Diapers - disposable or cloth?

[daisyduke]

What type of diapers do/did you use? Which would you recommend and why? I would like to use cloth, but I hear they are too messy. Is this true? Thanks!

[Purl]

I used cloth for my 1st 3. They were all in diapers at the same time, so we couldn't afford disposable. I tried cloth on my 4th, but her skin broke out constantly no matter what they were made of, what they were washed in, etc. I liked cloth the best.

[vgloveforlife]

I used cloth for my dd.
Yea they are messy but they are worth it. You save a lot of money and not as much waste.

[daisyduke]

Do you mind explaining how they work? Where did you buy them? Did you wash them with bleach or something else? Thanks!

[iluvcacao]

I used disposables on my first, as my idea of cloth was diaper service prefolds and rubber pants. We switched to cloth with my second and I loved using cloth. Cloth diapers have come a LONG way! You can check out a great forum www.diaperpin.com and find loads of information. I used pocket diapers at first, which went on and off as easily as disposables. Then when we moved to a HOT climate, I switched to fitteds with wool covers over the top to provide the most breathability. I felt so good knowing that the chemicals in the disposables were no longer next to my dc's skin. I resold my diapers and recouped 75% of my cost!!! :D I figure that the fact that the diapers can be resused over and over again is a good environmental thing. Feel free to pm me if you want more info. I did LOTS of research before we switched. ;)

[caramba]

There is no question about it...CLOTH!! Modern cloth nappies are soooo easy. I used mainly flat square cloth for my 2, but bought a few fitted cloth as well. Fiited cloth are the just like disponsable (a misnomer, becasue the problem is they're NOT disposable at all!), and use velcro to fasten. Then you need a cover, polar fleece was my cover of choice (fitted with velcro fasterners too) or some people use knitted.

I didn't find the washing particularly laborious, I used cloth going out (mostly) and at nights too (double thickness) and was really happy with it. Both mine were out of day nappies at 2 y.o -dd was out at night at 2 as well and ds was out at night at 3.

You may also be interested in Elimination Communication (Natural Infant Hygenie) as well. (ie not using nappies at all)...I did a combo of this with cloth for my 2nd and was, again, really pleased I did.

Just type "cloth nappies" into ebay or google and you'll get 1000's of responses.

HTH...Good luck on your decision making (from one self confessed cloth nappy zealot :) )

[Sharon in Colorado]

I loved using the high quality cloth diapers from the diaper service. We bought some at Target but they just weren't the same. We'd use a cover so they weren't very messy, but waiting too long to change them would be uncomfortable for the little one.

We did have some of the disposibles on hand for when we went out though.

Now this was like 12 years ago, but we still have a few of those wonderful cloth diapers which we use for polishing furniture!

[juliebove]

I never considered cloth. The reason being my husband is in the military and we made a cross country move not long after she was born. I had no idea how long it would be until we got housing. It took 3 months on the prior move before our house was ready for us. I could not see how I could manage with cloth diapers in a situation like that.

As it turned out, my daughter suffered from severe diaper rash, most likely due to the food allergies she has that went undiagnosed until a couple of years ago.

One problem with disposable is that when the child gets older and you want to potty train them, they might not be interested. With a disposable diaper or Pullup, they can't feel the wetness so they are not uncomfortable. So they see no need at all to use the potty. My daughter was almost 4 before she was fully trained. But again, those food allergies might be a factor because with a dairy allergy in particular, the child can't always tell when they need to go.

I don't know that cloth diapers are any more cost effective, although this would vary depending on your situation. At the time, we weren't paying a water or electricity bill so washing them for me was only a matter of time and laundry soap. But if you are paying those bills you'd have to factor that in.

[daisyduke]

Thank you all for the replies! Can you please tell me which brands are good? I have no idea where to start. Also, did you wash with baking soda and vinegar? Did you use regular detergent? Thanks again!

[Veganforlife]

Cloth - without a doubt. Think about it. Would you want your bottom half wrapped in a plastic/paper combo, filled with who knows what garbage type chemicals?
There are many on-line, eco-friendly cloth diaper places.

[Veganforlife]

My daughter has used Fuzzi bunz - which your child can grow into. She loves them. She's also used Wonderoos, but had some elastic issues with them.
I know she washes them w/regular detergent, but NO fabric softener.
Do a google search for cloth diapers. Get the kind your child will grow into. You will save money on the long run!
Here's a link to Fuzzi Bunz:
http://fuzzibunz.com/

[Amberly]

When I was a baby I was in cloth. It's funny, because I have been around dozens and dozens of babies in my family, and have never seen one in a cloth diaper. Even my sister was in disposable. I was allergic.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Cloth - without a doubt. Think about it. Would you want your bottom half wrapped in a plastic/paper combo, filled with who knows what garbage type chemicals?
There are many on-line, eco-friendly cloth diaper places.

Right on sister!

You know, I can say the same for feminine sanitary products!

I cannot wear those ghastly disposable pads, they are sweaty and bunch up and they are just downright uncomfortable! I use some really lovely cloth pads that snap in place - LOVE THEM! They are so comfy - I feel sorry for the babies that have worn plastic diapers - although I think they have come out with more comfortable ones these days - still I don't know what can even come close to cotton or hemp.

[SNMB]

I've never had a kid but I have had my fair share of cloth diapers. When I was a baby, my mom started a diaper service. We got a giant commercial washer and a giant commercial dryer installed in our garage and she had THOUSANDS of diapers. They were all around us and you'd have to dig through the clean ones waiting to be folded to get to the normal clothes after a load went through. (I also used to bring my friends into the dryer and we'd sit on either side and rock back and forth. Fond memories but probably not the best idea for a child.) She used these diapers on me but I'm not sure how they were to use. However, it does seem like the cleanup would be nice - it was a weekly service and she just picked up a plastic bag full of poopies from each house. She later sold it to another woman. We found all the diapers we could to give to the woman (and it was many thousands) but some hid and for years we had stacks of diapers that we used for rags and, yes, napkins (It happened quite often that a guest would come over and ask if we had a paper towel and we'd say, no, but we have a diaper.).

As far as the newer diapers go, I have had more experience. I've done a lot of babysitting for my neighbors and they've used the newer fitted cloth diapers on both their kids. The ones they used snapped and then were covered with a waterproof cover that also snapped. To clean, they had a bathroom right next to the laundry/changing room and they'd just toss the diapers poop side down into the toilet (It helped that this was a secondary bathroom that no one really used.). Within 20 minutes the poop would have fallen off the diaper and into the toilet water, and they could just scoop the diaper out and flush the rest. It seemed so easy and they were able to survive with far fewer diapers - around 12 for 2 kids.

[daisyduke]

Sharon - Do you mind telling me about the cloths that you use? THanks!

[Sharon in Colorado]

Sharon - Do you mind telling me about the cloths that you use? THanks!

Here's the link http://stores.ebay.com/Baby-Dreams-Boutique-dot-COM_Cloth-Menstrual-Pads_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ3QQftidZ2QQtZkm It is called Baby Dreams Boutique and there are quite a few wacky designs, I get the plainest and darkest ones!

I also use The Keeper, which is a menstrual cup. The Diva cup is another cool one to check out.

[Veganforlife]

If this helps any too, my daughter has five children - ages 14, 13, 10, 6 and 1.5, five boys and finally a girl (YAY), so she is a super busy Mom, but bundled her babies' bums in cloth. If SHE could do it - ANYONE could do it.
As for sanitary pads? Those days are done - YAY (again). But I would surely be NOT using those ghastly products out there nowadays! :eek:

[RowanC]

Gosh, I'm just old... :::laughing::: and this post made me realize it. When my kids were born, we had no choice. I used cloth and washed them by HAND.. yes, by HAND. I lived in the Caribbean and we had no washing machine. There was a laundry space in the middle of the neighborhood where all the maids went to do laundry for the rich people (and their own). They taught me to wash "on my hands" and I've never been so proud as to see those blazing white diapers hanging in the sunshine.

Today is different. Moms (and dads) are too busy to wash by hand. But you do have washing machines, which make the job a lot easier.

First of all, they're not really that messy unless the kid poops. When that happens, you just rinse out the diaper in the toilet, then put it in a diaper pail full of water and some type of cleaning agent. In the old days, I used washing soda and/or bleach. Today we know bleach can be bad for the environment, so you may want to use vinegar or just plain water.

You have to wash the diapers every two or three days or the pail begins to stink, especially if you don't rinse out the diapers good. But it's worth it not to have your baby exposed to the horrible chemicals they put in the diapers these days. They even are using pearls of something that absorb the urine.... RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR NEWBORN BABY's tender genital area.

When my first was a few months old, they came out with Pampers and the first time we used them, he got big old blisters filled with pus, all over his bum. Toxic as heck. Nope.. not me... I'd use cloth.

Besides that.. there's the issue of disposables filling up the landfills. I can see archaeologists 3000 years from now trying to figure out what the heck we did with all those plastic thingies.. hats? shoe covers? ????
They just sit there and do not return to the earth.

Anyway.. if you're home and can do it, I vote for cloth. They're a heck of a lot cheaper in the long run, they're better for your baby's health, they give you 'hands on' experience (handling your child's output won't hurt you... really), and they smell and feel so nice compared to paper/plastic.

Rowan

[Amberly]

Those cloth pads, what do you do when you are out somewhere, if they are reusable you wouldn't want ot toss it, right? What do people do?

[Helen Of Tennessee]

My grandson wears Fuzzi Bunz. We get them from:

http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/fuzzibunz.htm

On a rare, rare occasion we will use disposables, like when flying and no access to a washing machine and not wanting to carry around soild diapers. Once to their destination, he goes right back to the cloth diapers.

The website above should answer a lot of your questions.

We have a large diaper pail (tall trash can with the foot pedal that you step on.), we put tall kitchen trash bags in it. We throw about 20 at the bottom so when we pull out the bag full of dirty diapers, there's another bag right at the bottom to open up and fill up again.

When Bryson soil's his diaper we just let the poo poo drop in the toilet. If it's soft and sticking to the diaper, then we just use toilet paper and wipe it off. We than squirt the diaper with Biokleen Bac-Out stain & odor eliminator that we get from Wild Oats, then drop the diaper into the diaper pail.

When it comes time to wash, we use Biokleen detergent and just wash them. Those that come out clean get dried, the others we soak in a product that is more natural, that we get from Wild Oats, that is like the powder Oxi-Clean, and soak them for 3 or 4 hours then rewash.

We have been very happy with the cloth diapers, but it's time for him to potty train . . . 3yrs and 2 months. Yep . . . it's time.

[Ildikob]

Daisyduke,

I have used cloth in the beginning for my baby and we liked it. There is a diaper service in our city and that made it way easier. Washing it on your own in the beginning with a newborn can be very hard, so if you have the service available do not even think about it just go for it.

Later, around the time she was 4 months we started EC (elimination communication) and that reduced our need of diapers significantly. We also at that point started using Seventh Generation disposable diapers and they were great. Going out I prefered using paper to cloth cause I just could not imagine her sitting in wet, cold cloth diapers when I had no access to changing her as frequently as I wanted to. Many people may not know this but newborns pee as often as every 20-30 minutes when awake and even older quite often. I have seen many cloth diapered babies sitting in the same diapers for hours and that can not be very comfy. At least the paper absobrs a lot.

Just my two cents.
Ildiko

[prana]

The cloth pads are put into a small waterproof bag, kind of like a cosmetic bag. Check out lunapads.com or http://www.diaperware.com/mooncare/mooncare.htm for more information. Cloth is all I use.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Those cloth pads, what do you do when you are out somewhere, if they are reusable you wouldn't want ot toss it, right? What do people do?

Amberly when I'm out I still use the cloth, but I usually use it as a back up to a mentrual cup so there's not a lot of mess. I still do keep some of the disposible ones so if I'm away on a trip, I'll have to use them (haven't really had that happen so far), even though they are uncomfortable.

The cup holds 2 ounces of fluid, and doesn't have to be changed for 12 hours in most cases.

[caramba]

Nappies (Ok...diapers..!)...I soaked in water & white vineagar and washed with about 1 tbsn of detergent (of sometimes none) and they were fine. Actually, you can also dry pail (no water) if you like.

I use the mooncup (menstrual cup)...basically thought if bubs were in cloth, why was I still using "disposables" for myself...LOVE my mooncup, can't imagine EVER using the other stuff they market to women and have never had any hassles with it...

[iluvcacao]

I switched this year and have way less cramps than before. I know I am not the only one to have this bonus! I wash them in washing machine. My favorites have come from some of the stores on www.hyenacart.com. You can look by product type and then the stores that sell stuff for Mom. I am so much more comfortable with soft velour pads than the papery, noisy, crinkly disposable pads :)