Anybody use or used cloth diapers?

[ninny]

We are expecting our first human baby in march and i'm looking for opinions on cloth diapers.

 

[teach1rusl]

"First human baby"....that's funny

I went through the same deliberation 17 years ago. Mom told me how she would kind of shake/rinse the poopy diapers out in the toilet before rinsing in the sink a bit. That was enough for me to decide to go with disposable...lol. I did consider a diaper service, but it was too pricey.

 

[Camelot Farms]

I loved cloth diapers. I used them in 1990 and 1993 and again in 2001.

The diaper service worked out best for us but with todays stores like SAMS CLUB, it might be cheaper to go with disposable. Just be sure to factor in the cost of extra trash if you pay by the bag to get rid of it.

I did use disposable when we went out in public to make things easier.

I thought that the cloth made potty training easier too since they knew when they were wet and didnt like it

 

[ninny]

We don't have trash service so i'd have to run the disposable ones to the land fill. I have also heard cloth makes potty training easier.

 

[ducks4you]

DH's law firm's associate has little ones, and she decided on disposable. It's also good to buy, use and wash the cloth ones. They get softer with every washing. You can bleach them, and they are very soft on delicate skin for spit-up rags and other things, too. Hope this helps!
(I'M past it--my "littliest one" is graduating from the U of I and going somewhere to Law School next fall!!)

 

[horsejody]

My daughter had cloth diapers. Cloth diapers make potty training. A wet rag tied to your butt is a lot of motivation to use the toilet. It's cheaper and better for the environment too.

 

[HEChicken]

I used cloth because I couldn't justify disposable for the amount of waste created in landfills. I just never found it to be that big a deal. I kept a diaper pail beside the change table and the soiled diapers went into it. Every other day or so, I ran a small load of laundry just for the diapers and hung them out to dry. DD was potty trained at two and DS at 19 months (and boys are supposed to take longer to potty train - I wasn't even ready to start training - he initiated the process). The initial investment is high as you'll need several dozen diapers, diaper pins, plastic overpants and pail. But after the initial investment, the only investment is time to wash, along with a little laundry soap and water. I didn't use bleach since they were naturally sanitized by the sun while hanging on the line. (Never had any diaper rash either).

 

[Julie_A]

I learned this lesson the hard way...

Babies can be allergic or irritated by certain brands of diapers. When I was pg, we bought diapers in prep. for my daughter, Sydney. After she was born, we realized that the fancy, name brand diapers we bought left her with a terrible rash. Switched to a cheap brand (White Cloud) and she was just fine.

My mom said I could only wear cloth diapers as a baby for the same reason.

We did use disposable, but kept a couple packs of unusued cloth diapers to use as burp cloths.

The best advice anyone ever gave me about having a baby is that every child is different. Take advice with a grain of salt. Do what works for your baby. When it's all said and done, if your baby is loved, clean, warm and fed, he or she will be happy.

 

[Katy]

Congrats on the baby!

Disposables were just starting to become a staple when mine were babies (33, 30 & 28 years ago) so mine were all in cloth diapers. Now days I babysit several days a week for grandbabies who are in disposables. I'd still use cloth if I had it to do over again. We don't have trash service either and those disposables don't burn in the trash barrel!

Yes, you have to change them more often with cloth diapers because they don't hold the pee in huge amounts like the disposables do, but do you really want your kid running around sitting in a pee soaked diaper anyway? The one place I'd use disposables would be to go out shopping...then they're pretty nice. I don't know what cloth diapers cost now, but I find it hard to believe with even the cost of soap and hot water figured in they wouldn't be cheaper than 2+ years (give or take a few months) of disposables.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Do your own figuring on the actual costs of using both. I've often heard very skewed figures about how expensive disposable diapers would be. But that's usually figuring you're buying the most expensive brand-name disposables and changing your baby 10X a day. Most babies do fine with inexpensive store-brand disposables, and because they're more absorbant they need to be changed less often than cloth ones. You'll also want to weigh your extra garbage costs against your extra water/detergent/electricity/washer wear costs.

You may also want to consider using disposables at least for the first month, when you're still recovering from delivery, dealing with post-partum changes, adjusting to life with your new miracle, and probably dealing with sleep deprivation. Plus the baby's poop is really loose & easily leaks at that age. Who needs extra laundry chores at a time like that? You may not feel like saving any planet, and happily pluck an endangered Snowy Owl for its feathers to use if you've run out of wipes.

Of course, if you get used to the convenience of using disposables, you may not want to make the switch to using cloth afterwards. I too planned on using cloth diapers until my firstborn had to be delivered via c-section. My pals convinced me to use disposables at least until I healed from the surgery. But by then it was like hearing "well now that you've recovered from your operation you can go back to cooking over an open fire in the back yard". I figured I could do other things to save money & help the environment while cutting down on my diaper/laundry chores.

Still, there are all sorts of groovy new products available to today's Mommies, snug stylish wraps that fit even the tiniest of tushies, thin absorbant washable liners, not like those thick droopy cloth diapers of old. You may not be able to use them for washing your car after baby's done with them, but they may make cloth diapering much easier to do.

Congratulations on your bundle of joy!