Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Cloth Diapers

We made the choice to do cloth diapers for a number of reasons.Babies that ware cloth diapers have fewer diapers rashes and heal from diaper rashes faster
  1. The cost is a big one, they are so much cheeper that disposiables.
  2. I hate having to always buy a product because they are one time use. It has nothing to do with the enviorment, I just hate having to make sure I have something in the house and risking running out of it. Especially something that is costing me a lot of money on a regular basis. I even use reusable nursing pads for the same reason.
  3. We live so far from a Costco that buying diapers at the grocery store is just too expensive and we only make one trip to Costco a month and buying a month supply is too much to put in the car along with everything else we purchase for the month.
  4. Sure it helps the enviorment
So I've been learning a lot about cloth diapers (CD). CD have come a long way since I was a baby. There are so many types, brands, and a huge range of products for cloth diapers. Most of them can only be bought on the internet. One of the best sites I've found is called Diaper swappers, its a CD community with forms and such. You can buy or trade diapers with other mamas. My friend Amber also does cloth diapers, when she heard that I was thinking of doing CD she told me about this site. I'm so glad she did. My username is judeebee, if you get on look me up and put me on your buddy list.
Types of diapers:
  • Flat Folds- these are the traditional CD that your mother may have used on you. Although she used pins and there was always the fear of stabbing your baby. . Now they have these things called snappis. they have claws on them and it holds the diaper together. There are inserts that I use with them to make them more layered and absorbent. These are overall the cheepest way to go. They need diaper covers/wrappers/pastic pants.
  • Fitteds- These have velcro or snaps and fit like a disposibles. Some are adjustable to fit over a long time. The two brands that I have of these are goodmamas and drybees. They also need a diaper cover/wrapper/plastic pants
  • All in ones- They are fitted, have layers to absorab a lot, and are their own cover. I have two brands of these: Lil' Impressions and Kushies Baby. Both that I have have velcro, I prefere snaps because they wash with less ware.
  • Covers- sometimes known as wrappers and also plastic pants. The cheepest are the plastic covers that your parents called as plastic pants, Walmart has them and also Babies 'R' Us. I like the wrapper style more. The cheepest of the wrapper style I have found are the Kushies' brand, you can buy them online at Babies 'R' Us.
I am actually enjoying using CD. The trade for having to clean the diapers myself is totally worth the knowledge that I always have diapers in the house. Tip for doing cloth diapers: keep a spray bottle by the toliet for cleaning off diapers without touching anything or putting your hand in the toliet. I don't think that everyone should exclusively use CD, we don't even do that. We only use CD while at home during the day. If we go out, traveling, or overnight we still use disposibles. But I find comfort knowing that if we were out of disposibles I have the CD for backups. And that is where I think everyone should be, I think everyone should have at least a few CD, not for everyday use, but for emergences, rashes, and year supply. I am just really happy using my CD.

2 comments:

Jen said...

I am glad that you love your cloth diapers! I looked into them a while back and came to the most certain conclusion that I did not want all the clean up. I guess I don't mind keeping stocked up, and with a Costco close by, it isn't hard. I bought diapers there over a month ago and we're still using the same box. I think we'll run out by next week though. But seriously, good for you for making the effort! I bet it helps with expenses and since you actually find it easier, it's win-win for you! I can't believe how big our babies are getting!

Unknown said...

If I have another one, I'd like to give the CD a try. A couple of my sisters use them and love them.