Cloth vs disposable diapers.

[yogiii]

Quality of life? I don't think you're familiar with the newer cloth diapers.

I have 2 waterproof dry bags
Pee - put in bag
Poop - roll into toilet, flush, put in bag.

Go to washing machine, do a rinse cycle - gets off any other stuff
Put in detergent, do a sanitary cycle.
Put in dryer

Pretty simple - it's not like I sit there and twiddle my thumbs and watch while the washing machine works.

[muttleynfelix]

Feb 15, 2011 19:59:32 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

So yea just looking for different peoples opinions and experiences.


We did the disposables with my three boys.

I think it comes to a quality of life issue.
I imagine if you are thinking going cloth, you will be rinsing, washing and sanitizing them yourself? Or will you get a service?
With disposables you just toss them.

But it isn't a lack of quality of life thing with cloth. If you have not used modern cloth diapers, then you really don't have a clue the time difference. For everyday things, it isn't there. For any extra time that I'm spending because it is cloth there is less time I am spending at the store buy disposbles (I don't ever go down the baby aisle when we grocery shop), less time spent taking trash out, etc.

[sbcalimom]

We primarily do cloth diapers for DD who is almost 2. We started with a diaper service that my Grandma got us so that was obviously very low maintenance for us. We started doing the diapers ourselves when she was about 12 months and even living in an apartment without a washer/dryer it isn't that big of a hassle. We currently use Fuzzibunz one size and I really like those. We've tried pre-folds and a variety of wraps which worked really well until she reached about 15 lbs and then the pocket diapers started working a lot better. We also plan to use the cloth with our 2nd due in June so that will also reduce the overall price of the Fuzzibunz as well.

A major reason we've stuck with it through trial and error is because DD cannot wear regular disposable diapers. She instantly gets a horrible rash in normal brands and can only wear eco-friendly disposables that lack a lot of the chemicals but are also very expensive. They also don't come in the larger packages or have the same types of deals so it is very hard to get them cheaper than sticker price. I really think it is a personal choice but it helps to investigate current cloth diapers rather than old ones or what we think of them from our grandparents or parents generations.

[whoisjohngalt]

When I had my first, I didn't even want to hear about disposables. It wasn't even for the money or environment, I just liked the idea of pure cotton touching his body much much better than some chemically induced something. Same with wipes. I got a pack of Bummis diapering kit for 7-15 pounds. It was OK, my kid was small, so lasted me awhile. He was exclusively breastfed, so poop didn't smell too bad. Than when he got older, I got AIO's, spend about $200, but at that point he was eating solids and dear Lord, I just did not want to deal with all the poop - washing it in the toilet, etc etc. Also, I pretty much always had to use disposables during the night, otherwise I would be changing him all night long and I was already sleep deprived as it was.

He is 2.5 now, still not potty trained and you couldn't pay me enough to do CDs with him right now.

With my second, I became a lot less snobby and did disposables right away. First, having two 20 mo apart, the last thing I needed was more laundry. Also, we were living in an apartment and our water bills were HUGE.

So, could I have saved some money? Probably. May be a grand or two. Not to say that it's not a lot of money, but I spend so little on bambinos in general, that it was well worth it to me.

Lena

[mizbear]

I have a friend who loves her cloth diapers- but she is very organized and she is the urban environmentalist. I have very early childhood memories of a cousin who always smelled because he wore cloth diapers. He soaked through and it was yucky.
We used both cloth and disposables on my nieces, but the really high quality CDs that are available now weren't available then and if the girls didn't get changed right away- same as with a disposable- they ran the risk of a rash. We did have to use certain detergents on the diapers to make sure that the kids didn't get any itchies- you ever seen a baby allergic to Dreft?? I have.
whoisjohngalt makes another good point- breastfed baby poop is much more tolerable a smell usually than formula baby poop- especially if said baby has to go through several formula changes.

[econstudent]

Question about cloth diapers: you all talk about rinsing/swishing the poop off in the toilet. How does this work with new baby, breastfeeding baby poop? She has that yellow, almost liquid poop still, and I'm trying to figure out how I would clean it off if I started using cloth. Can that just go in the washing machine?

[mizbear]

econstudent- I don't know how the moms here feel, but as an aunt, I would still rinse the diaper first.
Not all washers are as good as others at poop removal. We always ran a hot bleach cycle after poopy diapers or barfy blankies- but that's us.
And when I lived at my grandmother's- she would have Gibb's slapped me for putting a poopy diaper in the laundry without rinsing first.

[yogiii]

econ - If you are EBF, that poop is water soluable so stuff can just go directly into the washer. It sounds gross but we never had problems. DS was EBF for the first 6 months. We would just do a rinse cycle (which would get most of it off) that would drain and then we'd do the sanitary wash cycle. Once he started solids his poops (most of the time) will roll right off into the toilet and the diaper is actually very clean. Sometimes he'll have a sticky one and I'll just wipe off as much as I can with TP before throwing it in the dry bag. I still do the rinse followed by the sanitary cycle now and have no problems with that.

We have a front loading washer and despite what my DH initially thought pre-baby, it doesn't smell like poop in the washer. Every month we run the clean cycle which just means running the washer empty with some bleach in it to freshen it up

[muttleynfelix]

Breastfed poop goes right in the washer. We actually tried to rinse them out the first couple times and you can't really do it, at least not like solid poop. It is definately water soluable. Just be sure to do a cold rinse cycle first. Then a hot wash and then an extra rinse.

[mizbear]

No sanitary cycle on washers at our houses- and nieces were not EBF- big, big diff.

[yogiii]

mizbear - On our washer, the sanitary cycle is "extra hot", which the manual says is above 120 F (the washer actually heats up the water more than the hot water heater does) and it is followed by a cold rinse at the end of that extra hot cycle. Other washers may have it, just using a different name, not sure. In the manual it actually said the sanitary cycle was for things such as diapers which really surprised me that they even mentioned it. I only know one person IRL that uses cloth diapers so I didn't think it was very common

[muttleynfelix]

mizbear - Yeah, formula and solid poops need to be dunked or rinsed first.

They also make diaper sprayers you can buy or you can make your own, but DH and I haven't seen the need for that.

[mizbear]

I can't have kids- so I spoil everyone else in the family's and hand them back. Most of them are coming out of diapers now- but I am also the oldest of 9 living grandchildren- of which there is a 14 year age gap, so I have seen some major diapertastrophes.
After diapering those kids- there is no way I would use CDs if I had to do it 24-7 LOL!

[suziq38]

We used cloth for the first baby, then cloth and disposables for the second baby.
They were 17 months apart, so we had TWO in diapers.

The cloth diapers were nice because I felt that they were environmentally good and we had a delivery service. It definitely cost more.
We also had to fold the diapers to fit our babies, LOL.

After having two in diapers together, we just got tired of folding. We gave in and gave up the cloth to disposable diapers and were fine.

I started clipping coupons and bought diapers on sale.

[econstudent]

Thanks for the info about washing breastfed baby poop. Now I remember why I don't use cloth diapers--we live in an apartment and share a laundry room, so there is no way to do multiple rinse cycles. I don't think we would be able to get them totally clean.