Cloth Diaper Review

I entered the cloth diaper ring around Liam's first birthday. I was a little hesitant at first simply because anything new kind of freaks me out, but the idea of saving money was the catch for me. I've heard so many people not into disposables say they were too hard, messy, too expensive, etc... I'm no expert, but I can give you my experience and thoughts on this here blog thingy.

Liam has very sensitive skin, I had tried all kinds of diapers on him, but found Pampers swaddlers, then cruisers was the only way I could go. I didn't always have a coupon when diapers were in need, so I often bought at full price...ouch! I saw a write-up on one of the blogs I follow, and began my research. I had also talked with my Mom, who did cloth diapers with 4 very sensitive bot.toms. One of my friends does cloth diaper, and she loaned me several diapers to try (All-In-One - AIOs). This gave me a good sense of what it would be like from diapering to washing with the nicer brands.

Feeling like I was entering the ring on the late side, and not knowing if we'll have any more children to make the expensive diapers worthwhile, I felt prefolds were the best way to go. I made my initial investment with a 'package deal' of 6 prefolds, two Bummis breathable wraps, and a snappi. It was a very inexpensive way to try out the cloth diapering thing. A couple weeks later (6 diapers was NOT enough to make it worth it), I bought 6 contour diapers (they look like disposables, but need a wrap/cover and a snappi to fasten), 1 additional wrap and two fuzzibunz pocket diapers. With a dozen + 2 diapers I finally felt like I could do the diapering thing and wash every third day...not a problem. I didn't invest in any of the fun accessories they have for cloth diapering these days, since I am trying to keep it simple. Poo.py diapers were always a pain, and quite frankly disgusting to clean. I kept justifying it in my mind that every time I was cleaning another po.o, I was saving money.

My dear husband, although fine with me spending the money for diapers, was NOT on board to change and clean the diapers. So, our initial agreement was for me to use cloth during the day, and use disposables at night. This was fine for a while, then eventually he began learning how to use the cloth and would change the cloth, but refused to clean po.o. This was fine, until I was gone for an evening and Liam was NOT in a disposable, and decided then to make his finally po.o for the evening. Albert was stuck, unless he wanted to leave the diaper lying around in wait for me to get home (hours later). He took on the grotesque job! I'm so proud!

The next morning he told me of his feat, and I couldn't have been more surprised AND happy! He then told me after his experience he purchased a mini-shower sprayer to assure that neither he NOR I would ever have to dunk a diaper into a toilet again...YUCK! What a great man!

My sprayer arrived the other night, and Albert installed it. I loved cloth diapering for the money saved, as well as the results on Liam's sensitive bot.tom. I love it now, because the disgusting issues are no longer a problem, and I can enjoy the ease of cloth diapering.

We still use disposables when we're out (especially at church, where someone else would change Liam), and at night so the disposables still need to be purchased. To try to quantify what my actually spending is on disposables each month, I wrote the purchase date on my calendar. It has been three weeks with a pack of 52 diapers. That's just shy of 2.5 diapers per day. Liam usually goes through 6-8 diapers per day, so we are making a significant difference that way. I think over time I will purchase more diapers so that I'm not having to do as much laundry, therefore cutting down on the water/gas/electricity usage for washing.

Overall I'm very happy we switched. I have had a few leaks, but only because I left the diapers on entirely too long for any type of diaper. I'm always wanting to learn more about care for and better ways to be more efficient with cloth.

So there you have it! I'd love for more people to join the cloth diapering world, so I hope this encourages those of you with the slightest of interest!