Any Doper parents out there who’ve used cloth diapers? My first kid (who is 2 and just peed in the potty TWICE today for the first time!!) has been in all disposables, but I’m thinking seriously about cloth for this next one, a boy due in February. I’m not fully sure though and would love to hear thoughts, pointers, the upsides and drawbacks.
I’m pretty sure we’d use a service.
Thanks,
Twiddle and Co.
We used them for out 3 1/2 year old and our 1 1/2 year old is still in them. Neither as ever had any diaper rash; I think it’s because with the cloth it’s easier for us to tell that they’re wet and thus change them sooner.
The upside (especially with a service) is convenience: just toss the wet/dirty ones into the hamper–there’s no washing.
The only real downside I can think of is the cost, but then again, you’re paying for the above-cited convenience.
I had a service. That wasn’t much cheaper than buying disposables, but it depends on your area–my SIL found that it was very pricey where she lives. It was nice; you throw the diapers in the bin, and every week you get a present of lovely clean ones!
Yep, we never had diaper rash either. I’ve heard that they potty-train earlier to avoid the discomfort, but I didn’t notice any eagerness on DangerGirl’s part to train.
Cons were that she was often a little damp on the outside, too. I got tired of that.
We stuck with it until DangerBaby (number 2) was a few months old. Then, after 3 solid years of cloth diapers, I went to disposable. I may go back next time; I just got burned out.
My mom was a die-hard cloth woman and always washed her own too. That’s very cheap, but you go through a lot of bleach. She had 5 kids and the last one was born in '87, and she still stuck with the cloth. My mom is a stubborn, idealistic woman.
I’m 29, and my dad still uses the diapers that my brother (2 years younger than me) and I wore as shop rags in the garage. I can’t tell you much about the baby part, but they’re pretty good for cleaning greasy truck parts.
Well, that sounds weird. We wore them as diapers, and my dad uses them as shop rags. He didn’t rub our butts on the cars to buff them or anything like that.
We used 'em on 3 kids for a couple years each. We would switch to disposables when a larger capacity was required (read: at some point a kid unleashes enough urine to soak through 2 large cloth diapers, the cover and whatever it has on for pants). They didn’t seem to have much effect on potty training, but then again we never brought it up. They all trained themselves somewhere between 2-3 years.
The only real downside is finding a diaper cover brand that you can live with. Cheap ones come with self destructing velcro fasteners–MIGHTY nonconvenient.
My “baby” was potty trained about 23 years ago, so my memory is sort of foggy. I had a diaper service for the first year, and then I washed them myself for the next year. I liked the service and would have continued, but we moved into an area which had extremely high prices. I remember that we had to pay a deposit for the service, which covered a set amount of diapers per week. When I switched to washing the diapers myself, I did have to invest a bit of money to buy some cloth diapers, but I think that even with that, and having to use a coin-operated washer, we saved quite a bit of money over disposables. Of course, if my daughter was in disposables for any length of time, she’d break out in a rash, so I didn’t really have an option to keep her in disposables all the time.
If you use disposables, you have to make sure that you have plenty on hand at all times, and you have to dispose of them promptly. If you use cloth, you have to wash them or have someone else wash them, and you have to keep a diaper pail around. If I had to do it again, I’d probably use cloth for the most part, and use disposables when I went out.
If the child is going into daycare, you might not have a choice. I think that almost all daycares will require disposable diapers.
I used cloth from 9-18 months with my first, and from 4 months- 2 years with my second. I used the contoured or fitted diapers and velcro covers and had very few leaks.
I would get a couple different kinds of covers: some kids have chubbier legs and so the covers fit differently.
I did a dry pail ( no soaking – just shook off what I could into the toilet) and washed every 2 days: it wasn’t bad at all. One cycle on hot, then another on warm. I used regular detergent and Borax and then white vinegar in the final rinse: I just used one of those Downy balls for the vinegar. Then dry them on hot (but NEVER dry the covers in the dryer, they will lose their absorbency that way), and if any stains remained, I’d hang the clean, wet diapers in the sun and the stains would bleach out. I didn’t bleach as that breaks the fibers down. We never had odors or rashes with this method.
Oh, the all-in-ones (covers+ diaper) are nice int hat they are a little faster to get on, but they take forever to dry and are much more expensive.
I had more time than money when my kids were diaper-age (decades ago). I not only used cloth diapers, I washed them myself in Ivory soap powder and bleach and hung them on the line to dry in nice weather. Used disposables when travelling or visiting. Neither kid had diaper rash. They were also useful to have around for something to have over your shoulder when burping the baby or carrying her around. And when their initial purpose is no longer needed, they do make excellent rags for dusting, polishing, etc. since they are very soft and absorbent.
I wanted to use cloth and every mom out there talked me out of it citing what a hassle it was and how expensive.
Being that there is ZERO diaper service in the area I would have had to wash them all myself. We live on a well, so I have no water bill.
I did not think this was a problem. I have OCD when it comes to doing laundry.
So, my two children were disposable diapered kids. No diaper rash and a buttload of money down the toilet every two weeks for diapers.
I still wish I did cloth as when the kids are done with them, you have nice soft rags for years to come. There are so many options out there.
Whether you use cloth or disposables, it’s a good idea to have a couple of packages of cloth diapers of your own. They’re good for the changing table (extra pad for large poop problems, can be whisked away and replaced with kid still on table), burp rags, general cleanup, and of course carwashing.
I did cloth with my son for the first two years, we had a diaper service in California and in Kansas; it was actually cheaper than disposables unless you used a warehouse club. When we moved to Italy I switched to disposable because there was no diaper service and I did not want to make the investment into cloth when he was over 2 and he was supposed to be an only child. Then my daughter came along, and she had a lot of rashes with the disposables, so I switched back to cloth and washed them myself. I would hang dry them in the sun for sun bleaching rather than using chlorine bleach.
I used contour diapers and Nikki covers with my daughter; I found with my son that velcro closure covers came off really quickly for toddler fingers but they had a lot of trouble with snaps.
I bought three packs of Birdseye cloth diapers when my son was born to use as rags and keep around as extras; I still have a few of those around and he will turn 12 next month.
We used cloth diapers for about the first two years. We had a service. It was great. Our daycare even accommodated them. We just brought an extra pail and picked them up every other day. When we switched daycare we went to disposable because they didn’t want to deal with cloth. We were only in them for about 9 mos before Charlie potty trained.
I used the velcro diaper covers from Biobottoms. They’re expensive, but were by far the best covers I had. Not one single leak while using them. You can get cheapers ones, but in my case they weren’t as good.
We never had diaper rash. And I just liked the idea of soft natural cotton my my baby’s bottom.