So we ended up buying a box of the Costco brand ones and deciding to research cloth diapering. There are so many awesome cloth diaper companies, and they all seem so easy, but I wonder if it's really worth having to do that much extra laundry. Plus, the fancier/easier they get, the more the cost goes up. AND, I have no idea how long to expect a cloth diaper to last. OR how many disposable diapers I would go through in a year. (You see, my husband and I are trying to be "smart" about it and do the math...how much do disposables cost/about how many would we use in a year vs. how much do cloth ones cost, how many would we need, how often do they get replaced, and how much extra laundry detergent will we be going through if we use cloth?) I think my biggest problem is that I've never had a baby before. I also don't know who I know that uses cloth diapers. I never thought this decision would be so difficult for me. I always just assumed that I would use disposables. But even if I did just decide to do that, there are so many different brands and so many people who swear by certain brands, that I feel lost there too.
Maybe I'm thinking about this too hard?
So, those of you who are already moms, I could use your advice! What do you do? What works for you?
Nooo I totally had this same thought and convo too. The ultimate thing that got me to make my decision is 1) you have to have a toilet near to dump the solids 2) is it still a solid when they are sitting and rolling and laying in the dirty diaper? 3) Lets say you are out and about {Disneyland is my favorite example} you would be forced to keep that clothe diaper... dirty diaper in your diaper bag until you went home and washed them. Which means you would be lugging around stinkiness all day if not ruining anything else that could possible be in your bad like snacks or camera or phone. I just thought of E. coli and how unhygienic it seemed if it were to spill. I mean it is great to save a penny or so but I personally made the decision that I would rather spend the money and save else where. As far as brands go Pampers has received the most awards for diapers. I am waiting until the baby has tried them out and what will work best for him and his little body before I become a loyal customer to one specific brand. But don't worry I think I gave it just as much thought. I think it is totally normal to feel confused about the whole thing. Mostly when you know that you will be going through apx 10 diapers a day and the largest box you found is $40. Good luck in the diaper quest! I know you will figure out what is best for you as a family.
ReplyDeleteIf we did cloth diapering, we would have disposables for things like Disneyland and church and vacations. I'm mostly just concerned about the day to day stuff.
ReplyDeleteI do disposable diapers, but I have a friend who does cloth diapers. At first she was super excited about it and spent all of the upfront costs for it, but then she discovered the convenience of disposables and now she mostly does disposables. She also said she hates that her baby screams for the whole ten minutes that it takes her to change the diaper. I can attest to the truth of this because I babysat her little girl one day and she sure hated her diaper changes. And I must say that it was really gross because I had all of her diaper contents all over my hands while I was trying to undo the safety pins. I would rather use disposables. Yuck. As for the brands, every baby is different and even as Emma gets older I change brands with her. It depends on the baby.. at least that is my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWell we started out with pampers and huggies because we got so many of those as baby shower gifts. It totally depends on the baby and his/her shape, but for us and almost everyone else I've talked to, Pampers worked better/leaked less than huggies. Now that we have to buy them ourselves, we've been buying the store brand and they seem to work just fine. Here in Cambodia, we bought a cheap asian knock off version of huggies and they were absolutely horrible, leaked every time, so we did some research, and we found out that, from online reviews, TARGET diapers seem to be the best store brand ones out there. So we ordered a whole bunch of cases online from target on the faith that the reviewers were right.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, if you're not 100% committed to cloth diapers, it's not worth it.
Also, we went through about 8-10 diapers per day in the first few months, then as the months went by he started pooping less (halleluia!) so now it's more like 4-5 a day.
Hope that helps a little :)
Hey Joy, I'm gonna have to disagree with these other comments. I go into detail at length about cloth diapers and their benefits in two of my posts on Daddyhack.net.
ReplyDeleteCheck them out here and here.
I will say that this is based on our family's experience, but I think it will help you out. Basically, you don't need a toilet near to dump the solids. You just need a "Wet/Dry Bag". This solves the "Disneyland" issue, very easily. Also, as you probably already know, you don't need to get one's that use safety-pins. That is OLDSKOOL! You won't get your hands dirtier than with disposable diapers if you buy the right diapers. (And as a side note, if you have a problem touching poop, you should try to work that one out because it's going to be hard not to when you have your baby).
Do your research, and please check out these posts I linked to. It will be more work with washables, but not much more than doing an extra load of laundry once in a while. And it WILL be MUCH cheaper. Trust me.
I'm still only a mommy-to-be like you, but I was nanny, so I have some insight. 8-10 sounds about right for the first three months or so, but it does steadily decrease to about 4-5. With the twins I watched we changed them every time they ate (approx. every 3-4 hours) plus a few extra when they were stinky. The mom I worked for bought huggies and liked them, but it is very individual. I will say don't stock up on store brand diapers until you know how sensitive your baby's skin is and to what. The brand you use can change with time as well, so the key is to be flexible and use coupons when you can.
ReplyDeleteMy sister uses luvs with her son and I actually kind of like them and they seem to be affordable considering they're a name brand.
As for cloth diapers...I only want to deal with a dirty diaper once. That's just me though. Everyone is different, just do what you think is best.
Kristen Clarke used cloth diapers and she was willing to talk with me about it when I asked her. Myself, I am a Pampers lover and I will be until the day I die. The only way to find what you like is to buy small packages of several kinds and try them out.
ReplyDeleteI used cloth diapers with Alice and plan to with Jack. We actually started out with disposables for while her poop was all meconium and black and sticky and gross, then we switched to the "old school" cloth diapers. They are by far the cheapest. We did not do pins though, we used snappis. I think they are awesome. We also did not use plastic pants, but used pro raps covers which worked really well for us.
ReplyDeleteWe then bought some bum genius 3.0 diapers which are adjustable from newborn size up to potty training age. They work very similarly to a disposable diaper.
When alice was about 7 or 8 months old, we started bringing in more disposable diapers and eventually phased out the cloth ones b/c we were making more money and the convenience of not having to rinse the poop was nice (though did you know you're not supposed to put a poop in the garbage anyway, so in theory, you'd be flushing any solids out of a disposable diaper as well?) When Erik lost his job, we pulled out the cloth again to save money and it was totally fine.
The Laundry for diapers is not bad at all. We had 24 diapers and i think 6 or 8 covers and did laundry every 2-3 days. We got some free & clear detergent to use with them and would run an extra rinse cycle, then a full cycle on hot, then an extra rinse at the end to make sure all the soap was out. Once in a while I'd use bleach (though a lot of the die hards tell you not to). I line dry mine when possible b/c the sun will kill lingering bacteria.
We didn't invest in a wet/dry bag, but used regular plastic bags when we had to. When we went out or when Alice was being baby sat, we used the disposables.
To warn you, though.... cloth diapering a toddler is a bit grosser than cloth diapering an infant. They are stinkier. But, i think that had we been cloth diapering Alice the whole time, she would have potty trained earlier than she did. As it was, she potty trained about a month or 2 after we put her back in the cloth diapers. even though the up front cost was kind of a lot, it will still save us in the long term since we will be using the same diapers with all of our kids.
As far as what kind of disposable diapers are best, we like the kirkland brand ones. :) Huggies would be 2nd favorite, but it was a distant second.
So I just have to say, I remember when my mom used cloth diapers and ...that was probably the most stressed I had ever seen her. The smell was even worse when she took care of it. With a plastic diaper you roll it up and just throw it away. Anyway...just a lovely negative tidbit. J/k...I wasn't trying to be negative...okay I'll stop now. :D
ReplyDeleteJoy, your worries remind me of how I felt at that stage of life. You will be awesome and learn along the way. I wanted to have everything figured out before my kids were born (diapers, bottles, schedule, etc), but it didn't happen that way. Ultimately, I loved Huggies brand diapers. But I had to try different brands. Just remember you are not married to any brands or ways of doing things. Mothering is a journey, and just when you think you've got it figured out your child will grow and change on you! Advice can be great, but once your baby is born only you and Alma will know best :-)
ReplyDeleteI have used Huggies, Pampers, Target Brand, Best Earth or some generic brand from BRU but my fav by far has GOT to be Pampers baby dry. They have NEVER leaked, never caused rash and just all over been wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI never did the cloth thing. I had a bad experience when I was a teenager and babysat kids in cloth diapers and was totally grossed out. But I had some friends use cloth and a diapering service that comes and takes them away and washes them for you. But it is just as expensive as disposables. But I found out that I DO NOT like diapers that are scented. The diaper smell and baby poop combo is really nasty. So I usually went with Huggies/store brand because Pampers are scented.
ReplyDeleteI am in love with the Target Brand diapers. They have done me well. Plus they are so cheap.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't already had your baby shower just have the people putting it on tell the guests to bring a package of diapers with their gift. That always helps. They can even work it into a game.