Cloth Diapers

[shepav]

My husband and I are expecting our first baby in March. We're planning on using cloth diaper completely, to save money, but also to save the environment. My question is: what brands do you use? How many should I have for infant, and how many for toddler? How many covers? What kinds of covers? I've heard that wool is the best for covers, and the indian or chinese prefolds are the good, solid diapers as well.

Any info. for a newbie would be appreciated!

[MonkeyMama]

Re: Cloth Diapers

If you go to any parenting board you will find LOTS of info. I Would recommend sheknows.com and familygarden.net. They had some pretty strong diapering communities in the past.

I bought my diaper covers from:

http://www.thebabymarketplace.com/

I have not bought any in over a year, but they often had free shipping, great deals, and were fast.

It depends how often you want to do laundry for the most part. At the newborn stage you need 80 per week at least. YEs - 80!!!!!! I personally use a diaper service, so we bought the covers, and the diapers are provided. Initially 80 per week, and whittle it down from there. On average you will need 60/week over the long term. We went down to 40 when my littlest turned 1. IT is not near enough, but we go out of town enough and he can not wear cloth at night - he gets soaked and wakes up for changes so we switched to disposables at night. My first son never cared - he was cloth all the way. SO it will depend on that too. In general I think we bought 8 covers to wash every day or 2. The covers do not have to be changed every time necessarily so we could stretch 8 out for 2 days sometimes. We probably did more laundry as we needed to as a result, I would recoomend more like 12. You will need more diapers than covers probably.

You may want to hold off until the baby arrives. I Would not buy too many newborn sizes or anything, the baby may outgrow them fast, or may not even need them.
We went through the small size in just few weeks, the medium maybe lasted a couple of months, and large has lasted 2 years+. Newborn size was too small for my boys. But get ideas of what you want to buy and maybe wait to buy them until your baby is born. My boys were really on the big side. You could end up with a baby in a size small for a year - I Would not invest too much until you give it a try and make sure it is going to work. & can guage size better.

Definitely check out those boards - they will have far more advice than I. I went with the cheapest diaper covers I Could find - hehe. They have done me well.

Good Luck!

[pearlieq]

Re: Cloth Diapers

Thanks for the info, MonkeyMama!

I'm very interested too, since DH and I intend to try cloth as well when the time comes.

There are some mechanics of it I don't quite get:

Do you just need a diaper and diaper cover, or do you also need plastic/rubber pants on top of that?

Are diaper covers waterproof?

How long do the diaper covers last? Can the baby use them for a while or do they grow out of them quickly? Are they designed to span a range of sizes?

Do the diapers stay the same size or do you need bigger ones as the kid grows up?

They have those flushable liners. Do they work?

I don't mean to hijack the thread--just interested in more info myself!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Re: Cloth Diapers

pearlieq, the diaper covers work like magic, though I never had flushable ones. The ones I had were a very fine, very light weight, spun synthetic fabric similar to "dryer sheets," but thinner. Flushable (i presume biodegradable) ones wer not available when I was changing diapers. We did not use them with every diapering, as after a while you learn your baby's body habits and thus can figure which diaper could benefit from the liner.

Most of the time we used no cover, just a plain diaper. No plastic pants, no wool water repellant cover, no decorative cover. We wanted to know absolutely as soon as the diaper was wet so that we could change it immediately. We did not try to get extra time out of a wet diaper as you might be tempted to do with disposables. But anyway, diaper covers are generally going to last longer than your child can fit into them. As they grow, they generally need to move up in cover size. I would not recommned buying many of these ahead of time, but if you want to invest in them, try at least two kinds. You may develop preferences based on things such as the weather (plastic too hot in smmer?), allergies (baby turns out to be allergic to wool or latex elatic at the leg holes), the stul of diaper you have (some covers may not have bulk where one type diaper has its bulk), the way you baby moves (if baby lies on her back and bicycle her legs a lot, or learns to scoot around in a sitting position instead of crawling--you may find that one cover or another won't stay on). It is such a trial and error matter, personalized to your preferences and baby's needs.

Bigger diapers as baby gfrows are certainly nice. And necessary if you started with the kind cut to fit newborns. If you use the cloths that are really big dimensions, but foldable to any size, you can use the same diapers till they are potty trained, but in the first year and a half those diapers are going to have incredible bulk and you'll have trouble fitting other clothes over them.

About the number of diapers needed--I remember one time counting that we used an average of 13 per day. I think this was at about two months old, but I don't remember clearly. We, too, had a diaper service and we just started with the number they recommended, and it was always more than enough.

I once had to take care of a 2 year old in an emergency and I think she had 8 diapers. I had no washer and no money for a laundrymat. As soon as she soiled the diaper, I would change her, and immediately hand wash the diaper and lay it over the radiator to dry. I got by with those eight diapers , but I was worried that sometimes they might not dry in time. But anyway, all that is just to say that you can get by with a lot fewer than 80 per week if you put the effort into it.

The only other thing I remember about diapering is that I never cared for the kind that was fiber-filled in the center. The synthetic fiber gave the diaper loft like a quilt, but added very little in the way of absorbency. That did pin up to be a tidy diaper, though. Very neat and trim.

Oh, yeah, I guess I do remember something else. You don't have to pin all cloth diapers. Some have velcro tabs. And some wrap-around style covers provide the velcro and you just properly fold and tuck the cotton diaper into the cover.

I haven't talked diapers in 15 years! I'm sure there are folks at those baby discussion boards who are more up-to-date. There is constant invention and nuanced progress in commercial babydom.

[mom-from-missouri]

Re: Cloth Diapers

They outgrow the velcro ones-quickly. I used pins on my little 3 and that was just a few years ago.

[Snoopy2645]

Re: Cloth Diapers

Never used them here but really wanted too but dh said NO WAY!!! He thought I couldnt wash them the right way Anywho just wanted to say GOOD FOR YOU GUYS!!! After 3 kids I would have a small fortune somewhere had I used cloth diapers my oldest will soon be 12 & my youngest 3 & in those years the prices of disposables went way up & the size of the bags went way way down!!! Think of your yearly savings times 3 yrs times 2 or 3 kids & it will quickly add up not to mention how much it will save the enviornment although I dont think the diapers these days are so bad thier not plastic like the old ones were.

[MonkeyMama]

Re: Cloth Diapers

They make the velcro ones in all sizes. As I mentioned in my first post my kids are on the big size and blew through small and medium the first few months. But large lasted the rest of the time. THey last forever. My baby is using covers that were used for the last 2 years by his big bro.

We use the covers as they are a very easy way to attach the diapers. Avoids pins. THey have other alternatives to pins, but slap on a cover with velcro - easiest way I know. Keeps the clothes from getting wet - the kids soak through the diaper itself pretty fast - though they have fancier varieties of diapers. They make some that are all-in-one - diaper and cover. IF I Washed them myself I would invest in those.

I can't remember the size on the diapers themselves. But like the covers, the baby was in the same size as his 3yo brother at around 6 months - for a while they were both in the same size diapers - the diaper service was dirt cheap in that case.

I don't think you would need 80 diapers at all - just a start how many you would need in a week. Then decide how often you want to do laundry!

[MonkeyMama]

Re: Cloth Diapers

Diapers today have that goopy gel though - and just so many of them in the landfill. IT amazes me people will question the chemicals used to clean cloth diapers but think nothing of the wide range of chemicals sitting in a disposable diaper. Plus all of the resources used to make a new supply of diapers for every baby every day.

If you have access to a diaper service you can have the best of both worlds - the convenience of disposable and the environmental friendliness of cloth.

Obviously if you are willing to wash them yourselves, you will save more and is even better for the environment. I admit I am too lazy for that. But I like to share about the diaper services out there because most people just do not know about them.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Re: Cloth Diapers

Boy, I sure do need to proofread my messages. I meant to tell pearlieQ that the diaper liners work like magic (I accidentally said diaper covers.) They separate solid waste from the cotton fiber of the diaper, making laundry much more tolerable a chore. Easy to flush the solid waste.

[amberbamber]

Re: Cloth Diapers

I use Kushie's They are wonderful! IMO!

I think their website is www.kushies.com or something like that. They are the velcro AIO's that I use, and I've never had any problems with them at all! If you would like more information on them, please let me know!

Congratulations to you for conserving energy, waste, and the environment!