As we discuss the possibility of the The Next Baby, I've thought about doing some things differently.
One area I want to explore is our diapers. Do we keep using disposable or go to cloth?
I care about the environment. I also care about my sanity and fear disposable might just be a bit too much work. I've looked into the possibility of a diaper service and there is one in our area. Unfortunately, after doing some quick calculations, I'm not sure we would actually save money this way.
The thought of washing them myself is more than my mind can handle to be honest with you. Plus, since Peanut is at a babysitter's during the day, we'd probably need to look at doing half and half.
But there is the nice aspect of not filling landfills AND I could get these super cute diaper covers from etsy.
Anyone have good experiences with cloth? Bad experiences? No experience and just think I am crazy for thinking about this?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
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6 comments:
I've used cloth since my oldest (5 on Monday) was 4 months old. My favorites are Swaddlebee's pockets. The washing is no big deal really, cold rinse, hot wash with about 1 tbsp of detergent, extra rinse and done. I often hang dry, sometimes not. We use disposables at night and when we go out or on trips, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. :)
I'm sure you've picked up on this from my blog but we're using cloth and like them.
There was definitely an adjustment period in the beginning trying to figure out the best folds, how many layers to put in the diape, which cover we preferred, etc but after about the first week and a half we had it down and now it's a piece of cake.
We use a diaper service and it costs us $80/month. When I look at how many diapers we change a day and what the cost is vs. disposables we end up about $12 higher per month in what we pay. However, I'm not driving to the store to buy diapers so I figure that saves me gas AND since I can never walk into Target and pick up one thing, I figure that I"m really saving myself a lot more by not setting foot in the store as often. ;)
If you purchase your own diapes, covers, etc...you do save in the long run especially if you're going to be cd'ing multiple children. We figured we'd start with the service, see if we liked cd'ing and, if we did and wanted to take on the laundering too we'd make the investment and buy our own. We have about 100 diapers a week and go through about 84 so you'd only have to do one load per week.
There are plenty of resources and places to buy cd items like cottonbabies.com, diaperswappers, etc.
Good luck!
Diapers-one of my favorite topics! We used cloth for over a year- BGs (Bum Genius) exclusively. I LOVED using them. Easy, clean, easy to wash, daycare used them. I use the past tense b/c they eventually started leaking and it became too much of a hassle for daycare and eventually us b/c we had to change clothes and diaper. I did everything I was "supposed" to to fix the leaking issue and it didn't work. So we went to disposable b/c I didn't have the time, money, resources at the time to research a new CD. I'm not a fan of disposable but that's where we are. Next baby I will go back to cloth. I'll email you some resources I have found for sample packs etc.
For anyone in the Cincinnati area, the Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center (theplaceforfamilies.com) is doing a session called 'These aren't your Momma's cloth diapers" on March 20th. For more information go to the 'For Parents' section of their website.
Also, Park+Vine in downtown Cincinnati has a Cloth Diapering class on April 4th: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=351654670817
I have three children, only one of whom is in diapers. Can I just say that you are a saint for even considering it. I care about our environment, I use green products, etc. but I just couldn't go there. I just couldn't but I wish I could. You can tell me all day how easy it is but it's just one more thing on my plate and I just can't go there. Good for you! Hope you find something that works well for you. I like that Devan says it doesn't have to be all or nothing. That's a boost of confidence I may have needed in the beginning if I was going to attempt it.
Hmmm. We considered this with Ezra but then waffled too long because he arrived before we made up our minds. The cost of a diaper service in our area was about the same as buying Pampers.
Oh! And I've heard the kids in cloth diapers toilet-train faster. Not sure if that's true or not.
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