First, before I get into all that, I have a quick newsflash:
Mike felt the Baby kick for the first time last night!!!!
She's been a lot more active in the past several days. I feel her moving several times a day now - sometimes just little flutters, and other times it's more noticeable thumps. When I feel the thumping, I can often see my belly move with the pressure. She was moving enough last night after I got in bed that I had Mike put his hand on my belly, and sure enough, she kept kicking! He was so excited to feel something, but all he said was "wow, that's weird!" LOL
Okay, back to topic:
From the start, I have intended to cloth diaper. Mainly in order to save money on diapers, but also for the environmental reasons. I want to make an effort to be as "green" as I can! I did a bit of research, and it looks like cloth diapering and doing all the diaper laundry at home is the cheapest route. Disposables would be second, and the most expensive route would be cloth diapering using a diaper service for the laundry. I intend to do the laundry at home. Since I'm planning to be home with Baby, I don't see why I wouldn't be able to do my own laundry. I know there will be a high volume, but I think it will be manageable.
In the last few weeks though, I've been a bit undecided.
1) For one, Mike mentioned the other day that he did not like the idea of having to change a cloth diaper. (He's pretty freaked at the idea of changing a diaper, period, so cloth really scares him!) I also wonder how practical they are to use when we are out in public, or when she has a baby sitter.
2) Also, cloth diapers are EXPENSIVE. There are SO many different options, I'm kind of overwhelmed. I understand prefolds and snapeez. They are pretty much the same thing that my mom used for my little brothers (but she used pins instead of snapeez.) I've also seen some other diapers that look more fitted with snaps on them instead of snapeez. And then there are the pocket diapers, and the covers. The covers look to me like they are just as thick as the diaper itself! Do I actually put a big fat fitted diaper with snaps on, and then a big fat cover on top of that? I'm confused. Then there are those who use liners, and those who use sprayers. My good friend Dani has a sprayer built in by her toilet for quick cleanup. I don't imagine we will do that though, so how would we spray out the diapers?
For those of you who cloth diaper, what type do you recommend? There are so many brands out there - which are best?
Are prefolds the best, or just the cheapest?
Does cleanup get messy? I assume we'd use liners rather than a sprayer.
I've seen little packaged diaper sprayers - how do they work?
What is the laundry like - how often do you have to do a load of diapers? Does it get to be overwhelming when you have to do adult laundry, baby laundry, AND diaper laundry?
Does the diaper pail get smelly? What kind of a pail do you use? I told hubby that a Diaper Genie would not work for cloth diapers, but he thought that it might?
What other benefits are there to cloth diapers besides saving money and not filling the landfill with diapers?
Any other tips or advice? If I do choose to go the cloth diaper route, I want to get started on building my stash soon, but I hate to buy any if I decide not to use them.
Advice, please!!! :)
8 comments:
We use dispoable and to give you an idea on how much it costs for us We have bought 6 boxes at costco since Day was born (just opened the 6th one so it's mostly full) so I would say about 5 boxes and she is now 7 months old. Each box is $30-$35 (I forget but something like that) so I would say we have spent $175 for 6 months of diapers. Don't know if that helps you compare for costs but for me I can't imagine working and trying to cloth diaper. I barley get my own underwear washed....
See, that's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. We just got a Costco membership, so I'd definitely be able to take advantage of that!
We use cloth (I'll have to check on the brand and how much they cost). We also bought Bummies, which are diaper covers that go over pre-fold diapers.
My baby's only 4 weeks old, so I can't speak to what it's like when they get older and their poop changes, but for now, cleanup is easy. We don't use liners (though we bought some-- it's like toilet paper, almost); we just toss the diaper into the diaper pail. We'll probably use a sprayer when the baby gets older. They're basically like one of those nozzles that goes on a kitchen sink. Very easy to use.
I do a load of cloth diapers every other day. Probably 20 diapers, plus wipes, plus Bummies. Remember if you're doing cloth diapers, you'll probably want to do cloth wipes, as well, because otherwise you need 2 diaper pails or you have to fish through your one pail to separate out the disposable (wipes) from the washable (diapers) or you have to run the wipe to the trash can each time you change her.
You're right-- if you do cloth diapers, you shouldn't get a Diaper Genie. We bought a pail at BRU, just a simple one. It has little deodorizer tablets that go in it and I haven't found it to smell at all.
Hope this helps!
We have used cloth for the past 10.5 months and the best advice I can give you is to borrow mine!
That way you can see what you like better than others and you can save a bit of money by not having to purchase multiple brands of diapers.
Then when you know what you like you can buy from there for the larger sizes (since E might not be out of them by then).
The only thing you would have to invest in is a wetbag or two (I recommend 2 large and 2 small) and when the time comes a diaper sprayer.
You can also decide if you're going to use cloth wipes or disposable. We still haven't made the switch to cloth but need to since it'll make life soo much easier!
Sorry I couldn't go over everything when you came over last Saturday... E really needed his nap :)
Thanks, Music - that's very helpful!
And Dani, thank you so much! I get so excited to start buying things, but I will try to contain myself and wait a little longer until I can try yours out. :)
I have 12 white cloth diapers a friend gave me that I will gladly send your way. I had also planned on giving you any extra newborn diapers I have.
Also, I just learned that when you go to babies r' us when you use your rewards card to track your purchases, that when you buy 4 boxes of huggies or pampers you get the 5th free. You can also register on pampers.com for their rewards, you enter in a code on any of their products to earn points for free stuff.
I wanted to do cloth diapers but like Amanda said, I barely have time to wash my own clothes. Weigh out both options, you'll know what will work out better for you and Mike.
:)
Aw, thanks! My friends are the best. :) I guess I'll just slow down a bit here and wait to see what will work best for us. I'll plan to cloth diaper, but I'll keep my mind open to disposables, depending on how things go for us. I'm excited to give the cloth dipes a try though!
BTW, we got our diapers through diaperjunction.com. The other popular site is greenmountaindiapers.com.
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