Cloth Diapers? (breastfed, newborn, average, parents)

[akire]

Has anyone tried cloth diapers? I see the new versions are velcro. Are they really cheaper than disposables? The prices I see are about $45 for a 5-pack.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Here is a recent thread about cloth vs disposable.
link

[irishmom]

Originally Posted by akire

Has anyone tried cloth diapers? I see the new versions are velcro. Are they really cheaper than disposables? The prices I see are about $45 for a 5-pack.

I don't know about cheaper, but they probably could be...I just thought eeewwww and didn't use them for that reason.

[brokencrayola]

I used cloth for some of the time with my first son, but quit after awhile. By the time you buy enough diapers (and you need a lot unless you intend on doing a lot of wash), plastic diaper covers, and a diaper service, it is not cheaper. We did not have a diaper service where I lived so I washed them all myself. It gets really old. You obviously have to wash them in a load alone. You have to clean all the poop that clings to the diaper before you can wash it. They cannot sit long at all in a diaper hamper before they begin to smell pretty bad. They are much more bulkier when worn as far as how the baby's cloths fit. They do not fit as well as a disposable diaper and you get leg blowouts. I even washed them and hung them outdoors to air dry. Well that works until it rains, snows or freezes, or until bugs that like the moisture land all over them, or until the birds look at your clothline as a nice place to land and your diapers have bird poop on them. I finally gave up the quest to help the enviornment and give my son a natural diaper experience.

[Papooses]

My daughter was allergic to every disposable & when medications did not help, we switched the cloth -- LOVED IT!

I used Bumkins, Chumbas or HappyHeinys with Chinese PreFolds for the daytime & Kissaluvs with CPFs + Stacinator double fleece covers at night.

I had a water proof zipper bag for dirty diapers (1 large at home, 1 small in the diaper bag) & it became a very easy habit to just unzip the bag & dump them into the wash every other day. Deodisks & baking soda handled the smell.

It only became yucky when my daughter started eating solid foods, but we exclusively breastfed until 9-12 months & by 18 months she was tossing clean diapers at me to signal that she needed to use the potty

You'll find lots of cloth diapering forums via Google. My 1 stash lasted the whole time & I estimate that I saved literally thousands of $

[cassy1]

My kids are all grown, but when they were babies we used cloth diapers. My mother would have killed me if I put disposable on them!

[DSO]

I used cloth on my daughter as a baby, loved it. Now she uses nothing but cloth on her babies! In fact she has become quite the cloth diaper advocate, and has even authored a book, maintains a website etc. I don't know that I can post her URL without breaking forum rules, but you are welcome to private message me and I will send you the link if you are interested.

[Noahma]

after changing my little girls diapers for 1.5 years. ewww.... no way in heck am i keeping them things in my house while i wait for the delivery service or to put them in the wash.

[gentlearts]

Are you ****ting me?
In the 60's, before diposables, I experienced the joy of cloth diapers. Do not even think about it.

[Charles Wallace]

Originally Posted by akire

Has anyone tried cloth diapers? I see the new versions are velcro. Are they really cheaper than disposables? The prices I see are about $45 for a 5-pack.

There's a heavy start-up cost, but in the long run, it's SOOOO much cheaper and it's infinitely easier with the Velcro. Plus, a lot of them are just adorable.

Think of it this way: A pack of 228 Pampers costs $38.00 right now. Your average newborn baby goes through approximately 10 diapers/day. Therefore, you'll blast through that box of Pampers in +/- 23 days.

OTOH, let's say you buy three five-packs of diapers -- ten per day plus five in the wash, and you paid $135 for it. Those fifteen diapers will last you basically until the baby outgrows them, so basically, I would think at least five months or so or more, depending on the baby, how much you wash them, whether you use the dryer (VERY hard on CDs), and so on.

At five months, therefore, you'd be spending your $135. By contrast, you'd need approximately 1500 disposable diapers (at 30 days/month times 10 diapers/day times 5 months). That will cost you about $250 -- and you won't be able to re-use the disposable diapers for Child #2, which you can with the cloth diapers Child #1 grew out of. Assuming that your child toilet-trains at a generous 30 months or so, you would have saved approximately $690 over that time.

I don't know about you, but I can think of lots better things to do with seven hundred bucks besides throw it down the toilet.