I was shocked when I told Stephen I wanted to try cloth and he said, "Ok." I really thought I was going to have a "fight" on my hands and was already geared up for the debate. I was geared up to explain how much cloth would save us, how it was better for the environment and better for our baby to use natural materials instead of synthetic against his little bum. I was also prepared to show him how it really wouldn't be that gross and how cool using a diaper sprayer* would be. Not to mention how stinkin' cute a baby is in cloth versus a disposable diaper! Although I did share all these things with my husband, he was on board from the get go.
*The price of the diaper sprayer has went up since we got ours. Mine was a baby shower gift but I'm not sure how I feel about $60.00 for one. Maybe once I have to start using it I will have an opinion.
The rest of our family and friends were not as convinced. Other than the few people I knew that were using cloth already, no one thought it was that great an idea. I can't tell you how many people said, "I wonder how long you will do it until you quit and hate it." To which my response, "I've invested a lot of money, even if I hate it, I'm doing it." Most people think cloth diapering sounds gross and dirty but it's really not. Honestly, I have gotten some poo on my hands (maybe 3 times) but let me ask you this, those of you with children... Have you never gotten a little poop on you when your child has a blow out? If you say no, you're lying! HA! And when it's your own child, it's just really not that big of a deal. When I have a soiled diaper, I place it in the diaper pail and dump it in the wash along with the pail liner and I don't have to touch the poo. Since I'm breastfeeding I don't have to spray the soiled diapers but I have a few times just for the fun of it. Once Patrick starts on solid foods I will need to spray them and flush it down the toilet then wash as normal. Anyway, this isn't a post to convince anyone to use cloth, it's just meant to document what has worked for us.
For the most part, I use GDiapers. However, I do not use their liners. Instead, another friend and co-cloth diaper mom made my inserts, found here. I did not start cloth diapering from day one, although with our next child I probably will. I wasn't sure how easy it would be with a newborn so we used pampers disposables for the first few weeks. Also, the newborn GDiapers were not my favorite-I did try them a few times. It may have just been because Patrick was long but the diapers didn't cover his rump well and they would just slide off. He was in the size small around 4 weeks anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. However, I wish I hadn't bought the "tiny G's" to begin with since I didn't really use them. Live and learn!
*I bought most of my GDiapers from BuyBuyBaby and I got some for shower gifts as well. The price on amazon.com is much higher than I paid. A two pack was $26.00 when I bought mine.
At night we use Flips or Bumgenius 4.0 because the Gdiapers won't hold 12 hours of pee. Also, Patrick moves around in his sleep a lot and sometimes the Gdiapers will slide off but we haven't had any issues with the Flips & Bumgenius. I like the Gdiapers during the day best because they are more trim and not bulky like the other diapers. I've also bought some prefolds just to try them out and the ones I like best are GMD, I also love their fitted "workhorse" diaper with a Flips cover on top.
One reason I really like cloth diapering is because disposables do not hold Patrick's poop. EVERY TIME he has pooped in a disposable it comes out the back and gets all over his clothes and it's just a mess. But he has never once pooped out of a cloth diaper! We use disposables when we go out some and when my mom or Stephen's mom keeps him they use them as well. Our church nursery won't change cloth so we will either put him in disposables then or they will page me when he needs changed, I haven't decided on this one yet. Another plus, you don't have to find a place to throw your diaper away if you're out (esp. if you use cloth wipes also which I do but not exclusively yet). With cloth, you just toss the dirty diaper in your wet bag, which contains the smell and continue about your business.
I have 10 Gdiapers of each size (small, medium, & large) and honestly, I could easily get by with 6. I have 41 inserts (18 small & 23 med/large) that fit the GDiapers (36 my friend made and 5 I bought at a local store that's now out of business), 12 prefolds (I don't use these often), 2 Flips covers with 6 of their stay-dry inserts, 1 Bumgenius 4.0 pocket diaper, 24 cloth wipes (18 a friend made and 6 from a local store). With my stash, I do diaper laundry every other day (if I used my prefolds I could easily go every 4 days). I didn't save all my receipts so I don't have an exact amount but personally, I have spent about $380.00 on cloth diapers. We received some for shower gifts and my mom bought us some for Christmas so that was a huge help. Even if I had bought my whole stash it would have been about $550.00. That seems like a lot but if you think of how many disposables you go through it's not.
When I do buy disposables I get the Kroger brand which come in a 50 count (about a week's worth of diapers) and cost $8.00. Patrick is 21 weeks so that would be a total of $168.00. And honestly, during his first month of life I changed his diaper at least 15 times a day instead of 7, which is about how many times I change him now. And, at first we bought pampers and they only come in a 36 count and are $11.00 a pack! If I had always bought pampers that would have been $462.00 because I would have gotten 2 packs each week. Cloth diapering is an investment and I have bought some extras that I didn't really need but just wanted to try. Also, the most cost efficient way to cloth diaper is prefolds and covers which you can do for about $200.00 for your whole stash. Another way to save money, which I don't have any personal experience in, is purchasing used diapers from online co-ops or local diaper swaps.
Some people argue that cloth diapering won't save you a lot of money because you have to spend more in water for washing and detergent. Since Patrick was born, our water bill has only went up $5.00 a month (and that's not just from cloth diapering, his clothing and bedding adds a few extra loads a week). I have been making my own detergent for over a year now for our clothes and started making my own for Patrick's diapers (which is a different recipe), assuming I will keep going through detergent at the same rate, it will costs under $20.00 a year for diaper detergent. That's a pretty big savings! But I have read that even if you purchase special diaper detergent you still save a huge amount of money. Also, if you use your cloth diapers for another child you are saving MAJOR bucks!
Diaper Detergent
Liquid Laundry Detergent (this costs me less than $10.00 a year)
If you are interested in cloth diapering do your research and register for what you want. Most of the cloth diaper websites have registries, so you just have to let people know you're serious about it so they don't buy you disposables. A friend of mine said she got so many disposables because no one thought she would stick to cloth diapering. I did not receive ONE pack of diapers at my baby showers! I did have some people give me a few they had left over from their babies which was great in the beginning, before I had started cloth.
So far, I really like cloth diapering and plan to do it with our next child.
For more cloth diapering info check out these links:
Mary From Kentucky
Cotton Babies
You Tube Video
Also, get on babycenter.com and join the cloth diaper group. The ladies on there are so helpful if you have any questions or concerns or need support once you start cloth!
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