Before my baby was born I looked into using cloth diapers. They are both good for the environment and for baby’s behind, as well as WAY cheaper than disposable diapers. After making my mind up I realized I had forgotten to run it by my husband! Oops! So, one day I sprang it on him. At first he was a little hesitant and had a few questions like, how do you get the poop out. But, he was willing to give it a try.
I did a lot of research, and I must say it can be very overwhelming! There are so many options out there now – not just your typical cloth diapers and rubber pants your mom may have used! I had no idea what would work better and where I should order them from to get the best buy. I read a lot of articles and even posted questions on Twitter to pick other moms’ brains. Finally, I ran across a great article by a fellow ElevenMom, Amy Clark, at MomAdvice. (You can read it HERE). She did a great job explaining what the difference was between the various diapers and covers. I also found the website www.greenmountaindiapers.com very helpful.
Finally, I decided on prefolds (your typical cloth diaper) and diaper covers as well as Pocket Diapers. I have ordered 2 dozen infant-small sized prefolds and 4 diaper covers. I also have 12 one size fits all SmartiPants pocket diapers.
I used the prefolds when Judah was just a newborn and they worked really well. As he gained a little weight I really grew to LOVE the Smartipants pocket diapers. What I love about them is that they are very “user friendly.” You just snap them on and then when they are dirty you drop them in your diaper pail. When it comes time to wash them you just dump them in the wash. You don’t have to take the insert and the cover apart, they come out in the wash all by themselves! I also love that have snap closures because they last a long time and make it more difficult for your little one to take off by themselves! Plus, because they have so many snaps you can snap them many different ways to alter the fit for your little one. This way they can wear the same diapers when they are very small and when they are bigger- a HUGE cost savings. Other cloth diaper choices (although still cheaper than disposables) come in varied sizes so you have to keep buying new sizes as your baby grows.
The cost breakdown is what made me make up my mind to give cloth diapering a whirl. The average cost of cloth diapers if you were going to use them from birth until they are potty trained is between $400 and $1300, depending one what you decide on – believe me the cost really varies! But, compare that to the cost of disposables at about $3000! If you use the same cloth diapers for baby number two your savings gets even better because it won’t cost you another penny to cloth diaper versus another $3000 to use disposables! With each baby you use them with the savings just gets better! And, with cloth diapers you can expect them to hold up through several babies. I’ve even heard that there are sites where you can resale your cloth diapers and if you take good care of them they will hold their value!
The final chore for me was taking my baby out with cloth diapers. It seemed a little scary to me. However, it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought! I just packed my cloth diapers with a wet bag (I have used a grocery sack when my wet bag was dirty) and away we went! They change just like disposables and we didn’t have any leaks!
So, if I can do it, anyone can! And, I have to admit I have used a mix of cloth and disposables for a while just so I could get used to everything – you know being a new and totally inexperienced mom! Also, we use disposables if we are going to be away for 24 hours or longer. But, the task of cloth diapering hasn’t been any harder than using disposables, except I am doing a couple more loads of laundry. But, I have found that I am doing laundry non-stop with the baby any way so who’s counting?
