Tell me about baby gear

In My Humble Opinion
81

A humidifier might be useful when they get a cold, since you can’t really use medicine to relieve congestion. I’d say a saline nasal rinse followed by bulb syringe, and sitting in a steamy shower are the best ways to help. I’m not big on cold-mist humidifiers, though. I’ve got a Slant/Fin model that pumps real true steam into the air, which I think works much better.

As for where to get cloth diapers, again, LLL folks can probably hook you up. You can ask your midwife, too. I bought all mine online. Here are some links:

Diaperpin.com | Go to Parenting Resource!? (discussion, tips, and a for sale or trade board)
http://www.diaperswappers.com/ (used dipes for sale)
http://www.fuzzibunz.com/
http://www.motherease.com/
http://www.bumgenius.com/one-size.php (like Fuzzi Bunz, but convert to different sizes, so you can buy fewer total diapers)
And, of course, ebay

Diaperpin.com also has reviews of products, and links to different online stores, so you can shop around for the best prices.

If you want to go as frugal as possible, buy a couple dozen Chinese Prefolds, some pins (you can get these at some sewing stores too), and/or a couple Snappis, and make some butt sweaters from Goodwill-purchased wool sweaters. I’d still recommend a couple Motherease covers - they hold stuff in real good.

Oh, and re: containing diaper smell in the trash. Never mind what you put them in, if you dump the poo in the toilet (to the extent feasible) before trashing them, it will be much less foul. I know at least some of the diaper companies even instruct you to do this on their package in very small print, but hardly anyone seems to bother.

82

Heh, what helped best for us was buying one of these:

http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid/product/product.jhtml?prodId=HPProd130011

Seriously. I never regretted the decision to buy a seperate outdoor storage shed for garbage & recycling. Keeps smells out of the house & garage.

83

Re: Diaper disposal. We had a Diaper Genie (must have been an old model, 'cause the kid was born in '93) with my son, and while he was little little, I really liked it. The small newborn and size one diapers wrap up tightly enough that they took up little room and so I could get a nice long sausage of them and take them out only once or twice a week. The odor control was good enough for me. When he got bigger, though, so did his diapers, and since they took up more room in the Genie, I had to empty it about every day, which sort of defeated the purpose of having a convenient storage container for diapers.

With my daughter, I just use a regular watebasket and a 14 year old boy to take out the trash daily. :wink:

84

I never found baby poop to be that foul smelling. Breastfed baby poop smelled vaguely of peaches, and even with my formula fed son, it wasn’t bad. Mine trained late, too - so they were full fledged eaters before we got rid of the diaper pail. We used a diaper genie.

The complications with the diaper genie - they aren’t cheap, nor are the refills - though the genie itself can probably be gotten from someone currently bragging about their child’s new ability to use the potty (if your kid will go to daycare, ask there, or ask around the neighborhood, or check Craig’s List). But you still need the refills.

Keeping plastic bags around from the grocery store (well out of reach of the future toddler) and tying them around each diaper would work just as well.

85

I looked at getting a Diaper Genie (or an equivalent), but just ended up buying nappy sacks (I guess you would call them diaper sacks).

They are just small scented plastic bags that you dump the dirty diaper into and tie off. They are very handy to have in the diaper bag for when you are out and about as well as at home, so baby’s room doesn’t end up smelling like poo! To double odour control, I put the tied-off diaper sacks into a foot-pedal bin with an air-freshener pad stuck to the inside of the lid.

ETA: to save money, you can just use the sacks for pooey diapers

86

We do take out the garbage every day anyway. I’ll probably go with an empty cat litter container, and take out the bags at least once a day.