So Far...: My Thoughts on Cloth Diapering
My son is coming up on 5 months old, which means I have been cloth diapering for 4 months. I have saved somewhere between $240 and $320 on diapers, of course, I have probably spent $200 on buying some extra covers and the next size up in prefolds. But considering Jed won't outgrow this size of prefolds till after he's one year and does not need another diaper cover... We are going to start seeing about $60 a month staying in our pockets. (Does that mean I can go shopping?!)
I still like CDing. I can't say I LOVE it,--they are DIAPERS, people!--but I do like it better than disposables. I figured I better write my thoughts on it now because in one month we will be starting solid foods. My opinion could change... we'll see. (To see my first thoughts, as well as my pro and con list to CDing click here.)
Last night, I had one of those desperate diaper moments. You know, when you realize you are completely out and no there is not an extra one hanging out in the car or hidden in the diaper bag. Between celebrating our anniversary to having to be at church early Sunday and then also needing to spend some time at my parents, we did not get our diapers cleaned in a timely fashion. So, here's the discovery I made: an old dish towel will do the trick. Prefolds definitely work better, but the dish towel saved our night. So there you go, one more benefit to CDing... when you find yourself diaperless... improvise with anything cloth that can absorb liquid.
I have finally settled on my favorite diapers. I like the Flip covers with a mix of prefolds and inserts. I love the Flips because the velcro is "sticky." I like that they give me the option of either using inserts or prefolds. One of my favorite things about them is that the piping around the legs is out of the same color fabric as the entire cover rather than being white. White piping holds stains and my diaper covers that have it look nasty at this point. It's a really a simple, rather shallow thing, but seriously poo stains look icky... so thank you Flip for taking this into consideration!
Here's a Happy Heiney's cover and a Flip cover so you can see this white piping of which I speak.
A good ol' angel folded prefold holds more liquid and prevent more blowouts than any other method I've tried... but it takes time. Time is precious. So I use prefolds at night and in the morning till Jed's morning BM (I know, seems like TMI right? But this whole post is dedicated to diapers so...) The rest of the day I use an insert (well until I run out, I haven't purchased many of these things yet). No snappi's, no folding, just stick it the cover and you are good to go. When I run our of inserts, I use a prefold folded in thirds and just stick it in the cover like I would an insert.
In case you are curious or clueless, here is a 1) an angel-folded prefold with a snappi, 2) a prefold folded in 3rds placed in a Flip cover, and 3) a Flip insert in a Flip cover.
My favorite item for cloth diapers are LEG WARMERS!!! But if you read my blog, you already know this. If you stumbled across this blog as a momma-to-be doing so research on cloth diapers, click on the leg-warmers link and make yourself some while you are nesting. You will NOT regret this :)
Oh and one more thing to mention, Jed has only managed to blow through ONE diaper cover onto his clothes, so his clothes are poo-stain-free and so are mine (ever have had that precious baby sitting on your lap poop through their clothes onto yours?! And, of course, you brought them a change of clothes, but you, well... you get to proudly sport that poo stain on your white shorts for the duration of that summer BBQ).
That's pretty much it. I like cloth diapering. I do not regret my decision. So far I have saved the planet from roughly 1080 diapers (that's 10 diapers a day in the first 2 months and 8 diapers a day in the most recent 2 months) sitting in a land fill, I have made it into the black with my savings... over $40 now, and will continue to increase the savings by about $60 a month now, and even if I should decide to stop when we get to solid foods because I don't want to handle that much poop that closely (I am still traumatized from Addy's potty training "adventure." What can I say? I am sure I will recover, but definitely not any time soon... ha!) I will still come out on top. Reminds me of the saying "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." I ventured, and I have gained!
I will report back when get to solid food. Till then...
I still like CDing. I can't say I LOVE it,--they are DIAPERS, people!--but I do like it better than disposables. I figured I better write my thoughts on it now because in one month we will be starting solid foods. My opinion could change... we'll see. (To see my first thoughts, as well as my pro and con list to CDing click here.)
Last night, I had one of those desperate diaper moments. You know, when you realize you are completely out and no there is not an extra one hanging out in the car or hidden in the diaper bag. Between celebrating our anniversary to having to be at church early Sunday and then also needing to spend some time at my parents, we did not get our diapers cleaned in a timely fashion. So, here's the discovery I made: an old dish towel will do the trick. Prefolds definitely work better, but the dish towel saved our night. So there you go, one more benefit to CDing... when you find yourself diaperless... improvise with anything cloth that can absorb liquid.
I have finally settled on my favorite diapers. I like the Flip covers with a mix of prefolds and inserts. I love the Flips because the velcro is "sticky." I like that they give me the option of either using inserts or prefolds. One of my favorite things about them is that the piping around the legs is out of the same color fabric as the entire cover rather than being white. White piping holds stains and my diaper covers that have it look nasty at this point. It's a really a simple, rather shallow thing, but seriously poo stains look icky... so thank you Flip for taking this into consideration!
Here's a Happy Heiney's cover and a Flip cover so you can see this white piping of which I speak.
A good ol' angel folded prefold holds more liquid and prevent more blowouts than any other method I've tried... but it takes time. Time is precious. So I use prefolds at night and in the morning till Jed's morning BM (I know, seems like TMI right? But this whole post is dedicated to diapers so...) The rest of the day I use an insert (well until I run out, I haven't purchased many of these things yet). No snappi's, no folding, just stick it the cover and you are good to go. When I run our of inserts, I use a prefold folded in thirds and just stick it in the cover like I would an insert.
In case you are curious or clueless, here is a 1) an angel-folded prefold with a snappi, 2) a prefold folded in 3rds placed in a Flip cover, and 3) a Flip insert in a Flip cover.
My favorite item for cloth diapers are LEG WARMERS!!! But if you read my blog, you already know this. If you stumbled across this blog as a momma-to-be doing so research on cloth diapers, click on the leg-warmers link and make yourself some while you are nesting. You will NOT regret this :)
Oh and one more thing to mention, Jed has only managed to blow through ONE diaper cover onto his clothes, so his clothes are poo-stain-free and so are mine (ever have had that precious baby sitting on your lap poop through their clothes onto yours?! And, of course, you brought them a change of clothes, but you, well... you get to proudly sport that poo stain on your white shorts for the duration of that summer BBQ).
That's pretty much it. I like cloth diapering. I do not regret my decision. So far I have saved the planet from roughly 1080 diapers (that's 10 diapers a day in the first 2 months and 8 diapers a day in the most recent 2 months) sitting in a land fill, I have made it into the black with my savings... over $40 now, and will continue to increase the savings by about $60 a month now, and even if I should decide to stop when we get to solid foods because I don't want to handle that much poop that closely (I am still traumatized from Addy's potty training "adventure." What can I say? I am sure I will recover, but definitely not any time soon... ha!) I will still come out on top. Reminds me of the saying "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." I ventured, and I have gained!
I will report back when get to solid food. Till then...