Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Cloth Diapering so far

pic of my Bug's cute little cloth diapered tush!
Some of our parenting decisions were made automatically for us; cloth diapering and breastfeeding being the biggest. It was VERY important to both of us for me to stay home to raise the bug and for that to happen we had to lessen the cost of having a child. Diapering a child comes with an obscene cost, cloth diapering seemed like the best way to cut that and it has been. Thankfully we had purchased some cloth when we took care of my nieces twins and one of my friends handed me down some of her cloth diapers as her kids outgrew them; so even the cloth diapers didn't really have a significant impact on our budget. Even if we did have to purchase them it really just does make sense financially to go cloth. There are other bloggers who have gone into the cost analysis so I'm not going to do the math, I'll just link up a few here, here and here. I also like the environmental aspect of cloth diapering and appreciate how my frugal choices also tend to be green.

What we didn't realize is that when we left the hospital they would give us TONS of disposable diapers, we literally left with 5 packages. These 5 packages proved to be a great incentive to start with the cloth, we both HATED them. The bug some how leaked so bad that every time we changed him at night we were changing the sheets and his clothes too (some times ours as well).

It was so irritating, and both brands that they gave us let to the same effect. The hubs and I were so happy when we started using cloth because they really held the business in. We honestly haven't even noticed the laundry part of it too much, it works out to be an extra load every 2-3 days and you don't have to fold them!

So yeah, we cloth diaper and it isn't at all horrible like everyone insisted it would be when we were pregnant (all while giving us knowing looks and saying "we'll see how long that lasts"). It just works for us and for the boy, although I could see how if you were working full time or didn't have a washing machine cloth diapering would be hard. Also breastfeeding has its own advantages on cloth diapering so if I was formula feeding I might be singing a different tune.

The one thing that bothers me when people talk about cloth diapering is that they believe you have to buy the fancy expensive diapers. You can go crazy with cloth there are many many different options and some of them cost over $20 a diaper but you can go way cheaper than that. We opted to purchase prefolds, cheap prorap covers
and snappis to secure. Diapering with those options it costs about $50 per size and you can reuse for subsequent children, super cheap!

So what do you do? What made your decision for you?

2 comments:

mama k said...

Finantial reasons here too. :) And like you, I found that they preform really well and are easy to tweak if they don't. They aren't easier than disposables, but they aren't as much work as people seem to think. Above all, it's flexible! When I sprained my ankle, I switched to paper dipes for awhile. No biggie. I'm still saving money b/c I use cloth *most* of the time. Oh and the start up cost for putting kid #2 in cloth was pretty much nothing. Sweet!

Lisa said...

Well with my first child I went with disposable. Partly because of laziness and partly that I never even thought to do cloth diapering. Recently, I have noticed that more moms are going to cloth diapering. My first question isn't so much in regards to laundry as it is to stomaching the mess. Granted I did nurse for a year, but I can only imagine once you start incorporating food...yuck. Maybe I am wrong about this and you can share some experiences with me. I will say this much, your post is making me consider cloth for baby #2 due in 4 1/2 weeks.