Cloth Diapers

I love cloth diapers!  

I first became interested in cloth diapers when I found out I was pregnant and saw them in Bellybum Boutique, a cute little local store.  I didn't know much about them at the time but was pretty sure I wanted to use cloth instead of disposable simply to save on money.  I had no idea how many other benefits I would find and how much I would love them.

I only knew of one person that had used cloth diapers, great friend Angie Thomas, so I decided to email her and ask about them.  She wrote me an amazingly descriptive email explaining all the different types of cloth diapers, pros and cons of each, washing information, and other things to think about.  At first I found it to be overwhelming.  Tons of new terminology and it was hard to keep it all straight.  After reading and and re-reading the email several times, and finding visuals to go along with each type of diaper, I knew wanted to do cloth for sure.  My next challenge was to get Arnold on board.  Not a small task.

So I did a bit more research, getting actual numbers on how much money we would be saving (about $3000 from birth through potty training, and more if the same diapers were used with the next children), and how the diapers would be better for his skin without the chemicals in disposable diapers.  I put together a spread sheet with pros and cons of using both cloth and disposable diapers, and then a spread sheet comparing different kinds of cloth diapers.  (If you know me this shouldn't surprise you.)  Then, with all my information and my fingers crossed, I sat Arnold down and went over it all.  To my great surprise, Arnold was on board!  I told him I would clean the diapers so he wouldn't have to deal with that part of it, but he said he wouldn't even mind that!  We decided what type of diapers we thought would work best for us, went to a few baby stores several times to look at diapers (because I kept getting confused with all the different types and brands), and then waited until baby J came to buy a few, just in case he was very large and wouldn't fit the newborn diapers.

When J arrived we had several disposable diapers that were given to us, which we were very happy about, and decided to use those up first before moving into cloth.  We figured being first time parents would be such a huge adjustment along with myself healing from the birth, that disposable would be the way to start.  After J got here and it was time to get cloth diapers I decided to get one diaper of seven different brands to see what I liked.  So here's what I got:

• Happy Heinys
• Tots Bots
• Fuzzibunz
• BabyKicks
• Rumparooz
• BumGenius
• Swaddlebees

After a few uses we decided we liked the Fuzzibunz and Tots Bots the most, and went ahead and bought some more.  All of the diapers we got except for the Swaddlebees, which we only have one of, are one-size diapers instead of sized.  This means they fit babies 8-35 pounds and adjust in size.  When Jackson was a newborn they were very bulky on him, as you can imagine, but they did the job!  I loved the Swaddlebees newborn diaper we got but decided not get any of the Swaddlebees one-sized diaper because they are really bulky, much more than the other diapers we have.  I didn't like the way the Happy Heinys and BabyKicks fit, and thought the BumGenius and Rumparooz were OK.  We also picked up a Charlie Banana diaper somewhere along our cloth diapering journey and think that one's OK too.

I'm not going to lie, the transition from disposable to cloth was difficult at first.  It seemed like a hassle to wash and stuff the diapers when they were dry, but after doing it for literally two days, I no longer felt that way and was in love with the cloth.  When Jackson started sleeping through the night we needed to stuff the night time diapers with more inserts so they would last him though the night but we didn't like having to stuff them as we needed them.  I liked having all the diapers prepared and ready to use so we decided to use the Fuzzibunz for night time and all the rest during the day.  We kept them in a different drawer and so we had everything we needed ready when we needed it, without having look through each diaper.  That system worked really well for us until Jackson was about 7 months old.  At that time he started eating more solid foods and the diapers were no longer holding everything in.  He started waking up in the middle of the night with a leaky diaper.  Not good.  So I went back to my favorite store, Bellybum, for some diapering advice.  They advised me to try the Sustainablebabyish diaper, a bamboo/cotton material mix, as opposed to the all cotton diapers I was using, because bamboo is more absorbent.  The entire diaper is made out of bamboo and cotton, instead of just the liner, so we also needed a diaper cover to prevent leakage.  We tried this out and it worked perfectly!  We have hardly had any leaks during Jack's 12 hour nights.  We bought a few more of this combo and have been using them ever since.

I know cloth diapering isn't for everyone.  The initial investment is a lot, with the need to have about 24 diapers at $18 to $25 each.  Once they are purchased though, we are done with spending money on diapers forever!  With cloth you also have to deal with poop more and there is more laundry to do, but we have all the diapers we need and never need to run to the store for any.  There is a lot more to pack when traveling because the diapers take up so much space and there is planning involved when using cloth diapers because they take about a day to dry, and then they need to be stuffed and folded.  We have adjusted to all of that and absolutely love them.  And I know Arnold even loves them because he promotes them to other expecting parents!  Who would have thought?  They are super cute too and Jackson rarely has any diaper rash.  He even helps fold them every once in a while!

Thanks J!