Cloth Diapering Questions

[homesteadmomma]

Okay so I have a washing machine that is only a year old and I a stay at home mom or will be when the baby is born, I only work 6 hours a week now so basically I am home all day. I love to line dry my clothes when I can with the weather and can also dry next to the wood stove.

My greatest concerns are the up front cost and the leakage plus there is like 15 or more different kinds of diapers on the web and it is very confusing.

Everybody info is very helpful and I appreciate that all the comments have been positive. I really hope this will keep the cost of diapers down. I make my own laundry soap and according to the list of ingredients I use they all seem okay to use with cloth diapers.

 

[homesteadmomma]

Okay so if I use pre=folds then do I use a Snappi and a cover also?

 

[Homemaker]

My little girl is 10 months old and i love cloth diapering! I hate disposables. In fact I'm a huge nerd about it and I love to talk about it. I spent most of my "nesting" energy looking into cloth diapers. You said you have been doing some research so you may already know this but, If you want you can check out a forum all about cloth diapering. I was addicted to it for the 6 months surrounding my dd's birth.:
http://www.diaperswappers.com/

I looked into cloth diapers because I really needed to save $. And I'm so glad that I did. Don't get me wrong some people can spend TONS of money on cloth diapering. It is up to you really and what you want. I've kept a running total of how much it cost to diaper her and so far its at 72 dollars and change. That includes diapers, covers, wipes, pails, pins, and wipe solution. She is only 10 months old so she isn't finished yet but I really will only need to buy new covers when she grows out of her old ones. Plus when I have the next baby I will have diapers all over again. I'm a huge tightwad and proud of it. Besides hospital and doctor bill my dd has hardly cost a dime.

I use flats with diaper pins. I use square cotton receiving blankets. I got so many when I was expecting and I've stocked up when I find them at thrift stores. I've also made some out of flannel sheets. I just cut them into squares and hemmed up the sides. I like flats the best because I can play around with the fold and get a good fit. When I first started I thought it was going to be too time consuming to fold them all but I got quick fast. Here is a good thread about flats:
http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=877212

For covers I use wool at night. Wool is wonderfully absorbent, breathable and self cleaning. I make my covers out of recycled wool sweaters. (I can barely sew and these are even easy for me to do) Then I treat them with lanolin. During the day I usually use covers made with PUL although I've tried a few other kinds as well. I bought all of mine used on diaperswappers. I payed 5 to 7 dollars for each.

I did not cloth diaper for the first week. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle things being a first time Mom and I didn't want to deal with it. Plus, I didn't have to wash out the merconium Next baby I will though. I feel much more confident now.

In the beginning I didn't have a lot of diapers. I believe I started with 15. So I had to wash them every day. Which was a bit of a pain if you can I would say at least start out with 24. Enough to get you through 2 days. You go through a lot of diapers the first couple of months. I would say 6 covers would be nice in the beginning. But, I had 4 and made do just fine with it.

I bought two large packs of baby washcloths I use these for wipes. I use a squeeze bottle (the one from the hospital for cleaning up after epiderals is nice) filled with a squeeze of baby shampoo, 3 drops of tea tree oil and a couple of drops of olive oil. I keep the wipes in a basket. I have a plastic bowl in the basket that I will throw a wipe into then squeeze the solution onto the wipe ( the bowl keeps the solution from going everywhere) then use. It gets tossed into the diaper rolled up and put into the diaper pail to be laundered with everything else.

I don't do anything special with laundry. I take the diaper off of my dd and throw it in the pail (Its dry no water) If there are solids I do shake it off into the toilet. But, I do not dunk and swish. I just shake the diaper over the bowl then toss the diaper into the pail. I have a hamper next to my pail that I throw the covers into. I don't like to wash my covers with the daipers. They are not as dirty and the urine in the diapers will break down PUL over time. I just wash them with her clothes. The wool ones are self cleaning so I only wash them about three times a month unless they get poo on them then they get washed in the sink with a little baby shampoo. Then left out to air dry.

When I'm ready to do laundry I just throw the diapers in and wash on hot with a cold rinse cycle. I use homemade detergent. Now that she is really pooping good I will usually run it twice. First with soap then without. Just to be sure. When it was nice out I would hang everything out to dry. Right now I just toss it in the dryer.

All of my fears about cloth diapering have not come true. I don't mess with poop any more than I have to. I've never stabbed my daughter with a pin. My dd rarely gets a rash.(only happened a few times when she pooped I didn't change her right away. My fault completely!) And it has never been more than a little redness. I usually just let her go without a cover for a little while so she gets some air.
If you have any other questions please ask.

Obviously I love this subject. I'm such a nerd.

 

[AnnaRaven]

I did diaper service. Ended up being cheaper than doing disposable AND I didn't have to deal with laundering a gazillion diapers. We went through like 70 a week! Crazy. Still, it was nice to be able to go camping with cloth diapers and let someone else deal with the results...

I know, not very SS, but it sure was nice. The few times we used a disposable with DS, he got the worst diaper rash.

 

[AnnaRaven]

My little girl is 10 months old and i love cloth diapering! I hate disposables. In fact I'm a huge nerd about it and I love to talk about it. I spent most of my "nesting" energy looking into cloth diapers. You said you have been doing some research so you may already know this but, If you want you can check out a forum all about cloth diapering. I was addicted to it for the 6 months surrounding my dd's birth.:
http://www.diaperswappers.com/

I looked into cloth diapers because I really needed to save $. And I'm so glad that I did. Don't get me wrong some people can spend TONS of money on cloth diapering. It is up to you really and what you want. I've kept a running total of how much it cost to diaper her and so far its at 72 dollars and change. That includes diapers, covers, wipes, pails, pins, and wipe solution. She is only 10 months old so she isn't finished yet but I really will only need to buy new covers when she grows out of her old ones. Plus when I have the next baby I will have diapers all over again. I'm a huge tightwad and proud of it. Besides hospital and doctor bill my dd has hardly cost a dime.

I use flats with diaper pins. I use square cotton receiving blankets. I got so many when I was expecting and I've stocked up when I find them at thrift stores. I've also made some out of flannel sheets. I just cut them into squares and hemmed up the sides. I like flats the best because I can play around with the fold and get a good fit. When I first started I thought it was going to be too time consuming to fold them all but I got quick fast. Here is a good thread about flats:
http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=877212

For covers I use wool at night. Wool is wonderfully absorbent, breathable and self cleaning. I make my covers out of recycled wool sweaters. (I can barely sew and these are even easy for me to do) Then I treat them with lanolin. During the day I usually use covers made with PUL although I've tried a few other kinds as well. I bought all of mine used on diaperswappers. I payed 5 to 7 dollars for each.

I did not cloth diaper for the first week. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle things being a first time Mom and I didn't want to deal with it. Plus, I didn't have to wash out the merconium Next baby I will though. I feel much more confident now.

In the beginning I didn't have a lot of diapers. I believe I started with 15. So I had to wash them every day. Which was a bit of a pain if you can I would say at least start out with 24. Enough to get you through 2 days. You go through a lot of diapers the first couple of months. I would say 6 covers would be nice in the beginning. But, I had 4 and made do just fine with it.

I bought two large packs of baby washcloths I use these for wipes. I use a squeeze bottle (the one from the hospital for cleaning up after epiderals is nice) filled with a squeeze of baby shampoo, 3 drops of tea tree oil and a couple of drops of olive oil. I keep the wipes in a basket. I have a plastic bowl in the basket that I will throw a wipe into then squeeze the solution onto the wipe ( the bowl keeps the solution from going everywhere) then use. It gets tossed into the diaper rolled up and put into the diaper pail to be laundered with everything else.

I don't do anything special with laundry. I take the diaper off of my dd and throw it in the pail (Its dry no water) If there are solids I do shake it off into the toilet. But, I do not dunk and swish. I just shake the diaper over the bowl then toss the diaper into the pail. I have a hamper next to my pail that I throw the covers into. I don't like to wash my covers with the daipers. They are not as dirty and the urine in the diapers will break down PUL over time. I just wash them with her clothes. The wool ones are self cleaning so I only wash them about three times a month unless they get poo on them then they get washed in the sink with a little baby shampoo. Then left out to air dry.

When I'm ready to do laundry I just throw the diapers in and wash on hot with a cold rinse cycle. I use homemade detergent. Now that she is really pooping good I will usually run it twice. First with soap then without. Just to be sure. When it was nice out I would hang everything out to dry. Right now I just toss it in the dryer.

All of my fears about cloth diapering have not come true. I don't mess with poop any more than I have to. I've never stabbed my daughter with a pin. My dd rarely gets a rash.(only happened a few times when she pooped I didn't change her right away. My fault completely!) And it has never been more than a little redness. I usually just let her go without a cover for a little while so she gets some air.
If you have any other questions please ask.

Obviously I love this subject. I'm such a nerd.

We used to just rinse out the covers after each change and hang it to dry on the diaper table. By the time of the next change or two, it would be dry. We'd cycle through a couple of the covers in a day and they'd be fine that way.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Along with the cloth diapers, have you all make your own "baby wipes"? DW did both when the kids were that age and it saved us money. Just curious

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Baby wipes were NOT good for my DD's skin. I bought maybe a couple dozen infant washcloths and kept them where I changed her, along with a squeeze container of mild soap. I'd get a bowl of warm water before changing her, and dip a cloth in the water, tiny bit of soap to wash her up if she had pooped, rinse and pat dry.

She hardly ever had any irritation or diaper rash this way.

I'm glad I never bought one of those electric diaper wipe warmers, LOL. I tend to keep diaper wipes in my car for absolute cleaning emergencies, but one box will last years.

 

[patandchickens]

I used the plain old-style rectangular ones (well, prefolds actually, meaning they have the fabric doubled in the central third where it is needed; but basically just rectangles). Bought from a SAHM business, not Walmart (at least up here, Walmart *does* still sell old-style cloth diapers but the quality is *terrible*). Used plastic pants over them, and a Snappi rather than diaper pins (sixteen thousand thumbs up for Snappies, btw). Worked great, no complaints whatsoever.

IMO the big advantage of the old-style plain rectangular cloth diapers is that they are so marvellously useful for so many other things after the kids no longer need them. By that point they have been laundered so many times they are SUPER soft and SUPER absorbent. I am constantly finding new uses for them -- they are real good for drying off the dog when he comes in with wet or yucky feet! -- and only hope that my supply of them does not run out before I someday die

Pat

 

[mrbstephens]

Okay so if I use pre=folds then do I use a Snappi and a cover also?

Prefolds = close with diapers or Snappi use a cover. The cover helps with leakage. Still not totally leak PROOF, but much better than nothing. You'll find you get quite used to baby pee and poop and spit up!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

LOL I know. My supply is sadly, almost gone. They are excellent to cut up for ... Feminine use as well.

I've actually been thinking someday I might buy a few dozen more. I'd rather find them used (soft, as you said!) but I never see them for sale. I'm sure most folks find them as useful as I do.