If you CD...

[ahrimie]

What were your primary reasons for doing so? Is it just environmental or skin issues for DC? Are there other factors? I thought about doing it the first time around but got too overwhelmed. I'm reading through the CD 101 sticky now as I think about our 2nd.

If you want to sway me either way, that's great too!

[lizzywednesday]

We don't primarily CD (though I would, since we've had horrid rash issues with my DD) but we started because my DD was getting every kind of diaper rash under the sun.

After switching to CDs for overnight (yes, I know that's different from a lot of people's CD habits), her rashes have cleared and she sleeps better.

We do Snappi'd prefolds with hemp/fleece doublers and flushable liners under wool pull-ons by Disana.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i started CDing DS and and am now CDing both DS and DD

it started out as a "green" thing..less waste to throw out. there was the $$ savings too (though you don't really get a ton of savings until the 2nd kid really). also my DS was sensitive to a lot of the stuff in disposable dipes

right now, i like it a lot because it looks so cute! the diaper cover prints are adorable. love the "bubble butt" on babies. also its easier for me to hold DD (to put her in a wrap, or whatever) when she has a cloth diaper.

[daisymommy]

-Didn't want toxic chemicals and materials against my child's skin
-Didn't want to fill the landfills with trash
-Didn't want to deplete our natural resources (trees and petroleum) to make all those diapers.
-Wanted to save money
-Cloth is so much softer and comfier than paper and plastic! I wouldn't want to wear disposable underwear for 2 years! My CD wearing babies hate it when I put a disposable on them. They literally try to rip it off (we put on one per night at bedtime).

[AnnieW625]

I came from a family of cloth diapered babies so that was my inspiration.

I always meant to cloth diaper DD1 but I never got around to setting up the diaper service as I had no time off of work before I delivered DD1. I assumed this was the only method out there and cloth diapering wasn't popular in my area. In the next couple of years I realized there was a whole other world to cloth diapering as it became less underground so I bought a dozen or so Fuzzi Bunz one size pocket diapers for her to use at night; those worked really well until she was almost 4. If Fuzzi Bunz made their own version of pull on diapers we'd be using those instead of Underjams.

With DD2 we did the diaper service for three months and I loved it. We had to stop because DD2 developed an allergy to the diaper service detergent which caused horrible yeast infections and eczema. It went away as soon as I put her in 7th Generation diapers. I thought about automatically buying a couple of dozen prefolds and washing on my own but our pediatrician suggested waiting a months to make sure that the yeast infections and eczema had slowed down (plus she was right in between sizes in prefolds). We investigated it again when she was 6 months old and ready for the medium prefolds but we figured out that I would quickly spend more money on new cloth diapers, and more covers than I had spent in the prior three months on disposables (buying from Amazon and Costco) and unfortunately the Fuzzi Bunz made her smell like cat pee so we couldn't use those as our main diaper.

If it matters any we still use cloth swim diapers from Bummis and love them.

[LadyPeter]

I researched CDing when I was pregnant (for all the reasons daisymommy mentioned), but decided to use disposables for the first 6 weeks and then decide. DS spent his entire first month with horrid, bleeding diaper rashes that wouldn't respond to treatment. It cleared up the day after we switched to cloth and he hasn't had a rash since.

I bought Flip diapers and spent about $300 on my stash. Much cheaper than the $2500 that most parents spend on diapering a baby from birth to PTing!

[ahrimie]

it started out as a "green" thing..less waste to throw out. there was the $$ savings too (though you don't really get a ton of savings until the 2nd kid really). also my DS was sensitive to a lot of the stuff in disposable dipes

From a financial standpoint then, is there not much of a savings for the potentially last child? I don't know that I'll have more but I'm not set on having more after this one.

right now, i like it a lot because it looks so cute! the diaper cover prints are adorable. love the "bubble butt" on babies. also its easier for me to hold DD (to put her in a wrap, or whatever) when she has a cloth diaper.

I've only seen solid covers. Where do you find/buy cute ones? I actually don't know anyone IRL who does this so it probably doesn't help. I'm just at a loss of where to start buying these and ideally, I'd like to see them in person and choose between different systems.

[alirebco]

I wanted to do it when DS was born but was overwhelmed and didn't start with him. Around 5 months, I got sick of the constant poo blowouts in every kind of disposable and the constant rashes and decided to use cloth diapers.

I was worried about investing a ton of money in one brand and then not liking it, so I did a cloth diaper trial program - the one at Jillian's Drawers. They send you a bunch of different kinds - prefolds, fitteds, pockets, all-in-one's and you can try them for 3 weeks. You can see which ones you prefer and also which ones fit your baby the best. Then you send the ones you don't like back and get your money back and pay for the ones you are keeping.

I went right into pockets - Bumgenuis and loved them for DS. His rashes went away immediately and we had no more leaks or blowouts. They were so easy, much easier than I thought. I then branched out a bit and moved more into fitteds and wool covers when he was a bit older.

I kept the ones from DS for DD, but I did start cloth with her from her first diaper. I did get a newborn stash for her but I have already sold off the diapers that she outgrew or that I didn't care for - that is the way to recoup some money and make it even cheaper - by selling them when you're done.

She is not yet into one-size diapers (which was most of what we had for DS), but she will be soon. I have definitely not bought as much for DD but we still saved lots of money with using the cloth for DS since we used them for 2 years.

I switched mainly b/c of 1) chemicals 2) environment 3) leaks/blowouts 4) money. So money was really our last reason but we definitely appreciate the money savings.

Where are you in Michigan? I can try to help you find a cloth diaper store near you or you can try a trial program.

[american_mama]

I started out of curiousity and cost consciousness, with a small amount of environmentalism thrown in. If CDing was more expensive, I would not do it even with the environmental benefits.

If you PM me your email address, I will send you a CD 101 brochure that distills all the info. from that thread, complete with photos and helpful links. Many people have found it helpful.

eta: You can save money even if you CD for only one child, but you will have to watch how much you spend on cloth. If you buy used and/or re-sell when you are done with your cloth diapers, you will almost certainly save and can buy more/experiement more. There is an old calculator here, not perfect but it's a start: http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp. As for looking for cloth diapers locally, you can contact your local La Leche League and ask if anyone there uses cloth and can show you the ropes and/or knows a local store that sells cloth. You could also look on Real Diaper Association (advocates/educators for cloth diapers) and NADS (ntl diaper service website) to see if there is any store or person in yoru area. There are also trial programs where you can essentially rent diapers for a short time; Jillian's Diapers has a well-known one. Here;s a link of other trials, although beware it's about 1.5 years old and things may have changed. http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/...d.php?t=886295

[RunnerDuck]

Financially - if you buy something reasonably sure to resell you will make a lot of the money back. I did bare bones CDing with my first son, that stuff is not easy to resell. With my girls I did bare bones then got burned out and did disposables for a while then bought a bunch of BumGenius 4.0s. LOVE them. Currently using disposables on #4 (6 weeks old) but will put him in the BGs when he is big enough. I only got a few months of use out of them with the girls, and #4 is the last, so I won't get a ton of use with my own kids, but I know they will resell well. (I got the snap ones which hold up so much better than the valcro)