First of all, I know there are threads about this out there but I couldn’t find them, so apologies for repeating a topic.
I have been toying with the idea of cloth diapers for a while (no kids, but ttc and in the second half of my tww). I did a quick google search and was totally overwhelmed by the volume of results. There are soooo many options and companies out there and I have no clue what to look for. I live in the northeast US, anyone out there have recommendations for companies or services in that general location?
Also, I mentioned it once to my husband a while back and he said absolutely not. He doesn’t want “poop running down our kids legs just to save a few bucks”. I however am all about saving money and I firmly believe that the “traditional” way isn’t always the best way. [name_m]Just[/name_m] because everyone and their mother (that I know) uses disposable diapers doesn’t mean I have to!
Is the quality of cloth diapers sufficient these days? [name_m]How[/name_m] do you dispose of them in general? Is the cost really that much cheaper? Also, how on earth do I talk my husband into it? Any thoughts, comments and suggestions greatly appreciated!
I haven’t cloth diapered (yet!), but I do plan on it when our little guy gets here in a few months. Like you, I was totally overwhelmed when I first started researching it. However, you can assure your husband that as long as you have a diaper with a good fit, your baby isn’t going to have poop running down his/her leg!
For my part, I don’t have children yet, so I haven’t tried cloth diapers, but a lot of my friends do it and don’t find it any harder than disposables. Many people think cloth hold in the poop as well or better than disposables, so no need to worry about the whole “poop running down the leg” thing. In fact, that can happen with disposables too if you have a brand that doesn’t work for you or is the wrong fit.
Is the quality sufficient?
Yes, and better than disposables at holding in blowouts. I will say that cloth at night did not work for us, but most disoposables did not either. Our son is just a very heavy wetter. So we just use an overnight disposable at night.
[name_m]How[/name_m] do you dispose of them?
Spray off solids using a diaper sprayer which attaches to the toilet
OR do what my friend [name_f]Erin[/name_f] does and scrape it off with a poop spatula
If you have an older toilet, you may be able to dunk and flush, but this won’t work with the new low flow toilets.
Pail in the bathroom with a wet bag liner (made of PUL). If you are out, you can get a zippered wet bag to go in your diaper bag.
Cold rinse, then a hot wash, then gentle cycle on the dryer or line dry
I do a diaper load every other day.
Does it really save money?
This will depend on how much you spend on diapers and the cost of utilities in your area. And how much you spend on the cloth diapers, and how much you would have spent on disposables- there is a big difference in the cost of say, seventh generation vs Walmart brand.
But potentially a lot. There are any number of articles online showing how much you can save. We estimate that it probably saves us about $40/month (we do cloth wipes as well)
[name_m]How[/name_m] do you convince your husband?
Sorry, no idea! Mine was totally into it BC everyone said it would make potty training earlier and easier, though that hasnt been true for us at least.
I use cloth, and my daughter has never had a poo blowout in her cloth diapers. She has in her disposables.
We bought sun baby pocket diapers. The pros is they are high quality diapers for cheap, con is they take a while to ship. They are very, very easy to use. Personally I would go for aplix (Velcro) next time instead of snaps, as my daughter is extremely wiggly and impatient, but I’ve heard others say older babies can remove them.
When I cloth diaper my second (hopefully exclusively, after I decided to do cloth at home and
Disposables for outings with my DD, everyone said I’d give up on it but I loved it), I’d like to primarily use prefolds and snappis with covers. Originally it seemed like more work, but I think it’s actually less work, cheaper, less laundry, etc.
As far as your husband, perhaps tell him you’d like to give cloth a shot but if it doesn’t work, you’re open to switching back. Maybe companies offer a full refund if you don’t like the diapers, so try that. I think $40/month in savings is what we get, and we only cloth about 1/3 of the time! Aside from being economical, cloth is much better for the environment, and far healthier for babies bottoms!
Perhaps your husband was like I was a few years ago and had inaccurate knowledge of cloth diapers.
The only clothe diapers I had ever seen growing up were the ones my neighbor used, which were nothing but big, flat white pieces of cloth. I remember watching her (i was about 5 at the time) and vowing that I would never use cloth diapers. When my husband and I first got got engaged and started talking about the future and raising kids, he asked me about diapers and I was adamant about it–no cloth!
And then I changed my mind about 2 years ago. Why? I took a job at a daycare and ended up working in the nursery for the first few of weeks. There were 2 children using cloth diapers and 6 using disposables, so I had first hand experience with both. I became a full convert to cloth diapers during that time. The cloth diapers seemed to fit the kids better than the disposables, they looked like they were more comfortable to wear, and there were no differences between those children and the others regarding blow-outs, diaper rashes, etc. I fully intend to use cloth diapers with my kids.
As for how to convince your husband, perhaps you just need to take him to a store with a nice selection of cloth diapers and actually have him see what they look like and hold a few in his hands. Or get him to work in a nursery for a few weeks, haha, that might do it too!
I love cloth diapers. Here is a nice overview about the various types of diapers. We have used most types at some point since I changed things up between kids and as they grew. I spent way more on diapers then I needed to but since we’ve used those diapers for two kids and will use them again if we have a third we’ve saved plenty of money doing cloth. For my daughter I spent $100 on diapers mostly for some cute girly prints that I didn’t need. And our utility costs didn’t go up noticeably when we started using cloth diapers. We never had blow outs except when they were outgrowing their size with cloth but a ton when we did disposables for a vacation. If you breastfeed you don’t really have to worry about the poop until you start solids. [name_m]Just[/name_m] put the diaper in a pail or wet bag and it’ll come off in the wash.
[name_f]My[/name_f] husband was not interested in cloth diapers when I first decided while TTC that I definitely wanted to try cloth diapers. But throughout the time we spent TTC and early in the pregnancy I kept pestering him about it and we finally agreed that we would use cloth diapers but I would have to do 100% of the washing…right now my husband is putting the diapers in the dryer. After the first few months he came around with even helping with them although I tend to do the majority of it. And he’s always used them when he changed diapers that was non-negotiable for me since I didn’t want to have disposables sitting right there for fear that I would just give up. But I know for some people that’s how they work it out. I did get simpler diapers for him to use at first but he quickly learned to use all of the kinds we own.
I’m not sure where you are in the [name_u]North[/name_u] [name_f]East[/name_f] and that’s a big area. Locally in [name_m]Baltimore[/name_m] we have an amazing cloth diaper shop Soft and Cozy [name_u]Baby[/name_u]. They do workshops and are a great place to see real diapers before you’re actually buying them. I know in Pittsburgh where a friend lives there is The [name_f]Happy[/name_f] [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Company and I’m sure there a lot more around since cloth diapers are becoming more and more popular. I’d google your city and cloth diaper to see what pops up. Going into a store is really a great experience when you’re trying to figure things out and the employees can offer really awesome advice.
I did fitteds and pockets primarily with my oldest and prefolds with a cover for my daughter. It was a lot easier since there was no stuffing and so much cheaper allowing me to have more diapers to stretch longer between washings.
I agree about preferring the prefolds with covers. I have used Fuzzi Bunz pockets (a gift) bum genius all in ones (borrowed from my sister) and prefolds with Thirsties covers (bought used from my neighbor) The prefolds and covers are so much easier to care for, and honestly not harder to put on the baby. I don’t use snappis, just trifold the prefold and lay it lengthwise into the diaper.
Question for the cloth-diapering moms who have potty-trained kids:
Is it true that cloth diapering is conducive to earlier potty training, since the child has a better sense of when he/she is urinating and wetting the diaper?
[name_m]Just[/name_m] curious, because it seems like an interesting thing to try but also seems like a lot of work. But it would be totally worth it if there’s greater awareness that translates to earlier willingness to use the toilet.
I have heard that from many people, and I am sure that it helps for some people. I have a friend whose daughter potty trained herself at 15 months- she just started ripping off her cloth diaper right before she needed to pee. So my friend taught her how to go on the potty instead of on the floor.
For us, cloth diapering has not let to earlier potty training. [name_f]My[/name_f] son is 2 1/2 and we tried potty training at 18 months (when he started removing his snap-on diaper covers) at age 2, and then just a couple of months ago. While he is happy to go on the potty, he does not seem to care that his diaper or underpants are wet so training him has just been very frustrating so far. I know it’ll eventually work, but I don’t think we can call it early at this point.
Having started out with disposables, and having done disposables on vacations, I can say that cloth is not a lot more work. It is an amount of more work, but I would say a very small and manageable amount. Changing diapers and dealing with diapers is going to be gross no matter what kind you use. That said, I don’t have an outside job, so things like moving laundry around is not a big deal to me. I also don’t mind laundry. If you hate laundry, adding two or three more loads a week might be loathsome to you.
I think that the key to making them easy is to choose one system and stick with it for as long as possible. If you are constantly trying new things, it is going to feel like a lot more work.
And I understand that many daycares won’t deal with cloth, so if you are working, that might be a concern as well.
If you want a different (not so cheap) but Eco-friendly option, I have heard that those Honest diapers are compostable. So if you are able to compost (bc if you are sending them to the landfill, they will never break down and you might as well save money and just buy target diapers) that might be something to consider.
@tarynkay, thank you. I do loathe laundry. And I’m not sure I’m a nice enough human being to compost diapers (or anything else, at least for the moment) but it’s really interesting that it’s possible!
So far my kids seem to be training earlier. Whether it’s the cloth diapers or their personalities I’m not sure. [name_f]My[/name_f] son potty trained at 25 months old and pretty much did it himself we just stopped using diapers since they were consistently staying dry and he was requesting to use the potty. [name_f]My[/name_f] daughter is almost 25 months now and today was her first day in underwear. She woke up at 7:30 and I just put a diaper on her for naptime at 2 pm. She had one accident (on the way to the potty) and used the potty four times so I feel pretty good about today so far. We’ll have to wait and see if it sticks or not. She has been asking to use the potty but still has plenty of wet diapers so she’s probably not as ready as my son but I also feel like part of that is my laziness since I’m not always the best about dropping everything to take her to the potty.
We really got lucky in the potty training department so far. After my son being so early I expected my daughter was going to be a lot harder but we’re a few days in and she’s only been having a couple accidents a day mostly small ones where she just needs her clothes changed but no big mess to clean up. Of course now that we’re TTC a third I figure that one will really give me issues.