Transitioning to Cloth Diapers (Part 1)
Miss J has apparently decided that she has no interest in being potty trained by the time the new baby comes, which had been my goal.
In the interest of everyone’s sanity, I have decided to let the issue go, and go back to the potty training philosophy that actually matches the rest of my parenting model: She will be ready at some point, and then it will happen naturally.
One thing I decided, though, was that the $40/month or so for disposable diapers had to stop - especially in light of the fact that it would shortly be doubling. At that rate, it seemed like I could pretty quickly amortize the hefty-seeming startup cost of making the move to cloth diapers.
I did cloth with Nick for a while, but used a diaper service. I just tossed all the diapers and (cloth) wipes into the pail, and once a week (or was it twice?) they came by and swapped out the dirty ones for a bag of clean ones. POOF.
No “poof” in Homestead, Florida, I’ve come to understand, so I’m on my own. I’ll actually have to deal with rinsing stuff off in the potty, and laundering it all … and of course with our electric dryer, I’ll definately want to be line-drying something as thick as diapers - which means I’ll need to have a larger stock and/or do laundry more frequently, since the laundering process will take longer.
It didn’t take me long to get a little overwhelmed… There are SO many options out there these days, things that weren’t even dreamed of when I did this over a decade ago!
Prefolds, Fitted, Pocket Diapers, AIO, Bio-Friendly, DSQ, bleached or unbleached, knitted soakers, pins or clips or Snappis… Whew!
I’ll keep you posted - and in the meantime, all advice is welcome!
A full-time RV family shares their adventures - homeschooling two kids, running a home business on the road, life in an RV, interesting travel and dining experiences, you name it...
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January 24th, 2008 at 11:14 am
LOL! I did cloth for awhile with my oldest when we were very poor :-), but I’m laughing cuz I have no idea what half the diaper options you mentioned are!! Boy, do times change! I’ll be interested to hear which way you go. Too bad about the diaper service, though. I always thought that would be the ideal way to do cloth. Oh well. Sorry, but there’s no advice here. I mainly used them for burp rags and hankies.
January 26th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Hey Tiffany! A couple of things that you mentioned made me ponder. One, the laundry process taking longer when you cloth diaper, and two, hanging your diapers to dry since you have an electric dryer. I cloth diapered two children when I was just starting out, and washing the diapers didn’t affect our laundry process at all. I usually did them at night. They do take longer to wash than a typical load of laundry, but if you do them at a different time, it’s quite manageable. And I’ve always had an electric dryer. I’m all for hanging out diapers to dry, but I’m not sure how the type of dryer affects whether or not you should use the dryer. You mention “thick diapers” but if you choose something like pockets, they dry very quickly. Keep in mind, also, that if you are in Florida, things don’t dry quickly on the line. I remember going to swim meets in FL growing up. We would hang our towels on the hotel balcony to dry overnight, and the next morning they would be sopping wet! Anyway, have fun saving money!
January 28th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Hey, I discovered your website because of the blog carnival. I’ve been using motherease diapers for almost 9 years and I love them. I wrote a review if you’re interested in reading it. You can find it at my natural birthing site at http://birthingwithguinever.com/2007/02/03/why-i-use-mother-ease%c2%ae-cloth-diapers/
January 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I have three children and have cloth diapered all of them (although I used disposables for awhile when I had two in diapers.) For my firstborn I spent a lot of money on 100% cotton prefolds from Green Mountain diapers, and although they were very good, I learned with babies#2 and 3 that plain old Gerber prefolds from Target were about half the price, just as absorbent and durable, and a bit lighter weight. (I still have them in the closet in hopes of baby #4!) They are not 100% cotton, which I suppose is a negative in terms of an all natural diaper, but they dry in the dryer MUCH better — a normal cycle will do it. Another must have item as far as I am concerned are Snappi fasteners…makes prefolds as easy as velcro. Alexis Featherlite nylon pants are cheap, light, and my favorite diaper cover; I think Green Mountain still carries them. I have also used wool soakers and they really do work well. They are quite expensive, but if you can knit, you can make your own; there are free patterns on the internet. There is also an item out there which attaches to the faucet at the back of your toilet; I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s basically a little hose with a hand sprayer to rinse the poop off the diapers.
You might look into infant potty training; it is a great opportunity to get in touch with your baby’s natural rhythms, make the potty learning process much easier down the road, and it will save you some diaper washing in the bargain. I wrote about it on my blog awhile ago:http://refincher.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/favorite-baby-and-toddler-books-n-stuff/
January 30th, 2008 at 7:44 am
I use BumGenius one-size pocket diapers. They’re switching to a new style, so the old style’s on sale everywhere right now. If you get enough of these, you can use ONE diaper for both kids, and it will continue to be relevant as your little one grows.
I throw a load in every other day or so. I pre-rinse, wash, rinse, and rinse again. I dry on medium for about 20 minutes, then pull the covers out and dry the inserts on high using the auto-dry feature. I’m gonna guess another hour?
You probably want to pick up some kissaluvs and covers for the newborn phase, though I only bought a 1/2 dozen dipes and 3-4 covers and used the BG for the rest. They work, they’re just a little ridiculous on a 9 lb babe.
Anyway, it’s a lot easier than you think.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I diapered my two sons and one daughter in cloth full time. I chose simplicity over modern so that meant using standard flat cloth diapers with pins and rubber pants.
It was easy. At the time my sister was diapering her children in cloth, and that was a moral booster for both of us. Just knowing someone else is doing the same is comforting.
I had 4 or 5 dozen diapers, a bunch of safety pins, and a mess of rubber pants. Never ran out of diapers, and never had to buy diapers.
Besides back in my high school days I babysat often, and most of the kids I took care of wore cloth diapers, so I really looked at cloth diapering as the only way to diaper when the time the came.