Cloth diapering... To do or not to do?!

[Leleluvsdis]

Hey everyone!! I am currently 19 weeks with our first LO, and am seriously considering cloth diapering. I have been watching blog after blog on YouTube, and it seems just as simple as using disposables. My mom will be our daycare, so I don't have to worry about that aspect.

Would anyone like to share their pros and cons of cloth diapering? I am currently leaning towards doing a sweet peas cover with bummies inserts. We will probably start with disposables until we get used to having a newborn and probably on vacation (depending on the laundry situation) but hope to switch to cloth around the one month mark.

 

[earthyfamily0709]

I have to be honest, we cloth diapered and we LOVED it. It's so much healthier for baby, is super fun to purchase all the fun prints and gorgeous wipes and supplies, and it just felt right...if that makes sense. You do have to be careful though about buildup on the inserts and covers...usually not a problem but if it does happen it can make for stinky and non-absorbent diapers. My faves are Happy Heineys and a little etsy store called Tender Tree Huggers. Cloth diapers are pretty easy to use once you get a system going. I always had a bunch all put together and ready to go so that there wouldn't be any frustration during changing time. We also did cloth wipes as well...just stick wet it a little with warm water before changing time and you're good to go. Hope that helps!

 

[laura3773]

We cloth diapered for 6 months or so (used disposables as a newborn and jumped to cloth when she fit one-size diapers). I really liked our cloth, but she got really sick and had some hardcore antibiotics that caused a terrible yeast rash and we had to put her back in disposables to clear it. I work outside the home full-time, and after a month (seriously, a month) clearing her rash, I just couldn't get back in the swing of all the laundry.

The prints are awesome - but be careful you don't go down the rabbit hole of buying new ones all the time, they never had blowout issues (though we did have trouble with absorbency at night once she got bigger and started to mostly STTN), and aside from the yeast rash we never had rash issues (which we sometimes do in certain brands of disposables). If I was a SAHM, we would have definitely kept up with them.

Don't go crazy buying anything before your kiddo comes. Different kids have different shapes and need different brands of diapers. We had mostly bumGenius, but were starting to have trouble with skinny legs and having no way to adjust the leg opening right before we switched back to disposables. Fuzzibuns, from what I read, probably would have fit the body she grew into better.

Good luck!

 

[Jing]

We have cloth diapered since the day he came home and love it. We use a mix of prefolds, aios, fitteds, and ai2s and wash every 2-3 days in Tide. No rashes, no blowouts, no stink. Check out the cloth diapering group on baby center or the cloth diaper asylum on Facebook

 

[MOpGrad2013]

Tried them on DS19, but those were just fold Gerber cloths and pin. After a week or two...Yeah, I was a generic diaper mom.

DD16--I would have loved to do cloth, but DmiL was the caregiver and she would not have done it. She also tends to allow "over filling of the diapers." DS3 were also disposable diapers. I never gave it much thought once we knew he was coming. The ladies at church gave me a diaper and wipes party so we had enough disposables for 6 months!

I know a lot of folks who do cloth at home and disposables in public, but having seen the "new" pants and just putting the absorbent cloth inside...Wow! I can say should have, could have, and if there is another miracle in my future, I will get cloth. There was one brand that I was really impressed with. Not sure exactly, but Thirsties looks similar. Another lady used one that had so many folds and tucks...it was painful (ok not really, but annoying) to replace and I would run from that. This is just my experience as a non-cloth mom helping out the baby in need.

I also don't know if there is a true correlation, but it seems every cloth diaper wearing baby I meet becomes potty trained much sooner. I just spent another $10 on Pull Ups today. I know he will get trained and I know our issue is more than just the diapers, but I do wonder...If I had done it differently, maybe...

Whew..my opinion is LONG today. Congratulations to you. Whatever the decision you make, it WILL be the RIGHT one.

 

[mtabh]

We plan to CD the next baby. I've got quite a stash of BG AIOS going. I say if you are interested, go for it! At worst you don't like it and can sell your CDs. Yes, there is a resale market for used CDs.

 

[andigomeep]

I love cloth diapering! It's so easy! We started almost from the beginning, my son was a preemie so it was a few weeks after he came up before he was big enough to fit into them. I started out with a mix of the big brand names but eventually found some websites for cheap ones made in china that held up amazingly and were a fraction of the price. I washed about every other day, I used pockets so I stuffed them right after they were done so they were all ready to go when needed. Sunning helps get out any pesky stains.

 

[Maggie at the Fort]

We use cloth diapers and used them for our first child too. It is like everything in raising children. Anyone who tells you there is just one right way to do something is either lying or just plain wrong. You have to do the research and give things a try and see what works.
For us it worked to wait about 6/8 weeks before starting cloth with each baby. The first few weeks are so crazy and I don't need extra complications. With our first I was so gung ho, we even took cloth diapers camping and on vacation. With our second, we were able to reuse the diapers we had which saved us a lot of $$! Now we use disposables for trips and a disposable at bed time because he wasn't sleeping through the night in cloth!

The diapers we like are bum genius pocket diapers and flip covers with microfiber inserts. I built my stash by shopping the seconds sale on the cotton babies website. Also I use country save detergent. Good luck considering the options.

One other warning: Cloth diapers are so cute these days. If you are using them to save money be wary of window shopping.

 

[Woodmnky]

We used cloth for DS and loved it. The only recommendation that I make to anyone is to try out several different types to figure out what works best for you and your child before investing in a huge amount of any one kind. What works perfectly for one is awful for another. Also what works best during one stage of babyhood may not work as well a couple months down the road. Other than the extra laundry it is really no harder than disposables (and surprisingly smells better).

Also the economics are a plus. I spent under a hundred dollars on diapers for DS after I sold the diapers as we were done with them. Not bad considering that disposables often run $60 a month.

 

[DisneyParkLover]

We LOVE our cloth diapers! We have used disposables on occasion (on trips or when MIL watches him) and every time we do it just reminds me how much I love the cloth. He never gets rashy in cloth and we never have poosplosions in our cloth (but these happen frequently in disposables). Plus if you don't go crazy buying, you can really save a lot of money. Our daycare is willing to use them, so we send them pockets for ease of use and then I use cheaper systems at home.

 

[erin327]

Yes! Do it! Love cloth diapers!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

No way. I hate laundry and didn't live in an area where there was a diaper service when our kids were babies. I also am not a baby person and babyhood was hard on me, man. I needed everything convenient I could get my hands on to keep life as simple as possible. I also worked FT outside the home, so would have only been able to cloth diaper on the weekends, so it wouldn't have been worth it from a financial POV.

For the people I know who have done it, they really enjoy it. So if you can make it work for you, awesome.

 

[AZMermaid]

We did with our kids and loved it. Best part, Never in blowout in a cloth diaper. They are now 2.5 and almost 4. We liked Bum Genius the best, followed by the sized Fuzzibunz and Flips. We did disposables for about a month with each kid because we were given diapers and it was less overwhelming. My first had colic and was really a hard hard baby his first 6 months, but I didn't mind the diaper laundry. It was about 2-3 loads a week, maybe 4 when we had 2 kids in diapers for about a year. My daughter was a heavy wetter and we never found a good night combo for her, so she did disposable at night. My son was fine with a hemp insert doubled with the regular bum genius one.

 

[sophia315]

I do half and half. What works for us is cloth during the day and disposables at night. Less leaks in disposables overnight if you have a little one that sleeps for long stretches. I hate having to change sheets in the middle if the night. Mostly us Bum Genius Pocket diapers. There are a few sites one is Jillian's Drawers and I think you can buy them for a trial and return the stash if it doesn't work out. They also sell gently used diapers there. Oh and once the baby is eating solids I use those liners in the diaper - helps with keeping diaper clean and you just flush it with the poo.

 

[VDrolet]

We are currently cloth diapering with our 14 month old. We started when he was 4 weeks old I think. We use regular diapers when we go out and cloth at home and daycare. Easy, convenient and so much cheaper than regular diapers.

 

[ZeroMyHero]

I chose to cloth diaper my now 5 y.o. and for the most part I really enjoyed it. In my experience, the AIOs and pockets were too large until DD was about 6 mos. I tried to use fitted diapers with separate covers in her first month but I personally found them to be cumbersome and kind of gross.

I went back to disposables for a while until I could no longer keep her eczema at a comfortable level for her. By this time she had gained enough weight to fit into pocket diapers. At first, I found the laundry to be daunting but once I got into a routine, washing diapers became as normal as changing diapers. Overall, cloth diapering worked very well for us, and I look back fondly on everything except the laundry. I don't really miss that, lol.

Also, some cloth diaper web stores offer diaper kits, with different types of diapers to try, or even trial kits that allow you to try a bunch of different types of cloth diapers so you know what works best for you and your baby.

One last thing: as happy as I was cloth diapering, I never did it on vacation. We took one trip to DW when DD was about 20 months and I used disposables. Vacation for me has always meant no laundry, and I didn't trust the public washing machines to clean my diapers properly or keep me from having to strip them. Good luck!

 

[branv]

We tried it and it didn't work for us. But not for *any* of the reasons the naysayers said it would be. In fact, I'm sad it didn't work. While we did it, I had no problems with the work involved or with leaks or rashes. For some reason, DS hated them. Can't explain it. Tried different sizes and types. Different snap settings, changing regularly, different cleaning routines, you name it. He cried and fussed with them on. And this is not a fussy child. Was happy as a lark in disposables. It was the strangest thing.

So my tip is to not stock up, no matter how good a sale or offer. Buy one or two of a few types, and add as you go. We were able to resell ours, but we still never made our money back in terms of how much they were used vs. savings over disposable.

 

[MandiC]

I cloth diapered my second and third babies full time, my fourth baby is more part time (though we are actually going back to full time this week until he potty trains).
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It definitely saves money and is much healthier. We in the US have things in our babies diapers that are BANNED in other countries! Think about how much time babies spend in diapers and that is kind of scary. I just couldn't do it with our 4th, I felt like I was already drowning in laundry and stress plus to top it off he had horrible rashes all over his body as a baby so I cut myself some slack and we cloth diaper at home and use disposables when we leave the house (which with older kids is a lot!).
Cloth diapering itself is not hard and I know my mother in law was very open to learning about how to use and wash them too so hopefully you are as blessed with the grandparents she actually was a little sad when I stopped bringing them to her house! There sure are a lot of cute options but I agree, don't keep buying after you have enough, it is easy to feel like you need that new cute print but that really takes away the money saving aspect of it.