usual (if cloth, in pail; if disposable, in trash). Bathe if necessary. Repeat. You don’t do anything special with the poop.
The in-between stage? It was gross, but brief. You could switch to disposables for that period of time. You can dunk – it’s actually really effective and no grosser than many baby-related things. Your gross tolerance will go WAY UP post baby. I promise. What I did before discovering that dunking worked was scrape it off with TP or a plastic knife (which I then threw away). It was way nasty. I won’t lie. But I only did it twice. Please don’t let this turn you off cloth.
Wet pails are very old school, back in the days of inefficient washers. Virtually everyone uses dry pails, and you line them with a waterproof, reusable cloth bag which gets washed along with the diapers. You could also use a trash bag and throw it out – we’ve done that while traveling.
I am also willing to do a Flickr photoessay on all things CD. It would have to wait for the weekend, though. I’m not THAT crazy.
But really, I will do anything to help you feel comfortable with cloth. Just ask.
Oh, and I didn’t mean Diaperhyena.com. I meant Hyenacart.com.
Just a couple of clarifications and additional comments on our CLOTH diapering experience. We are sticking with cloth (with the exception of nights and travel). Melissa may not know this yet, but we are. Melissa’s mom got us a bunch of used cloth, so we have done it all.
Just to reiterate what others have said, All in One’s SUCK (at least the ones we tried). You have to buy a ton of them because you can’t re-use the cover. If the cover is not waterproof, then you get leakage problems. If it is waterproof, then you can’t put it in the dryer, and it will take 24 hours or more to dry (which means that you have to buy even more of them). Finally, they are more expensive. Although they look cuter and are slightly more convenient, do not be fooled, they are not practical.
We use pre-folds with plain old Bummi covers. They are bulky, they don’t look “cool” (but they do look “cute” once you get used to them). But they are cheap and they work.
I haven’t heard of “pockets” until this discussion. These could have potential.
However, if blowouts are a real concern, and you are afraid of touching poop, then cloth may not be for you. Our laundry protocol is to rinse the diapers in a bucket of water, then (using rubber gloves) mush out as much of the poop stain as possible. If you are squeamish, this aspect of cloth diapering may bother you. Then we spray it with Infant Stain Remover (a truly GREAT PRODUCT that actually works) before tossing in the laundry. I am used to this system by now, but truth be told, if it was Melissa I bet she would do 7th Gen because of the poop issue.
Eumaios, have you tried doing it without the water rinse? You might be surprised at how well it works. We don’t do that. We do a short pre-rinse in the washer without soap instead. If there are persistent stains, sunning diapers really, truly gets out stains. I was astonished.
And our AIOs really are fine – we put them in the dryer and they are indeed waterproof. So AIOs are not useless in my book, but they aren’t my first choice either.
Ok, I am going to bed now.
One more thing. This may be totally out of the norm and it may gross people out, but we just put our rinsed diapers in with our regular laundry. My thinking is that if the laundry gets the diapers clean enough for the baby, it will get our clothes clean enough for us. So far, we have suffered no negative repercussions.
Thanks for the tip Jen, I will try it without the rinse!
Clearly our baby isn’t here (quite) yet, but I’ve done loads of research on cloth nappies/diapers, and in reading through the above comments, there still seem to be a few things to be said. It’s rather an evangelical topic; just like baby-wearing!
First things first: I have been strongly advised to concentrate on the initial bonding/breastfeeding in the first few weeks in preference to getting to grips with cloth. You only really get one chance to establish successful breastfeeding, so prioritise this – the cloth diapering can come along a bit later if needs be. Newborns need a lot of changing, so there will be a lot of washing (and/or a lot of disposables to be got through); it’s really up to you whether you feel you can cope with cloth laundry on top of everything else at this stage.
For FAQs, I’m going to recommend this site http://www.thenappylady.co.uk – obviously it’s a UK one, so many of the brands of nappies/diapers discussed are different, but the basic info on types/reasons why etc. is universal (and fantastic – looks a lot more informative than the diaperpin site to me).
Snappis (Nappy Nippas in the UK), are a 3-point plastic gripper that you use in place of old-fashioned pins. No chance of sticking the baby (or yourself) with a Snappi! You wouldn’t need them with AIOs or most fitted/shaped diapers, as these generally close with either snaps or Velcro. But you may well need them with pre-folds – I don’t know a lot about pre-folds, they seem a lot less common than shaped nappies in the UK.
Any kind of diaper (other than an AIO) needs a cover to make it waterproof. The cloth diaper is absorbent, but the liquid content would then just go straight through to the clothing (and beyond) without a cover. There are wool covers (inc. cute wool longie pants), but most common are PUL (plastic coated) covers, which can come in some truly fabulous prints. They are generally closed with snaps or Velcro and only take a few secs to put on. You wash them with your diapers, but you don’t need to change a cover every time you change a diaper, as they aren’t wet. So you need a lot less covers than diapers.
Jen already mentioned about wet/dry pailing: the need to pre-soak diapers (i.e. wet pailing) is just not there now, plus it’s much less stinky to dry-pail. You just need a bucket with a lid – any kind – and we’ve got a mesh liner bag that fits inside. You then just stick the mesh liner (drawstring open) plus diapers straight in the washer. If you do have any smell issues, you can place a dry muslin (can’t remember the US term for this, but they are the all-purpose sicky-up cloth thingies) on top, with a few drops of lavender or tea tree oil on it, then just throw this in the washer too.
With fitteds (and maybe pockets too – again, I don’t know a lot about these), some are made just from terry, or from brushed cotton, but others have an inner fleece lining. You can also use a fleece liner (which you can “make” yourself by cutting a piece of polyester microfleece into rectangles). The great thing about fleece is that it acts as a dry layer next to the baby’s skin – the pee goes straight through to the cloth, so the baby feels dry, and the poop stays on the fleece but can easily be shaken off down the loo.
Fitted diapers (and presumably different brands of AIO) vary a lot in how trimly they fit under clothes – I can’t advise on US brands though! I’m sure that there must be sites devoted to clothes made specifically for cloth-diapered butts – there are here in the UK, and the clothes are often really gorgeous e.g. http://www.cut4cloth.co.uk/
Baby wipes: I’ve just got a big pile of wipe-sized pieces of terry towelling – simply cut up and unfinished. You can use them with a water spray, or rinse them out to dampen before use. Dirt cheap and very green.
Karen would still rather use disposables (she has bad memories of cloth squares from when her best friend had kids 25 years ago), but I’m determined to use cloth the majority of the time; especially since I’m the one who will be at home doing the majority of the daytime baby care, and the laundry. I want to use cloth mainly for environmental reasons, but also because they are cute! I’ve bought a load of second-hand fitted newborn-sized nappies and covers, all different brands, so that I can then decide which brands I prefer for when we need the next size up (generally you need a stage 1 diaper from newborn-18lbs, then a stage 2 for 18-35lbs/potty training. Or you can go for a one-size diaper, which folds down smaller for newborns, but are then ridiculously bulky. Clearly cheaper than 2 separate sizes though)
Oh, and if you are buying brand-new cloth diapers, they need to be washed and dried several times before first use, as otherwise they won’t be properly absorbent.
Who would have thought that I could write an essay on the subject before I’ve even changed my first cloth nappy?!
What Tamsin said about not starting out with cloth is good advise. I would suggest get a few of several different types (I’m sure with this crowd, you could get some loaners) and try them out in your actual life with your actual baby’s hiney. You can mix and match cloth and disposables and try different things and then once you know what kind of cloth works best for you, (or not cloth, even) you can invest in what you know works for you and your kid.
Wait a minute! What Tamsin says about wipes blows my mind! Are you saying that wipes are another unnecessary contrivance of the baby-diaper industry? Has anyone else successfully gone wipe-less?! We spend $20 a month easily on wipes. We have a pediatrician appointment coming up…I might have to ask about this!
Although I agree that bonding is the most important thing in the early days, I don’t necessarily think that means you have to go disposable. We used cloth almost immediately and it worked out fine. If you are stressed out about your diapering skills, you can practice on a teddy bear before the baby comes.
Eumaios- Use cloth wipes! Far far easier and cheap!
Bri- You can also buy rice paper liners for the diapers if you want. When the baby poops, you pull the liner out and flush it. This doesn’t work on newborn poop, but older kids okay. But really, the poop thing isn’t that bad. If you use pockets or anything with a fleece liner, the poop really rolls right off, it doesn’t stick. I normally just scrape it off with toilet paper if it doesn’t come off on its own.
For the first month at least, I would use paper diapers. Not only because you don’t have to wash them, but because cloth diapers are pretty expensive up front (cheaper in the long run, but a big initial investment) and spending a lot of money on something that will only fit for a month or so would suck. Charlie NEVER were newborn anything, and only wore small for a week or so, but then he was almost twelve pounds at birth. I had to order him new diapers in the first month! We did cloth from birth, and loved it, but it has the potential to be more expensive (though with Charlie he wore them from birth to about 8 months, and some of them still fit as they were one size). Next time we’ll do prefolds from birth until the kid can fit into medium pockets, and then s/he’ll wear Charlie’s old ones. Of course, that depends on the kid. Some kids fit into small for a year or more!
I’ll take some pictures for you and put them in Flickr of different diaper options and how trim they fit the baby (prefolds, fitteds, pockets, PUL covers, and wool covers) so you can get an idea. I’ll even throw his butt in a paper diaper for the cause. He’s sick today, so I don’t think he’ll be up to butt modeling, but this weekend I’ll get it done for you.
My favorite diaper site is greenmountaindiapers.com. She doesn’t have a lot of pocket diapers (which I really think are what you’re looking for) but TONS of info. Tons. I worshipped that site for months. I’d order something from her anyway, just to get the awesome booklet she sends out that basically tells you everything you need to know. I just ordered pockets for Charlie from Marcy at diaperco.com, because she had everything I was looking for.
Another great great diapering resource, if you can wade through some of the scary stuff, is MDC (mothering.com/discussions). It’s a really crunchy site, be warned. Great resource on lots of things, though, and the cloth diaper board is awesome.
Gotta run to the pediatrician now! Bye!
OK- so, my thoughts, at the risk of being an environmental villain.
We use paper. J thought about cloth, but I honestly barely considered it.
I once read that Erma B*mb*ck wrote that she would rather drink scalding hot coffee out of her hands for the rest of her life (thus giving up disposable cups and helping the environment that way) than use cloth diapers, and I have to say I understand the sentiment.
My gut on this, is that with all the chaos of a new baby, the convenience of disposables is really worth it. There does also seem to be some debate about what is better for the environment, but I am not sure I buy it. I really do care about the environment, and do what I can personally, but am unwilling to take the diaper step.
We have always used paper, always used what is cheapest- usually buying in bulk at a warehouse store. (Though you shouldn’t do that with the newborn sizes in case they don’t fit, etc). One thing you should know is that the generic diapers, like batteries, are often identical to the brand names and made in the same factories.
Two thoughts- have you heard of g-diapers? They are a hybrid, and might be perfect for your hi-tech, first-on-the-block sensibilities – if your plumbing can handle them.
And second, I am by no means an expert, and I know Wes is particular about laundry, but if you are going cloth, I think you should consider a service… who needs more chores in their day?
(Now people- be nice to me… I recycle, even paper, I promise!)
First things first. Isn’t it utterly delightful that you are writing about the ultimate dilemma – cloth vs. diapers? I find this fact more promising and comforting than anything else you’ve written about in the past couple of weeks. It speaks volumes of soothing poop. It pleases me to see that you are more relaxed and calm. We are rooting for you.
Second things second. My experience in the cloths’ department is admittedly outdated (child is in her late teens now)and may be irrelevant but I’ll share it anyway. When our daughter was born (Bulgaria, Eastern Europe) there were no diapers at all. Hence the cloth and lack of remourse. Unadorned cloth, mind you – very plain, no waterproofing options. Honestly, I have no dreadful memories of leaking disasters. My sole concern was to convince my dutiful husband that the ironing of cloths need not be that compulsive-obsessive. It’s for sanitation purposes only!!!
It sounds silly to assure you that all will be well in that respect. You guys strike me as being awfully organized and barring any intervention from the clothing police in Park Slope, you’ll do just admirably. In case you need ironing lessons, please drive across the bridge, and my husband will provide these willingly. No, I’m not kidding but am wishing you well.
Tsena
We used “cloth” wipes- i took a bunch of wash cloths and cut them into quarters. Then we would soak them in water- just water- and kept them in the diaper wiper warmer someone gave to us. The only downside was that when washed and dried the edges frayed and tangled into little cloth knots. But we used scissors to snip them apart and trim the edges. If I knew how to sew, it would’ve been easier. We found that the chemicals in the wipes caused diaper rash. We saved a bunch of money and did this for the first 6 or 8 months. Then the time between changings went down and her tush got bigger, so we broke out the mega-pack of wipes given to us at our shower.
As far as washing/swishing poop etc- We use the flushable liners and have had mixed luck timing them to her bowel movements. However,they help get the poop off the diaper and into the toilet. We also shake, use a bit of TP, and regularly put very poopy diapers straight into pail. (we have a Simple Human foot operated canister trash can that we line with a mesh bag. It goes in to the wash with the dispers, and we sanitize the can every gew washes.) We keep a spray bottle of BacOut (a fabulous natural anti-bac sol’n) next to the pail and give a few sprays to all the diapers before they go into the pail. Every three days or so I do the wash- and do a “soak” cycle on COLD with more BacOut, then a super hot wash with Charlie’s Soap- the best soap on the planet
A good soap is very important- nothing with enzymes, as they can get trapped in the cloth and allegedly cause skin issues, and no fabric softner, as it builds up in the diapers and makes them less absorbant.
My plan, when pregnant, was to do a combo of cloth and disposable, since I knew I was too lazy for pure cloth.
I ordered a set of fancy AIOs and lots of inserts before Noah was born, all set to try.
It seems that people have very different feelings about small baby poop. Noah was breastfed, and in spite of what you read some places, poops were a sticky, stinky, horrible mess.
Unfortunately, they also occured BOTH of the first two times we tried using CDs.
Fuggedaboutit. Neither of us is that good with gross.
I have subsequently used the CDs a few more times, for things like swimming, and when Noah had a BAD round of diaper rash. Also, he’s started sleeping longer at night and soaking through his diaper, so I’m inserting the cloth “doublers” in his disposables — which has worked great. I suspect each diaper has been used, some even twice.
I’m glad I have a few, that I tried it, and that I didn’t break the bank deluding myself into thinking that I was going to be the Perfect Green Mom. You pick your maternal projects/obsessions, and do your best.
Good luck, whatever you decide.
The one thing I would add after reading some comments is that the flushable disposables (g’s) are a good solution, but I have heard from some parents around the hood that their toilets get clogged a lot. Our toilet gets clogged a lot as it is, so I don’t want to temp fate by feeding it a twins’ worth of g’s. Just a word to the wise- make sure your system is strong beforehand.
sunshinediapers.com does a “test drive” where you get (depending on whether you order the part-time or full-time version) 1 to 3 of every kind of diaper that they have, use them for 90 days, and then return them for about a 2/3 refund of the cost in credit. That’s what I’m planning on doing. Partly to see if I really am as committed to cloth diapering as I think I am, and also to cut down on the cost of trying out all the different kinds before figuring out which ones work best for us. So you might think about that.
greenmountaindiapers (as mentioned above) and cottonbabies are also good sites for information. And for finding accessories like lots of really nice cloth wipes. So far my favorite wipes (baby isn’t here yet, so this is just due to their heft and feel) are some bamboo ones. I plan on having a spray bottle to wet the wipes, and then just throw them in with the diapers.
1. congrats on the upcoming house purchase and the condo sale.
m.
2. we use huggies or pampers. we tried Gdiapers..and still have the covers and etc., and you can have them if you want. they stain easily and leak easily and are a pain to flush when you’re a new parent new to everything. Also, overnight, you really don’t want to be thinking about said baby laying in leaked on bedding. and, i fyou have a sensitive kid – the kid may not let you sleep until all is dry. Henry is not sensitive, but every morning (5:45 every morning, EVERY morning) he wakes and has a very full diaper.. altho he doesn’t complain and seems fine.
3. hand in there with the back and eveyrthing. lord knows i know back pain.
sometimes the heating pad can be our BEST FRIEND!
Cloth diaper-using lurker chiming in. We exclusively use and love Fuzzi Bunz. Also WAHM cloth wipes, washcloths, and some other cloth wipes. I did soo much research and came to the conclusion that these were the best, the easiest, the most versatile (can stuff to different absorbencies). We have never had a leak, diaper rash, stain, problem day or night. Great resale value on ebay, and lots of colors. “Better” cloth diapers may have come out since our son was born 2 years ago, but we just stuck with FBs since they really work and we haven’t been disappointed yet. We put them in a dry diaper pail and wash every 2-3 days, we use a combination of Joey Bunz Hemparoo inserts and Cotton Babies microfiber terry inserts, or sometimes a prefold. Once our son was on solids and his poop changed we started using rice-paper flushable liners, but not consistently. Without the paper liner, it sort of just rolls off the fleece into the toilet. Also we make our own wipes solution, though you could just use water, we use Baby Bits (little soap pieces) that you mix up with water–and squirt it on the dry wipes that we keep in an old disposable wipes box. We put the wipes solution in an old Johnson’s baby bath bottle, it’s the right size and has the squirt-top. Smells great! Available online. We occasionally use regular disposable cloth-like wipes. When we do, we throw them in with the rest of the laundry and wash them. Easier to toss it all in the pail dirty and get rid of it once it’s clean. Cloth diapering is not a lot of work. There is that extra load of laundry, but the laundry from a baby is going to increase anyway.Good luck deciding! and Congratulations!!!
Ah, one of my favorite topics.
1. Cloth in the long run is much cheaper. Even if, like me, you use the nice pocket diapers (We by far prefer Fuzzibunz with microterry inserts. We tried bumgenius, and they’re cool, but they’re velcro and my kid can take them off in no time. snaps are better), you can get a good sized stash – 35 dipes and inserts – used for not too much money. Check out ebay or mothering’s trading post.
2. Disposables have weird perfumes that react with pee and poop and make them stink REALLY bad compared to cloth (which i didn’t know until i had to use sposies for the first time when the airline lost my CD luggage). Also those horrible diaper genies, please who wants a sh*t stuffed sausage in their house. yuck.
3. Disposables have a note on the side of the box that you have to dump the poop in the toilet – which few people do, but they are a major environmental hazard if you don’t, so in theory you have to deal with poop anyway.
4. CLoth wipes ALL the way. What i did is took baby washcloths, nice and soft, and use them. You just use warm water on them. We never bothered with disposable wipes except for above mentioned plane trip. ANd they just don’t get poop as well. Course you can buy pretty cloth wipes, but really, the washclothes work just as well and are… CHEAP. Did I mention. Cheap.
5. I actually bought a lot of my size smalls new, and then went used for Medium. I wish i had done it the other way around. Dominic was in smalls for about 3 months, and mediums for 16 months. We just moved to larges, even tho mediums still fit (they were getting a bit lowrise on him tho)
6. Poop blowouts. Honest to god, i have NEVER seen a blowout like i’ve heard described with disposables. NEVER. We had some big breastfed poops that oozed out the legs once when we didn’t have the diaper fastened right. and onece oozed up the back. But blowout, nope, never saw one. i’ve compared notes w/other CDing mama’s and teh blowouts seem to be a disposables thing…
7. About poop. Breastfed babies – their poop washes right out. Seriously, you throw poop and all into the pail (which you should line with a PUL diaper bag liner, bummi’s makes one). About every 3rd day we did laundry, and laundry consists of a cold water soak with tea tree oil followed by a hot water wash with half a squirt of Allens detergent and 2 rinses. Thats it. Dry them with no dryer sheet. now toddler poop is a bit grosser, but we got a little spray nozzle thingy for our toilet and sprae the chunks into the toilet. no dipping, scrubbing, or wetpailing. ew. Also, every kid is different, but its totally normal for breastfed babies to go DAYS between poops. Dominic was a once a week pooper until he started solids. Another good reason to BF instead of FF.
8. how many to buy. You need more when they’re tiny…. but honestly, if i had to do to all over again, because he outgrew smalls so fast, i would’ve done prefolds with covers until he fit a medium fuzzibun. Prefolds are easy, and cheap, you simply fold the fabric in thirds and lay it into a cover – get one with leg gussets. They pee, you throw the prefold in the pail, and airdry the cover (you can reuse the cover until it gets pooped on or smells) Doing it that way, i think i would buy 3doz prefolds, 8 covers, and 8 or so fuzzibunz for nightime for the small time. The at mediums, move to all pocket dipes (we did have some happy heiny’s, but again, my kid could take off velcro) and we had about 35 total. For larges, we only have 25. We do diaper laundry no more than twice a week.
You never run out – you never have to make an oh crap run to the store becuase he’s got diarhea… you just throw in a load of laundry and have fresh nappies in 2 hours.
Hope this helps
long-time lurker chiming in on the less popular side of the fence:
despite my husband and i being committed to green living (his career is actually devoted to green corporate practices), we chose to use disposables. our primary reason was based on our efforts to streamline our lives as working (outside the home, full-time) parents. we have taken a number of measures to ensure that the time we have at home with our daughter, which some days feels like precious little, is not spent doing lots of extra household chores. of course, we have to do our share of cooking and cleaning– but, for us, babies generate enough work and we were not willing to do anything more than toss ‘em in the trash.
i know people are likely gasping at my flagrant disregard for our environment. i recycle everything i can get my hands on to balance out my ‘environmental’ karma. but, it was the right decision for us at this time. we agonize about the amount of time we spend with the baby due to our professional responsibilities and 15 minutes really does matter to us.
anyway, i wanted to provide another perspective. you and wes may not have the time constraints that my family does, or other concerns may trump the time issue, but at any rate it looks you got tons of great advice here.
oh, and while i only have the experience of one baby, here are some of the answers to your questions:
- as yet (9 months), i haven’t had the logistical issues with the disposables raised in the other comments EXCEPT that p*amp*rs in the green and yellow package are scented and smell yucky when mixed with poop
- we buy whatever diapers are on sale for the daytime and premium (p*mp*rs or h*uggies supreme) for night-time. i keep getting urine leaks with the cheapies at night
- regarding volume of poop: multiple times per day, usually about two- the disposables handle it well. i had to formula feed unexpectedly (and with GREAT sadness) so i had my share of nasty poop
- overall, i have no complaints with the disposables except they are expensive and i feel a bit guilty about the local landfill
- also, my baby has super-sensitive skin and has not had any reactions to disposables thus far
have fun and good luck!
-amy
Ok, I have nothing to add to the cloth diaper discussion because we use whatever disposable is on sale. We have a communal laundry room (coin operated) and there is no way I could handle that with the cloth diapers.
But the cloth wipes, I am sort of doing that. Don’t bother buying any special fabric or wash cloths for this purpose (or for wash cloth purposes). I cut up the 1000 recieving blankets we got for baby and shower presents and voila! Perfect wash cloths. They would make great wipes as well. You can get a whole bunch out of just one blanket and usually people will give you packets of 3-4 blankets. That’s a lot of home made cloths. I am so excited about this because Logan was the ultimate spitter-upper and we spent a small fortune on baby wash cloths (yes because we are not too bright). In retrospect we could have saved ourselves a mint by cutting these blankets up right from the get-go. Or we could have bought the packet of 20 white washcloths from Costco for 7 bucks. Anyway, that is my two cents. Good luck with the decisions.
Wow 45 comments on diapers!!!
http://www.edgediapers.com offered a diaper service to the city once but now just Westchester but it still has good info and an online store
We went disposable and when we have another I’ll go disposable again. Frankly there is too much unsettling technology that benefits no one, so I figure I might as well take advantage of the convenience that actually does me some good.
I don’t have any actual experience to offer, as I’m still struggling on the whole “getting pregnant” part, but for what it’s worth, my current plan is to do disposables when a newborn, then switch to bumgenius one-size pocket diapers. I’ve heard good things about them, they are not as expensive in the long run as different sized AIOs or pockets, and they are supposed to be much trimmer than diapers like fuzzi bunz. They are sold through cottonbabies.com.
We used disposables, and will use them again. Kiddo wasn’t a super pooper or anything, but we still saw lots and lots of poo. (One or two poops on a normal day, up to ten on a sick day. And about six wets.)
We came up with a wrap-it-up-without-touching-poo-ever approach… I miss that approach now that we’re potty training… I’ve been tempted to throw out more than one set of underpants, but haven’t done it yet. The Hello Kitties would stare at me from the garbage can…
Bri – thanks for posting this you’ve gotten great answers. We desperately want to use cloth, but if we move and have to use a laundromat it just isn’t going to happen. Also, if we end up adopting and have an older child (like a toddler) we may not want to make the investment for a shorter period of time. Ezra was hesitant at first, but after watching Jen and Cait she has totally come around.
Bri – thanks for posting this you’ve gotten great answers. We desperately want to use cloth, but if we move and have to use a laundromat it just isn’t going to happen. Also, if we end up adopting and have an older child (like a toddler) we may not want to make the investment for a shorter period of time. Ezra was hesitant at first, but after watching Jen and Cait she has totally come around.
I can’t believe I am just now getting to comment, argh! I don’t check your site for what, like 2 days and look what happens, haha!
Here’s where I hang my head in shame, because you guy’s thing about the strollers? Yeah, my thing is about the cloth diapers. Granted this is our first baby but all our friends cloth diaper and I’ve gotten to see all different kinds “in action” the past few years, plus I did a lot of childcare so I’ve done my share of cloth diapering. So before we were ready to TTC but when I had major baby lust I started “collecting” (i.e. buying) lots of really lovely cloth diapers and covers. It was seriously a shame thing for awhile b/c let’s be honest, these are shit-catchers after all, haha!
But I totally agree with a lot of what has been said earlier – AIO’s suck (can’t get them really clean and they take forever to dry), *try a variety of stuff first* before you totally commit yourself. We have mostly small and just a few medium diapers for this reason. Babies are all different and that plus things like water softness/hardness, detergent, etc. can have a huge impact on what you end up liking. As much as some people rave about pockets we are steering away from them because A LOT of people seem to have issues with the fleece on Fuzzi Bunz repelling after a while, and it becomes a nightmare. I don’t want to deal with that, plus I’ll admit I’m kind of snobbish and I don’t like the whole PUL thing (the plasticy-cover).
We are going to try kind of an interesting mix of things when Bamf is born – we have a bunch of kissaluvs size 0 (great for newborn poop containment, easy to use, great resale value, but any of the larger sizes suck and that’s why people don’t typically like the bigger sizes), plus dyed flat diapers (I’m all about the old-school), dyed prefolds, plus a lot of dyed fireflies. http://www.fireflydiapers.com if you are looking for stylish plus easy plus fast drying, these are great diapers, albeit spendy. I have two good friends who have used them and they are *fantastic* and fit most babies really well. I would also disagree with some of what people said about prefolds being bulky – a prefold pinned or “snappied” (another new word for you!) under a wool cover (esp. knit wool) can be very, very trim compared to AIOs and other diapers. Not as trim as disposables, but nothing is as trim as they are.
We’re using all wool covers because I’m a snob like that. I like the breathibility of wool and I think it looks a lot cuter too. I’m a knitter so I’ve made several pairs of longies (think little wool pants) plus I have “collected” (haha!) some really beautiful wool covers – firefly also makes easy wool covers which are great.
Email me if you want to see pics of my crazy diaper stash, haha!
Oh yeah, forgot to say that we have all sorts of fancy “accessories” too like cool wetbags and pail liners (www.happytushies.com – I know you love that name), cloth wipes made from organic velour, etc.
yep, I’m crazy! At least I didn’t go overboard on a nursery or clothes I figure.
Purchased small size Fuzzi-Bunz for my daughter prior to her birth. She was 5 lb 8 oz and too small for the small size so have been using Pampers dispoables. She is now 4 months and would like to try the Fuzzi-Bunz. I haven’t tried to use them yet. Directions state to drop poop into toilet. That is impossible because the stool consistancy is so loose. How do other familiies deal with this?
We cloth diaper about a third of the time…never at night. Some weeks I don’t want to do the extra load of laundry. But otherwise I really like using cloth and my eczema prone baby boy does better rash-wise with cloth too. We use F*zzy B*nz and B*mG*nius almost exclusively. I did about one cloth diaper a day for the first few weeks and then worked my way up as I got more comfortable and figured things out.
For ‘sposies we use 7th-gen or L*vs. The big name brand diapers give baby boy a rash because of the perfume.
I would definitely opt for a diaper service if it were available. I actually think that it *is* MORE environmentally friendly to do a service, despite the driving bit. They do a ton of dipes at once and it costs only a couple cents per diaper with water and detergents that way. We don’t have any services here and I find that we use a lot more water than before. A lot! I like to run the dipes twice and then dry the inserts thoroughly and that takes a lot of energy. Just my opinion though.
Hey Beth,
Breastfed poo doesn’t have to be put into the toilet. Just throw it ALL in your washing machine. Don’t worry about poo in the toilet until you get to solid foods. Then invest in a diaper sprayer.