Diaper Wars
Tuesday, October 03, 2006

DH and I have been discussing how we're going to handle our approach to stocking up on cloth diapers before the baby's born. Just for a little bit of background, I don't think he's quite as convinced as I am that cloth diapering is the best choice. He seemed more accepting of it when I first brought it up, but now it seems he's having doubts. I'm not surprised, though. You see, every time he tells a friend or a family member about our choice to cloth diaper, he gets a negative reaction.....EVERY SINGLE TIME. I expect that. Of course, when you tell a person who has used nothing but disposables on their children that you plan to cloth diaper, you're going to get negativity. It only makes sense that someone who chose an easier route would feel threatened by someone's choice to do the same thing in a more labor-intensive way because they don't understand why. I suppose people's negative reactions about cloth diapering tend not to sway me as much because I've done so much reading on the subject and met so many moms online that swear by cloth diapering. I guess since DH doesn't have the encouragement of reading posts and testimonials from people who have REALLY MADE IT WORK, it's easy for him to only see the negative that nay-sayers spew at him.

Labels: cloth diapering

posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 7:55 AM,

8 Comments:

At Tue Oct 03, 09:43:00 AM CDT, Danielle said...: Hang in there sista! You'll hear it all from folks who haven't even used cloth, they'll act like they know what's best for you. "You'll give up", "They'll stink", "They leak", "It's hard work", blah, blah, blah.

If it was hard, I wouldn't do it. I'm lazy. It's not something I'm proud of but there it is.

Breatfed pooh can be runny and seedlike but yeah, you just wash it, no rinsing. Washing machines of today are a beautiful thing and get those dipes clean. When you start introducing solids, then you'll use a diaper sprayer, spray that crap in the toilet, put the dipe in a bucket with a lid and then when you're ready to wash, dump it in the wash. Easy peasy.

You've read it all, but paper diapers leak and when Max was a little guy, we weren't hooked on cloth yet and he would always have these blowouts up his back with paper diapers. Yucko!!! I didn't have one blowout once we started using cloth on him at 5 months old. He was exclusively breastfed till he was 11 months and then I started introducing solids. Your baby may eat solid food sooner but the process is the same.

Am I going to use the paper diapers from the hospital and stuff people give me on my newborn? Heck yeah. It's free and then when those run out, I'll have my soft beautiful newborn, small diapers to put on my sweet little one. I'm so excited! The key to the breastfed pooh and cloth diapers is getting covers with gussets. I learned that when Max was 5 months old. The breastfed pooh is a bit runny but those covers keep everything in.
Before Max started solids, his pee didn't even stink. So his pee diapers I just put in an open basket until wash. His poops I think I actually did the same for awhile. Breatfed pooh, smells like popcorn. You'll see.

Anyway, cloth is better. It's easy. You just have an extra 3 loads of laundry a week and like you said, you'll be home to do it. How freakin' hard is it to throw something in the washer turn it on and walk away?

Anyway, have hubby put a clothes line up for you for next summer and you can line dry the dipes. Dry them for like 15 minutes to loosen the fibers and then line dry them. They won't be as stiff that way and you'll save money on electricity. You'll line dry your own clothes too. It's fun.

Freezer meals. There are a ton of recipes online and I have a PDF file of some compiled if you are interested, but I don't know how to get them to you without an e-mail. I would write more, but I feel bad for blogging in your comments! :o)
At Tue Oct 03, 10:42:00 AM CDT, Anonymous said...: Ugh, I know that this is am improbability, but do we have the same MIL??? CD aside, mine actually tried to give mine a bottle and was shocked that he wouldn't take it! Um, he HAD NO IDEA what it was...

I did not CD, a move I regret now but thankfully the little ones potty trained at by 2 so they spared me long years of buying diapers.

Ok, off my little soapbox.

~Shawna Lee
http://shooflypieandgrits.blogspirit.com/
At Tue Oct 03, 10:46:00 AM CDT, Danielle said...: A good gussetted wrap is proraps, so I've heard. I actually went to my local Babies R Us and got some gussetted wraps by "Especially for Baby" and they worked great. Unfortunately, they don't carry them anymore at my store, so I will be getting proraps for my newborn. How many is a great question. If they get poop on them, you have to completely wash them, but if they are just wet with pee, you use a new one and let that one dry. I have one newborn bummis that I'll use and then I'm probably going to get 4 or 5 prowraps...so you'll probably be fine with 6. You can always buy more if you need them, but you probably won't.

I'm trying to think how often I changed Max when he was new. I think I changed him just about every feeding and at first we went through about 12-14 diapers a day. Depending on how often you want to wash, you could do good with 3 dozen I would think. That way, every 2 days or so you wash and you still have dipes to get you through. I wouldn't get 4 dozen. I think you'll have plenty with 3, plenty. I only have like 10 newborn prefolds now, so I'm going to get another dozen and then use some fitted I've made. If I need more I can always order more.

When baby grows out of the newborn prefolds you can use them as stuffers for pocket dipes if you buy or make them. Cut you a couple of fleece liners and then you can trifold the newborn dipe and lay a liner over it and lay it in a cover when baby is older and bigger.

I'm going to use the angel fold mostly cause that is what I did with Max and it creates a tiny pooh pocket in the back that helps keep the pooh on the dipe and off the cover. Notice I say help, because with runny pooh, you will have poopie covers sometimes.

As far as how much a baby weighs at six months, is totally going to very. How big were you and hubby at that age? That may give you some idea, but your baby may have chubby or skinny thighs, be long or short...the cool thing about prefolds is that you will learn how to fit them just right on your baby so all those variables don't matter as much.

The thing is, you are young and probabaly want more than one child, so these dipes won't be wasted. You'll use them on the next baby and essentially, with breastfeeding and cloth diapering, your second baby will be free (except for midwives expenses). Think of this as an initial investment of $100 give or take and that you would spend that much in the first 2 months of your baby's life paper diapering anyway. You can't lose. You can always ebay your dipes, but I'd keep them for the next one.

I was going to mention that if the company isn't carrying the size you need in covers right now, you may contact them and ask them if they will be getting some in by next April so you can order from them. They may actually just order six for you if you ask them to.

Are you going to make your own wipes? The combo that I like the best is sherpa (90% cotton if you can get it) or terry on one side and flannel on the other. That way you get a cute print on one side and texture for cleaning off pooh on the other. Do you have a serger? We just use plain water and cloth wipes. You can make a fancy solution that smells good if you want, but water is good enough.

Detergent, I've used everything from Tide, to Era, to Purex, to All free and clear, to Arm and hammer...the key is to only use like a Tablespoon and make sure there are no suds in the last rinse.

Be careful in wiping baby's newborn bum, becuase you can easily wipe their skin so hard it gets like rug burn.

I hope your hubby changes diapers, but if he doesn't you'll live. My husband only changed maybe 20 diapers that first year. He still only changes maybe 2 or 3 a week now. I don't say that to make him look mean, but to encourage you that you can do this, even if it is just you with the workload.
At Tue Oct 03, 10:57:00 AM CDT, Danielle said...: Okay, for poopie diapers I use an old bucket that used to have dishwashing soap in it. I use it cause it is only about 3 gallons and it has a lid and sits right next to the toilet. No water, just dry pail. Poopie dipes and wipes go in, lid goes on tight.

For pee dipes I just use a diaper pail with a flip top lid. No bags or anything. You can rinse out the pail anytime you want and no extra cost for liners. I think I paid like 10 bucks for it at Babies R Us.

When Max was a little exclusively breatfed guy, I just used a laundry basket. Breastfed pee and poopies don't stink, so I just layed the soiled dipes in the basket and washed every two days.

I use burt's bees herbal defense ointment because I contacted the company and it is the exact formula as the diaper rash cream but you get .5 oz more for a dollar less. I also got a ton of them on the website at the "outlet" for like under $4 bucks and it doesn't create a repelling barrier on the dipes, like other ointments do.

Keep asking away, because I'm sure I know more I just can't think of it till you ask.
At Tue Oct 03, 11:31:00 AM CDT, Rebekah said...: Danielle said everything I could ever say. :0) Justw anting to reassure you that cloth is EASY PEASY!!! I am a lazy gal and I love cloth. If you can splurge at anytime on dipes, I recommend Kissaluvs fitted diapers. Abigail is 10 months old and is wearing the same size she did when she was a NB. Granted she is petite, but there are so many snaps that they last a long time. Lots of room for growth. Also, the have a snap that snaps down from the top for the cord to heal.

Check out MDC's trading post for deals on covers. I got 3 Bumpy covers for 16 bucks and they are *awesome*. YAY!! ::squeals:: I'm so excited for you and your soon-to-be CD'd baby.
At Tue Oct 03, 06:16:00 PM CDT, Danielle said...: Nice getting your dipes for $100. I may check out her prices for prefolds and proraps for me!

Fuzzi bunz are nice but I would not use them in the breastfed pooh stage just because they can gap at the leg and you may have some messes. Eventually, you may want to buy a few and you'll have time to see how big your babe is going to be and such. We do use fuzzi bunz and have been since Max was about 1 years old (intermingled with the pocket fitteds and covers and prefolds). But Max has been in a size medium and will be till he potty trains, so the investment was totally worth it to me and I got them for $8 a piece which you may be able to find some used ones on ebay eventually. If you put back $5 a week from when baby is born, by the time you need some new dipes you'll have a bit of savings just for that purpose. And then you may be able to splurge some! :o)

Nice thing is I really only have to buy some newborn stuff for the new baby. The rest of Max's diapers will be good for the new baby.

Keep your pins in a bar of soap, because it makes them easy to slide into the dipe that way.
At Tue Oct 03, 06:47:00 PM CDT, Danielle said...: I went to her website and just for fun put your order in to see what it would cost and with 40 infant cpf's, 4 packs of dritz pins, 2 snappi packs and 5 proraps, it should only cost you like $82.50. Where did the $98 come from, did I miss something?
At Mon Oct 09, 11:17:00 AM CDT, Jodi said...: Hang in there. I switched to cloth when my little man was 7 months. Even after comparing the two, I couldn't go back!
With your husband, I think he will deffinitely get excited about it. Mine is. He admitted that it is about 10% more difficult (and he changes a lot of diapers). Not a bad percentage for all the bennefits.
Another thing, once you start seeing their cute little tooshies running around in the cloth, try putting a disposible on. SO DISGUSTING LOOKING!
The time thing? Not a factor. Try running to the store at midnight because you are out of disposables! I would rather just do a load of laundry.
One more thing: try this sight out...it is GREAT!
diaperswappers.com
You can buy new, used, and everything that is out there! I suggest trying a couple different types. I do bumpkin all in ones and whatever my sister donates to me!