Thinking of cloth diapers

[Guest Daytoday]

So, we are seriously considering using cloth diapers for our daughter that will be born in July. We have never done this before, we used Huggies for the other two daughters.

Any advice?

We are thinking of doing this for financial reasons, not environmental, if that matters; although we do like the idea of using hemp - if it is as inexpensive and effective.

Any brands to avoid or recommendations that you have? dw went to a presentation today where they told her about cloth diapers (but they also sell them, so I am naturally a little suspicious of people praising things they sell!) Seems overwhelming to me with all the different styles and types.

 

FWIW, she liked what she saw of Bum Genius, Fuzzy Bunz, and Grovia.

cloth diapering was great just finished up with cloth diaper and now they are being greatly used as my soft dusting cloths around the house

[BlsdMama]

So, we are seriously considering using cloth diapers for our daughter that will be born in July. We have never done this before, we used Huggies for the other two daughters.

Any advice?

We are thinking of doing this for financial reasons, not environmental, if that matters; although we do like the idea of using hemp - if it is as inexpensive and effective.

Any brands to avoid or recommendations that you have? dw went to a presentation today where they told her about cloth diapers (but they also sell them, so I am naturally a little suspicious of people praising things they sell!) Seems overwhelming to me with all the different styles and types.

 

FWIW, she liked what she saw of Bum Genius, Fuzzy Bunz, and Grovia.

 

 

Are you having another child? This is VERY relevant.

 

I cloth diapered several of my babies, specifically Christian, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Timothy, Abigail, Sarah, and Daniella, and the one up and coming.

;)

 

So, here's the scoop.

 

Synthetics tend to hold odors more. They breathe less. They are more like disposables, absolutely. They are also far more expensive, but convenient.

 

And then you have the prefolds. Super cost efficient, agitate great in the washer, incredibly sturdy, and they fit a variety of sizes.

 

So, you generally have TWO camps. You have the die hard prefold camp, which I happily belong to, although I HAVE been a past member of the fitted and synthetic camp. :)

 

I chose to not renew my membership in the other camp BECAUSE:

 

Because I bought the fitteds based on reviews.

Here's a tip: The reviews are from mamas that either used them for 1-2 children *OR* they weren't One Size, so they didn't use them for 2-3 full years.

 

Here's another tip: The smell. OH MY. Yes, synthetics can hold odors more. NOW, if you have a small collection this will generally be LESS of a problem (weird right?) because they'll be washed every day or every other day. The catch 22? They wear out faster. It's a trade-off.

 

One size is one size fits most. Generally, it's true.

They are, technically, more convenient, but you have OTHER choices.

 

:lol:

 

Yes, that's right. OTHER choices.

You could go natural (hemp, bamboo, or cotton) and STILL have the ease of fitted diapers. Gasp!?! Is it so? YES!

 

Prefitteds mama.

 

This is where a talented little seamstress WAHMama turns your boring prefolds into something called prefitteds.

 

http://hyenacart.com/gallery_open.php?id=727&vid=210&category=98

 

See? Cute! Inexpensive - more expensive than a prefold, but WAY less than a pocket diaper, an AIO, etc.

 

Okay, so here's MY take on it.

Frankly, I LIKE prefolds. I've ditched the rest of my fitteds except for a few bamboo velour contours that I've made for DD.

 

WHY?

 

One, any place you have elastic, it gets more wear. Nothing frustrates me more than using a diaper for four months and seeing wear on the leg or the waistband where the elastic is and knowing it's just not going to last.

 

My prefolds last 2-3 children of constant useage with a rotation of only about 18 diapers. True story. Granted my children usually potty train around 21 months, but still!

 

My prefolds agitate BEAUTIFULLY in the wash machine.

 

I won't cry if they get a stain.

 

Easy to clean poo. :)

 

It's a DIAPER for goodness' sakes.

 

I'm past the fad of diaper changing. They're glorified underwear. Yes, yes, I admit. Elizabeth had some $20-$40 diapers. Okay, fine. *BUT* I've lived, I've learned, I didn't buy Luvs, I bought prefolds.

 

On the cover thing - if you go synthetic, go with MotherEase Airflows or Imse Vimse. If you go natural, go WOOL.

 

Wool and prefolds and I'm a happy girl.

Edited April 14, 2011 by BlsdMama

[ondreeuh]

Cloth diapers can be more expensive than disposable if you go with expensive brands, sized diapers, and like a lot of variety. I recommend getting something economical and then sticking with it instead of trying everything under the sun.

 

Hemp is not such a great fabric for diapers. It stiffens up and gets rough. It's also harder to rinse detergent out of, and any detergent residue will combine with the urine to make awful smelling diapers and cause diaper rash.

 

The most economical/best working option is cotton prefolds, snappis, and adjustable covers (Bummis Super Whisper Wraps or Super Brites) - you don't need many sizes and they wash & wear well.

 

Diaper sprayer to rinse poopy diapers in the toilet. Cuts down on stains and they wash a lot better.

 

When poops are more solid, Kushie's flushable liners are great.

[Pretty in Pink]

Chinese prefolds, Snappis or pins, and the cover of your choice is going to be your best bet in terms of cost. They are also very effective. I prefer them to all-in-ones, personally.

 

There are lots of fancy covers out there, but I always got the most use out of Gerber vinyl covers. They used to sell them at Walmart and Target, about 6.00/6 pr.

 

ETA: Synthetic diapers do smell. I've never had a problem with natural fibers smelling like urine after a good washing. Never.

Edited April 14, 2011 by Pretty in Pink

[Ravin]

We CD. Currently favor pocket dipes w/ microfiber stuffings for outings and nighttime, and prefolds w/ covers for daytime at home.

[MyLittleWonders]

I also recommend getting some prefolds and covers. For the newborn stage, we loved the orange-edged Green Mountain Diaper prefolds with either ProRaps newborn covers or the Thirsties covers (Duo size 1 fit awesome under the umbilical cord, and the XS was great too). We still use a combo of prefolds and flats with covers (dd's skin is sensitive plus she has some thighs on her :D, so we use Nikkys covers, Bummis Whisper Pants - the pull on ones - and wool interlock pull on soakers), Flip covers with organic inserts, and pocket diapers (for nighttime or when we are at the ballpark - it keeps her skin dry and less likely to rash up ... did I mention sensitive skin ... the boys didn't have nearly as sensitive skin). We stuff our pockets with Thirties hemp prefolds instead of microfiber (I can't stand the feel of that stuff). So, cotton prefolds and flats, a couple bamboo prefolds, and hemp prefolds with covers or pocket diapers (love Fuzzi Bunz and BG 4.0 pockets).

 

Also, many places tell you to use as little detergent as possible, but honestly, that doesn't get the diapers clean. Here's what seems to work best (for us and based on many threads on the Diaper Swappers website) - Tide or Country Save detergent (we don't use Tide as we are all sensitive to the enzymes, but we LOVE Country Save), Oxiclean (helps kills buggies in there and keep them stain-free), and if you want nice, soft diapers that don't repell, get some Ecover fabric softener (don't use regular softeners, they will gunk up your diapers; Ecover is safe for diapers and leaves them soft). Also, don't dry on high ... use a medium setting for a slightly longer time. It's easier on the fibers and keeps them softer over time.

[Jenny in Florida]

We used cloth diapers with both of our kids.

 

For our daughter, we had a diaper service. However, when we had our son I told my husband I thought the service was silly and decided to just buy some diapers and wash them myself.

 

The service got us started with some covers that looked kind of like this: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3532918

 

Only ours were plain white and not as fancy.

 

The diapers, themselves, were just plain prefolds. Once we decided to go it on our own, we kept using the same diaper covers and bought a bunch of these: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2459691

 

That was pretty much it.

 

I found it wasn't nearly as much trouble as I had expected. And it was much better for our kids. We used to try occasionally putting them in disposables when we were going to be out all day, and we found they ended up with rashes every time we tried mainstream diapers. We could get around it for a little while if we went with one of the natural, chlorine-free brands (like Seventh Generation). But they never, ever had a problem in the cloth diapers.

[Mrs Mungo]

Part of this depends upon the size of your babies. None of mine were over 8 lbs at birth. None of them weighed over 20 lbs at a year old. Motherease one-sized diapers were big on my *toddlers*. I loved fitteds, but my babies were smaller so I needed fewer sizes.

[Pretty in Pink]

Gerber prefolded gauze diapers. They're all-cotton and way less expensive than most other cloth diapers. Millions of us used them back in the day. :-)

 

Someone gifted me two different styles of Gerber prefolds once -- one package was plain white, the other had a mixture of navy blue/lime green diapers. I do believe the colored diapers where all-cotton, but they were incredibly thin in the middle, so not very absorbent. The white ones were not all-cotton; they had a...polyester?...lining in the middle that constantly smelled of urine. And I *bleach* my diapers. I could not get the smell out of them.

[Punchie]

Someone gifted me two different styles of Gerber prefolds once -- one package was plain white, the other had a mixture of navy blue/lime green diapers. I do believe the colored diapers where all-cotton, but they were incredibly thin in the middle, so not very absorbent. The white ones were not all-cotton; they had a...polyester?...lining in the middle that constantly smelled of urine. And I *bleach* my diapers. I could not get the smell out of them.

 

The Gerber PFs are awful. You're right, some of them do have foam in the center. I was gifted some and they quietly disappeared. You couldn't pay me enough to use them.

[Ann@thebeach]

1. Buy used. http://www.diaperswappers.com has a FS board which has probably been posted already but I didn't read all the responses.

 

1.5 If used grosses you out-www.babybunz.com has snugglebottom brand diapers that are fitted with velcro $26 for 6-best deal out there! http://www.babybunz.com/Snugglebottoms-Velcro.html

You'll still need covers though. Bummis and Proraps are a good basic cover.

 

2. Don't get sucked into all the fancy stuff and big brands. The $$ can add up fast! They just poop and pee in them!

 

3. Start with a dozen or 2 diapers and 4-6 covers and see how you like it. Then you won't be out a ton of money if you hate it. You can always buy more pretty fast and fill in with disposables for a few days if needed.

 

4. Don't get sucked into all the fancy stuff and big brands.

 

5. Did I mention not to get sucked into all the ....... ;)

 

CDing CAN be very affordable but it's easy to want to try tons of things and then you've spent $100s and didn't really save money KWIM?

 

PS. You'll easily use 12 diapers in a day with a newborn! If you decide it's what you really want to do then 3 dozen is a safe bet with a newborn.

 

I CDed with 2 of my kids and didn't mind it a bit. I started with flats and should have stayed with the basics but got sucked in and spent more than needed. Of course, now I love AIOs-but that's another thread....