Pros/Cons to cloth diapering

[american_mama]

The last post in this link is a helpful and complete list of pros and cons, http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/...dictive&page=4.

IGNORE the original post, which is an inaccurate and poorly researched list of pros and cons. Just read the last post on page 4.

[KrisM]

Pros:
I already own them
Easier to do laundry than shop, most times

Cons:
laundry.

Laundry is my huge hurdle now. Three kids and 2 adults just go through too many clothes, towels, sheets, etc every week and adding diapers is hard. I did laundry Sunday and still haven't put away the clothes yet. So, we're about 50/50 for cloth/sposies. I'm okay with that these days

As for scraping poop, I use Imse Vimse flusable liners with cloth. I should probably use them with sposies too, huh? Would make it easier! The liners just lay in the diaper and I would dump the whole thing in the toilet. If it was pee only, it goes in the diaper pail. I can use 1 liner 2 or 3 times before it's shredded.

[nikamama]

I did want to add my 2 cents into the mix. Personally, I'd definitely try but wouldn't invest more than $100 initially. I tried CDing with my DD, and although I feel like I did get my money back in sposie savings, I eventually had to give up the effort. My DD had incredibly sensitive skin and although we tried two different brands, would get a nasty rash every time we'd use the CD, without exception. And yes, we did everything that all of the experts suggest in terms of cleaning, lotions, etc. We talked to our pediatrician and she said that some kids just do better with the disposables.

[maestramommy]

Pros:

As for scraping poop, I use Imse Vimse flusable liners with cloth. I should probably use them with sposies too, huh? Would make it easier! The liners just lay in the diaper and I would dump the whole thing in the toilet. If it was pee only, it goes in the diaper pail. I can use 1 liner 2 or 3 times before it's shredded.

I would LOVE to do this, but we have private septic, and we can't throw anything down there except TP. It's why I never tried G diapers.

Actually, the one long essay I read about water usage for cloth was not done by a diaper company. It was written by someone who tried to study both sides, called "Cradle to Grave." I'll have to dig it out. We read through this before Dora was born, trying to decide whether or not to CD.

[wellyes]

I tried it for about 6-7 months using mostly BumGenius AIOs.

Pros:
Felt good about doing it
DiaperSwappers.com is a fun community
Enjoying trying different dipes

Cons:
ENORMOUS amounts of laundry including multiple rinses = tons of water use = not that "green"
I believe it shortened the life of my front-load washer
Expensive compared to disposables since I didn't keep it up over multiple years/kids

If you love it, great! But be aware that the laundry issue isn't *just* the extra time.

I'd probably try again if there was a diaper laundry service in my area.

ETA: I never liked the liners. To me the whole point was having soft fabric against baby's skin, and the liners interfere with that. The poop scraping isn't TERRIBLE but it can be a little gross. Not a big enough reason for me to stop using cloth, but I definitely don't miss it (particularly for big but not-very-solid BMs).

[vonfirmath]

another pro of cloth- less leaks, if u use it right. i have had leaks with huggies disposables and other brands, but i don't thik ive ever had a leak with cloth. they hold a lot.

No. They don't. Evidence: All the people posting on cloth diaper boards about trying to get their absorbency in their cloth diapers just right. And trying to figure out nighttime absorbency.

I had WAY more leaks in cloth diapers than disposables. The only time disposables leak for us is when my son has diarrhea. The cloth was leaking every time we turned around. This and the stink issues we had after about 6 months of using, and could not get past no matter how much stripping and washing and rewashing and doing the proper dances at the washing machine, was why we stopped using cloth.

I might do cloth diapers again -- but only prefolds that one doesn't have to worry about what you put in with them because they are just cloth. and they really can be reused afterword, as dusting clothes, etc. Because again, they are just cloth.


Another con to cloth: You have to change the diapers MUCH more frequently. Pretty much everytime the kid pees, you need to change the diaper. My son HATED that. He hated having to take that much time out of his play time to get his diaper changed.

Con: (That I hope would be solved by prefolds) Having to be careful what diaper cream I used when my son had a rash. The stuff taht really works for him -- Butt Paste -- could not be used with our cloth diapers so I ended up switching to disposables to get the rash taken care of, then back to cloth, then back to disposables with the next rash. Etc.
And as time went on, it seemed like he was getting more and more rashes in cloth! So he was actually IN the disposables more of the time.

[larig]

I use cloth, but I use prefolds. DS has sensitive skin and really doesn't do well in disposables, so we've used cloth (at first we had a cloth diaper service) since he was born (I suspected he'd have the problem as I had it myself as a baby). We use disposables when we travel, for convenience, and I'm always happy to get back to my cloth.

I love prefolds and covers. I think it's a super flexible way to diaper, I can layer in as much as I need to be absorbent depending on the situation.

I did a lot of reading at the diaperpin and green mountain diapers before I bought what we use currently, which is (for a 20 month old) 24 organic unbleached brown edge prefolds from green mountain diapers ($80), 6 green edge toddler sized white ones (night time) ($15?), about 6 hemp doublers (night) ($15); 4 thirsties duo covers and 4 thirsties v.2 covers ($90), 2 pail liners ($30). For an infant I'd have way more diapers, like 48 or so. I wash ever other day. Put the diapers in and make sure the wash is done before I go to bed, so I can hang up the covers (which I don't dry in the dryer every time to make them last longer) and have them dry in the morning.

As far as the environment goes, I think that it's not as clear cut as people assume in terms of the positive or negative environmental impact of cloth diapers. Bill Nye did a segment on his show last year about this. He concluded that there wasn't much difference, but that if you're using disposables using unbleached ones will make a big difference. For us, the amount of money that it would cost us to pay for the disposables to be collected in our city was going to be high, so it was a typically uncalculated cost of disposables (garbage costs in our city are HIGH!)

If you go with cloth. I found this cool DIY version of the poop sprayer mentioned above (which runs about $36).
http://gidgetgoeshome.com/2008/08/25...iaper-sprayer/

[AnnieW625]

I use cloth, but I use prefolds. DS has sensitive skin and really doesn't do well in disposables, so we've used cloth (at first we had a cloth diaper service) since he was born (I suspected he'd have the problem as I had it myself as a baby). We use disposables when we travel, for convenience, and I'm always happy to get back to my cloth.

I love prefolds and covers. I think it's a super flexible way to diaper, I can layer in as much as I need to be absorbent depending on the situation.

I did a lot of reading at the diaperpin and green mountain diapers before I bought what we use currently, which is (for a 20 month old) 24 organic unbleached brown edge prefolds from green mountain diapers ($80), 6 green edge toddler sized white ones (night time) ($15?), about 6 hemp doublers (night) ($15); 4 thirsties duo covers and 4 thirsties v.2 covers ($90), 2 pail liners ($30). For an infant I'd have way more diapers, like 48 or so. I wash ever other day. Put the diapers in and make sure the wash is done before I go to bed, so I can hang up the covers (which I don't dry in the dryer every time to make them last longer) and have them dry in the morning.

As far as the environment goes, I think that it's not as clear cut as people assume in terms of the positive or negative environmental impact of cloth diapers. Bill Nye did a segment on his show last year about this. He concluded that there wasn't much difference, but that if you're using disposables using unbleached ones will make a big difference. For us, the amount of money that it would cost us to pay for the disposables to be collected in our city was going to be high, so it was a typically uncalculated cost of disposables (garbage costs in our city are HIGH!)

If you go with cloth. I found this cool DIY version of the poop sprayer mentioned above (which runs about $36).
http://gidgetgoeshome.com/2008/08/25...iaper-sprayer/

Lariq, for an infant how many diaper covers did you have? I am planning on doing diaper service pre folds with Thirsties covers?

[edurnemk]

I did want to add my 2 cents into the mix. Personally, I'd definitely try but wouldn't invest more than $100 initially. I tried CDing with my DD, and although I feel like I did get my money back in sposie savings, I eventually had to give up the effort. My DD had incredibly sensitive skin and although we tried two different brands, would get a nasty rash every time we'd use the CD, without exception. And yes, we did everything that all of the experts suggest in terms of cleaning, lotions, etc. We talked to our pediatrician and she said that some kids just do better with the disposables.

My DS got horrible rash with cotton CD's, but does great with bumgenius and happy heiny's since the fleece and microsuede act the same way as a disposable, keeping the moisture away from baby's skin. Also since we used the one size BG's we saved about $1,500 and $700 in wipes, compared to disposables (DH and I are both engineers, so I did my own calculations).

When we travel or go out for long periods we use biodegradable disposables (gDiapers, for example), or at least the chlorine free ones. But we always had more leaks, especially at night with disposables, even huggies. Oh, CD's also worked much better during the explosive poop phase.

I loved the trial program we used ( www.jilliansdrawers.com ) since I got to try several kinds of diapers before comitting to one and spending a lot of money.

With CD's you should change the diaper at least every 3-4 hours, but I do that with disposables, too, because even if it doesn't feel wet, the bacteria and amonia are still there in contact with your baby's skin. So although some posters count the frequency of diaper changes as a con, I don't agree. You should never leave any diaper on your baby for more than 4 hours during the daytime, IMO and my Ped's opinion.

[larig]

Lariq, for an infant how many diaper covers did you have? I am planning on doing diaper service pre folds with Thirsties covers?

I would want to have about 10, but we changed a LOT and I air dried them, and I found that the poo got on the cover more than it does with more solid poops DS is having now.

Our mediums lasted us a LONG time (from about 6-18 months), but I dried them a lot (because I didn't have as many) and they are toast. Our xsmalls and smalls we are handing off to friends.

Loved the diaper service, but now we're trying to find ways to cut out some fat from the budget so we can save for an extravagant trip.