Cloth Diapers...your Experiences?

[myinnerchef]

Unless you're doing laundry multiple times a day, I don't think twenty will be enough! My son went through at least that many in a day but we also used them for burp rags and changing pad liners. Inevitably, as soon as you'd change his wet diaper, he'd poop in the clean one. I'm so thankful he's potty trained now. :-D

 

[princessmeshelle]

Haven't read what others have said, but here is my 2 cents:
I LOVE my cloth diapers. EVERYONE thought I was nuts. But I figured even going the cheap route, I could spend as little as $300 for the entire time my children would be in diapers. Now, I will admit. I trouble committing to them at first. (it can be so easy to just say, I'll start next week...) But I finally bit the bullet with baby # 2. I will never go back to disposables.

Since changing to cloth, I have only dealt with diaper rashes that have to do with new foods. And they don't last long.

I do prefolds with the water proof covers and the go on like a disposable diaper. ( All in ones are nice, but I can't afford that) When I change, If the cover is wet, I switch it out, otherwise I leave it. I launder once a week. To me, they are no big deal. I like to do a dry pail, but that is just so I don't throw my back out trying to empty the bucket. Baking soda and vinegar are my best friends when laundering these.

One thing I think is an absolute MUST is the sprayer that you hook up to the toilet. It makes spraying out solids so much easier than dunking. There is also something called the potty bucket that I use. It saves me from being hunched over a toilet while I spray. Plus if you need to soak but keep a sry pail like me, you can use the bucket for that. I have found a few websites I like to deal with for my diapering needs. I can send them to you if you would like.

Hey all...Gillian really has me considering cloth diapers. She uses Bum-Genius 3.0 diapers which can adjust all the way up to your child being 35#'s. I am seriously considering these. I am figuring that a child in diapers till the age of three can cost $1500-$2000 in diapers alone. Not to mention all of those diapers sitting in a landfill somewhere. Even if I get TWENTY of these diapers, it will only be $360 and that should be all I ever need to spend on diapers while this next baby is still not potty trained. (Aside from detergent, time, water and such...)

What are your experiences?

Hints?

Tricks?

Cons?

I have a diaper Champ now, and would love to use that to hold them in between washes for a day or so...will that work?

Where I will buy them recommends Allen's Naturally Detergent (leaves no residue, so keeps them absorbent and helps so no diaper rash...) and she said she gives out a flyer that talks about "stripping" them as needed and such.

 

[SpiritdancerIA]

Very happy with FuzziBuns, here

DS2 switched to cloth at about 9 months (he's 20 months, now), and we started out with a dozen FB. We've expanded our stash with another dozen, plus 3 Haute Pockets used for overnights. Works out that I do a smallish load daily, and one smallish load in the dryer, and one set for use that day.

There are at least two places I found online offering FB 2nds at a pretty decent savings - and the ones I got as seconds are working just fine.

Detergent: I use Planet, purchased thru Amazon. Sign up for their subscription program, and you get a discount on your first order. It's worked well for our _really_ hard water.

 

[Ann F]

My babies are 25 and 27, so my cloth diapers were just "ordinary" ones. Every morning my DH would pour the very heavy diaper pail full of dirty diapers and water into the washer for me and spin them, then when I got up I'd set the machine for the wash cycle and go from there.

I later used them for what I called "hay fever rags" or "nose diapers"-- they were SO much softer than handkerchiefs, and if you've ever had hay fever you know you can't use tissues b/c they just aggravate the problem.

 

[byrd1956]

When my son was a baby I had a Diaper Service. It was awesome and totally worth it. :love:There was a blue line and green line of diapers and the blue were definately softer. We had Huggies around and back then they were definately better than Pampers. Been out of the baby business for too long to know if Diaper Service is avaliable anymore.

 

[KellyTheChef]

Here is Connor in his new diapers...FuzziBunz!

This one is "double stuffed" cuz I was getting ready to put him down for the night. Last night was his first night, and no leaks! Today was good, too...now I will just have to get my system in place for keeping up with washing/drying/stuffing them!

 

[KellyTheChef]

BTW, I love the bright colors! I got 5 of this bright blue, 5 of a periwinkle blue, 5 bright spring green, and one bright red one. Too fun!

 

[myinnerchef]

Yes, there are still services that delivery cloth diapers weekly. Check in your yellow pages under "Diaper Services."

 

[JDooley]

I used cloth with my first until she started going to the babysitters – 8 weeks. And then when we were home she always had cloth. Just out of pure laziness on my part I used disposable at night and when we went out. My #2 is on the way and my new daycare lady is 100% ok with cloth diapers so Hannah and #2 are going back into them!!! Hannah is 15 months and I want her potty trained quick so I am going back and I just prefer them for little ones

 

[KellyTheChef]

Update (for those who may be considering using cloth)

I am still loving them! I am washing about every 2-3 days, and I don't freak out if I have to use a disposable here or there. I have to say, he has not had any diaper rashes since switching over to cloth. Now that he is 7.5 months old, he is eating more baby cereal and other "real" food so his poops are not the type that can go through the wash. Instead of getting a sprayer for the toilet to spray off the poop, I got some flushable "liners" (look like a cloth strip of toilet paper) that I lay inside the diaper. Then, when he poops, I just pull out that liner and toss it into the toilet. I have to say...I was VERY nervous about using them and having enough time to keep up with the wash, and it has been less of a PITA than I thought it would be. Honestly, the biggest problem is the fact that my washer goes off balance many of the times (those inserts weigh a ton wet!) so I have to fix it and finish the cycle. Other than that, I can't complain!

If anyone ever has any questions about using cloth, lemme know!

 

[JDooley]

I love my cloth diapers! I had to stop using them on my first at 3 months because my day care would not use them, and I used cheaper cloth diapers. My next Daughter will be in a better cloth diaper because I am keeping her in them clear through I am so excited!
Congrats on your decision on using cloth. it is not a good fit for everyone but personally I love them!

 

[vonfirmath]

is this a newborn? The pockets, etc. rarely fit a newborn well and it is VERY expensive to get enough to keep a newborn in diapers.

Two recommendations:
1. Start out with disposables until you get into a "pattern" and can handle the extra effort of cloth (more washing, stuffing if you use pockets)

2. Use prefolds for the earliest years. Cheaper, easier to keep clean, and they work fine.

My experience with cloth: we didn't start until 15 months because of not having laundry in our house. Once we started, we did it daytime, at home only pretty much for 6 months (Nighttime can be harder to figure out, and we KNEW 1 disposable diaper held just fine so we kept doing that). And then the diapers started leaking and we couldn't figure out why. We stripped and rewashed and rinsed and rinsed and the diapers would just leak. And we were getting lots of rashes with the cloth, that then cleared up in disposables. Though we also get rashes in disposables, I have not found cloth to be particularly rash-free in our circumstances -- and the medication you use on rashes can affect the non-leakiness of the fancy cloth diapers!

Brand new diapers worked fine. But the diapers that had been in rotation for 6 months didn't. We got frustrated -- it's too expensive to work for only 6 months! So we're on "break" at the moment. But we'll try again I'm sure.