Anyone doing cloth diapers?

My husband and I were chatting today about how many diapers these two babies are going to go through! As much as we don't love the idea of dealing with cloth diapers, we are thinking that it could be a good investment to use at least half of the time to cut down on money going to disposables.

Just wondering if anyone else here is planning on using cloth and if so which brand/style? We'd like to find something that is pretty much all in one, as easy to use as a disposable as possible. I have heard of BumGenius, but it seems like they are also one size only which may not work so well with very small newborns? Seems like we'd be better off buying different sizes along the way.

Any advice or opinions would be appreciated!

 

Hey,
We are doing cloth diapers. We were lucky to find a Diaper Service here locally. They provided the cloths, and covers (bum genius) as well as the diaper pale. We don't even have to clean them! They drop them off weekly and pick up the dirty ones!

Molly
38 weeks 1 day

 

We are going to give cloth a go (I'm on board... kind of) but I refused to wash by hand, too, so we're doing a diaper service, which looks a lot like mollyelizabeth's. The good thing is that you don't have to buy sizes or worry about cleaning. I'm committed to breastfeeding, so I figure I've got 1 full time job ahead of me- I don't need 2!

Michelle

 

I went to a great seminar given by a women who runs her own business selling cloth diapers..if you look on various websites they all have pros and cons, but if you're breastfeeding the "poop" will be a lot easier to wash out than with formula or solids. I suggest you post on the first year site for some feedback, and talk to some retailers.

Good luck. Definitely it makes sense financially with two, and you can use them again if you have another down the road!

 

I've heard great things about Bum Genius in terms of fit and absorbency, but that the closures don't last. I'm going to go with a local diaper service that provides everything (including reusable wipes) for the first few months. Also, a diaper that works for some babies may not work for others so I may just get a couple of each to try, rather than make a huge investment in one brand that might not work.

 

I've cloth diapered my twin girls since they were 5 months old, now they're almost 18 months. It can be done, and I really like it. The quality of my diapers is great. I hated disposables, even the expensive ones. They smell weird new, sit in the diaper pail smelling worse, and didn't work well for us. The last straw was how many "blowouts" we had with disposables. I was washing clothes after every poop (and we tried different brands). Cloth diapers can hold in those explosive poops better. Then I spray off the poop and there's nothing smelly in my pail.

FWIW, I use some prefolds and some fitteds, both with separate covers. They're more absorbent and easier to launder than the BumGenius.

Wish I had started when my girls were newborns. You ladies are way ahead of me!

BUT, by far the hardest part of cloth diapering was deciding what system to use, buying enough and prepping / organizing the new diapers. This took me many weeks, some trial and error, and a lot of work. And it was kinda expensive. In the end I think I'll pay about what I would have with disposables. My costs were front loaded and I haven't bought a diaper in 9 or 10 months, and have no plans to do so soon. Which is great, and I love the diapers I have. If I have another babe I'll be all set.

Some things to consider.

Diaper services sound like a great way to start without the commitment.

 

We're also going to cloth diaper our boys. We didn't with our son, and wish we would have for environmental and financial reasons. We have bought several types, but plan to start using them from pretty much the beginning, so we couldn't just buy a few of each to decide what we like. We bought some pre-folds with covers, some Bum Genius 3.0, and the rest FuzziBunz. The BG and FB are one size, but the FB seem to have more ways to adjust size. They have snaps across the front to adjust the waist (instead of velcro) and then you can adjust the rise on the inside with buttons (like the adjustable waist pants for kids).

As far as cleaning them, by the time my son was eating solids, we were dumping his waste from his disposables in the toilet so it wouldn't stink up the room. This isn't really much different.

Good luck!

Laura

 

I cloth diapered my daughter, and I plan to cloth diaper the twins. We used diapers made by Mother-Ease, which are really easy to use: http://www.mother-ease.com/. We live in the boondocks, so no diaper service option for us. I "dry stored" soiled diapers -- meaning that I didn't soak or store them in water first. Instead, we laundered every few days, and did a pre-soak (as well as an extra rinse to make sure no laundry detergent remained). If they stain, and they will if you breastfeed, putting them in the sun will fade the stains. We didn't have any trouble with smell or rashes with cloth.

There is an increase in laundry with cloth diapers, and babies' bottoms will feel a bit more "swampy" than disposables, and babies/toddlers will be less comfortable in cloth because they feel wet. So, we did disposable diapers at night and cloth during the day. The advantage, though, of toddlers feeling less comfortable in cloth is that there's a higher likelihood that they'll potty train sooner. DD definitely had more body awareness than most of her peers at 16 months, and we started potty training at 18 months.

The only problem I have run into is that DH prefers disposables. He finds them easier to put on and take off. So, I've had to resign myself that when DH changes diapers, there's a good chance DD will be in disposables . . . . .

There's a message board on the Mother-Ease website, and they have a free or reduced cost starter pack if you want to give it a try without the financial commitment of a full compliment (I think I spent $300 on our set of diapers -- which over a year is still cheaper than disposables).

Good luck!

 

I have been a cloth diaper mama for years,and own BELLABUNZ.COM,my diapers are pocket diapers like Fuzzi Bunz,but are less expensive.

When I made the change years ago it was because my daughter was "blowing out" of all her diapers,and someone reccomended cloth.

Fuzzis worked great for me,but were WAY too expensive even if bought them used.So I created Bella Bunz(named after my daughter Bella),and now we have a great new bussiness,and ship around the world!

Cloth is definatley making a comeback,and with twins and more its really the best way.

My sales team is currently working up specials for parents of multiples,to make them even more cost effective for parents.

My reccomendation is for 10 diapes each baby.That what I have on hand for my boys,plus I have a 16 month old in them too.I washnitely,but its soooo worth it in the end,and you never worry about "running out"of diapers.

If you guys have any questions Im here for ya!

Jennifer

 

We cloth diaper our son Grifyn and will do the same with the twins. We have all Bum Genius and they rock! The only thing that doesn't "last" is the velcro that you attach the tabs to during the laudry. But that is VERY easy to fix and we actually don't even need them. But we have never had a blow out or a spill and we couldn't be happier with them!

 

We're also using cloth diapers and have bought Bum Genius 3.0's. We plan to sue them as soon as they're big enough (they can be used from 7 lbs onward). There are three sets of snaps to deal with different sizes. They came with two inserts and I'm going to buy some extra hemp inserts for night time (from what I have heard hemmp is more absorbent).