Back in the pre-infertility awareness days of our lives I always thought that we would naturally get pregnant easily, have one child at a time and use cloth diapers. Well, fast forward over the past year and a whole new set of realities became our life. As soon as we saw those two little alien like shapes on the ultrasound screen, all thoughts of cloth diapering went out the window. All I thought was how much work it would be with two babies in cloth diapers.
Well, the online community has a strong opinion on cloth diapering and I received many comments from readers who were eager to encourage, coerce, nag.... me to re-consider. So a few weeks back I stopped at a local cloth diapering store and asked them to break it down for me, how does it work, am I insane for debating doing it with twins, etc. I left the store convinced that we could do this.
So Saturday we were in the neighborhood so I mentioned to Andrew that we should just stop by so he can learn more about it. We left with close to $300 worth of diapers, detergent, and diapering accessories, as well as a new found confidence that... yes we can do this... it is totally doable and will save us oodles of money.
What we learned.... when the babies are exclusively breast fed (please please please let this be our situation for a good long while), everything that comes out is water soluble and does not require any special attention (which really means you can take the diaper off, put it in the diaper bag and the next day just throw it into the laundry). If formula or solid food is introduced they have these wonderful liners that you just flush and then you wash the rest as usual. We also learned that there is no shortage of cloth diapering options. There are all in ones, pre-fold inserts with covers and the list goes on. The covers are very, very cute. We also received a little lesson on detergents. I am a bit crazy when it comes to not using chemicals so I already had a hunch that most of the so-called baby detergents out there were likely garbage, this hunch was correct. We ended up purchasing Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda and were reassured that this stuff is great for both diapers and all of the babies' clothes.
The $300 is the initial newborn investment. Once they outgrow the newborn diapers we will be back to buy the larger size for babies.
I feel good about this. If we start out using cloth, we won't know any better... ignorance is bliss!
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| Bummis Super Whisper Wrap via The Extraordinary Baby Shoppe ... yes we bought this cover, it is soo cute! |
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| Bummis Prefold Diapers..... these are the actual diapers that go under the covers... via |
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| FuzziBunz Laundry Bag - it is washable and unzips at the bottom so that you never have to touch anything... genius!
We also registered for two cloth diaper pails which we plan on using to hold the laundry bags that we purchased.
Have you used cloth diapers or would you consider it for your baby?
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I'm with you on this. However, I will most likely use disposable for the nighttime once the baby gets on schedule. I've babysat before using only cloth diapers, and for some babies, the mere wetness he/she feels in the middle of the night prevents him/her from sleeping all the way through.
ReplyDeleteYou are going to save a ton of money using cloth---that's for sure.
my sis does a combo-disposable when out or with babysitters and cloth majority of the time. she swears it isn't that bad and claims to love them. i guess in part that may be to the fact she saves oodles of money. plus, it always feels good to help the environment out too!
ReplyDeleteI love that first cover!! AAAH!!! LOL.
ReplyDeleteWe are doing cloth diapers too!!! We are going with Comfy Rumps. Great reviews and GREAT prices!!
We are going to wait a month or so before starting. I'm getting gifts of diapers out my wazoo, so we'll use those first. And I want to wait for the merconium to be gone before switching out.
My Vegas - We did talk to them about overnights and they mentioned a few different options if they are heavy wetters later on (assuming we will be changing them a lot anyways to begin with) We will have to see how it goes but I've heard wool is a good option and also lining with fleece to keep moisture away from baby.
ReplyDeleteRachel June - Yes hadn't thought of babysitters although I think the grandparents will be the primary sitters (I hope) since we have three sets nearby. I plan on teaching them the ways of cloth diapering (after I learn them of course!)
Debs - I am hoping we won't get disposables as gifts - we are trying to get the word out that we are going cloth to avoid it. We plan on using the flushable liners at first to deal with the meconium. I haven't heard of Comfy Rumps but I will check them out!
Good work! A friend said that she recommends trying it from the get go - not to get used to disposables because after that it would be very difficult to change. My parents used cloth for me (granted I was just solo), and disposables only when we travelled (i.e. driving to south carolina with a one year old in cloth diapers may have been a bit too crazy for them) :) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSO excited for you!!! We're also planning to cloth diaper and I know several other cloth diapering mommas!
ReplyDeleteStill researching which types we'll use but initially I'm thinking kissluvs rental with thristies covers for first three months and then Flips after that since they're one size fit.
Here are a few links to bloggers who have talked about cloth diapering recently and/or other helpful website where I've gotten a TON of awesome info frp,...
http://subfertilefrugalista.blogspot.com/
http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/
A place to trade in/sell your old cloth diapers...
http://re-diaper.com/
my heart did a little flutter and i squealed in delight when i saw this post! i am SO happy you considered it and decided to give it a shot! you won't be disappointed!
ReplyDeleteInteriorGroupie - My parents also did it for me but I think they used a diaper service.
ReplyDeleteRebecca - Thanks for the links!
Melissa - Yes, thanks for all of your encouragement!
yay for using cloth diapers!!!
ReplyDeletewe use fuzzibunz (but used disposables for the first few weeks - because he didn't fit in them until he was 10lbs)
let me know if you have any questions about cleaning, etc.
there are lots of good overnight options as well - but you don't need to worry about that until they sleep thru the night ;)
I love the lady bug pattern - too cute
Thank you for posting about cloth diapers! I want to use them as well but had no idea where to start. Thanks for the review! :)
ReplyDeleteI use a cloth diaper service, so I'm sort of cheating, but I really love cloth. I don't have a problem with them overnight, I use a wool soaker cover usually for night time, but find a regular cover, such as a Bummis cover works fine for about 8 hours. If wetness feeling is a problem, you can try a fleece liner, it wicks the moisture away.
ReplyDeleteThe new Bummis Super Lites are awesome. (and only $10 - can't beat that!)
I don't even use disposables when we go out, just toss the dirty ones into a wet bag and bring them home.
Avital - Thanks for the tips on the wool covers and the Bummis Super Lites.
ReplyDeleteI had heard about lining the diapers with fleece to wick away moisture so we might do that as well.