I cloth diaper! Yep, I do! I even make homemade wipes. Don't fall off your chair. Part of the reason is money saving. Part of it (at least in my husband's thinking), is that it is more eco-friendly. When we used disposables, he would occasionally make comments about how we were filling up the landfills. I am NOT the most eco-friendly person. I don't have a grudge against the environment. It just isn't something I think about often.
When my husband suggested cloth diapers when I was pregnant my response was, "are you going to do the laundry?" It was said in such a way that he pretty much knew my answer was NO! I was envisioning these weird squares, safety pins, possibly poking my child, and rubber pants. Oh, those rubber pants! For some reason, the rubber pants equal huge down the leg and up the back messes in my eyes.
Well, lets just say it took about 3 months of going through 16+ disposable diapers a day (and one day it was almost 30 because almost every diaper change was a 2-3 diaper change because our kid likes to go to the bathroom the second she feels air circulate around her bottom) for me to start looking into the cloth version. To humor him - I started doing research. Let me tell you, times have changed. There are sooooo many options for moms in the cloth diaper world. Yes, you can still get the squares and pins with the rubber pants. They even sell these at Target! Yeah, I still am not sold on that kind. But they do make cloth diapers that LOOK like disposables. You can even treat them like disposables in the sense that look and go on a lot like disposables. They even come with cutesy names (not a necessity, but the names make me chuckle). I even have a couple friends who use cloth diapers. Click on their names and you can see their take on the matter.
So this is the kind we use: Rumparooz with snaps
My friend Theresa and her husband uses: Blueberry by Swaddlebees
My co-worker Nick and his wife as well as my friend Sarah and her husband use: Bumgenius
Some things I discovered after I bought these diapers and started using them:
1. I bought WAY too many! I think part of the reason we were going through SOOO many disposables is because the second my daughter got even the slightest bit wet she would demand to be changed. She can unload in a cloth diaper twice before making it known to us that she needs to be changed. I have to remind myself to change her. So my dear husband made a good point when I was saddened by the fact that I bought too many - we can use them on 2 kids at once if God decides to bless us with another kid before this one is completely potty trained.
2. (This is a quote from Sarah said during our daughters' play date) - "No matter how glamorous the people try to make it sound, your kid is still pooping and peeing in them. There is no gold associated with them." This is so true. It is a diaper, not a toy, not a computer. IT IS SOMETHING MY KID USES AS A TOILET! How is that for realism?
3. While doing the research, I wanted a diaper that could be used from birth if we are blessed with another child. So that is why I picked the ones I did - they can be adjusted down to about 6 lbs. My daughter was 6 lbs, 11.6 oz at birth and left the hospital at 6 lbs even. (So much for the 8-9 lbs kid I was told I would be having) I didn't think I would care about colors or patterns. While I do find the patterns a little stupid (my opinion - they just pick designs that I find dumb), I have found myself deciding which color diaper to put on my daughter depending on what she will be wearing. I am not trying to match her toilet to her outfit like it is an accessory, but I think it is a little silly to have a white outfit on and being able to see a bright red diaper below the clothes.
4. Yes, they are a little bit more bulky than disposables. We like to think of it as fluffy butt. After talking to a few friends who have had kids in these kinds of diapers we have learned it did not affect their kid's ability to learn to walk. Contrary to what some family members keep telling me, my research has found that kids can walk and be in a cloth diaper. But to humor them, I will ask her (hypochondriac of a) pediatrician if he thinks I am harming my child by using them.
5. While they do allow for flexibility in the absorbency department, my kid usually requires the max. Even if I changed her 2 hours prior, there are times when she has nearly flooded her diaper. We tried for about 1/2 a day to use just 1 of the absorbency pads (called soakers), but when she flooded out of her diaper 2x that day, I decided I didn't care how much smaller her butt looked with 1 instead of both soakers, she needs both.
6. The laundry isn't so bad. I put them in the pail. When it is full I grab the liner and throw the diapers, and the liner in the wash. I don't have to touch the dirty diapers. We have a couple wet bags that we use when we are out and about. They are completely washable too. They dry pretty quickly. While some websites say you can put them in the dryer, others say you shouldn't because they break down quicker. I decided to err on the side of caution and air dry them.
Ok, and for my final thought. We found out the hard way that our daughter CANNOT handle the Huggies wipes. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer had a less red nose than my kid's butt. She was so chapped and nearly climbed the curtains for about 2 days with every diaper change after we stopped using them. (We only used them with 2 diaper changes before giving the jumbo pack to the in-laws to use on their kid - who tolerates them just fine). She was so miserable. The Sam's brand made her a little red. Pampers sensitive worked well, but they were not very wet and took lots of them to clean her up. My aunt suggested making our own. She gave me the recipe of the ones she used in her day care. They work amazing. No more red butt! And they are about 1/10 the cost. So here it is:
1 roll of high quality paper towels (we use Viva select-a-size) - cut it in half so they are about the width of a normal wipe
3 cups water (warm)
3 tablespoons baby wash
3 tablespoons baby oil
2 large tupperware containers
First thing I do is take the time to separate the paper towels. I also accordion fold them (like you find in the wipes you would buy. This way they are ready to go for the diaper change. Next, mix the liquids together. Put the dry paper towels in the Tupperware containers. (Each container gets all the paper towels from 1/2 the roll) Pour 1/2 the mix over the paper towels in each container. Put the lid on. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Flip over and let sit for 10 more minutes. After that, put next to the changing table.
** Note: diaper warmers (or putting them on the floor board of the car with the heater on) can lead to mold growing on the wipes. Do not make up too many containers at once. They are only "good" for about a month.
So here is the cost break down:
6.99 - 6 pack of Viva Select a Size paper towels (which cut in 1/2 make 12 containers)
0.20 - baby wash (This is about how much it cost to use the small amount out of her shampoo - which I got for free at my baby shower anyway)
0.20 - baby oil (again, 1 container that cost 1.50 that can be used for about 8-12 months worth of wipes)
1.50 - Kroger version of plastic container 3 pack - and completely reusable!
So for under $9 I made 2 months worth of baby wipes. (Not sure how many because I have never counted how many are on a roll and the package doesn't say.) The 80 pack of Pampers Sensitive wipes was about $2.50 and lasted about a week.
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