...That, and all the people that seem to hassle me/judge me the most about formula feeding and being a working mum (even while my partner stays home), seem to be those lean mean green crunchy parenting machines that ONLY use cloth nappies or else.
So going along with them, just quietly, instinctively makes me want to hurl.
With Zander we were not keen on going there. For those above reasons and also... Cloth nappies to us are in our brains as being those horrid big squares of fabric with the pink edges that you have to master some origami skills to even fold and then secure onto the poor unsuspecting child with those scary arse 'safety pins' (that so could easily stab into the precious flesh of my child). Oh and the poop on cloth thing. Gross. The extra washing put us off completely.
But we spend a fair amount of money on disposable nappies and with impending baby number two I'm seriously thinking about doing the cloth nappy thing.
So cloth diapering mothers (or attempted cloth diapererers) out there... give me your feedback and answer me these questions...
- What the hell is the difference between all in ones and 'pocket' cloth nappies?
- Are they very absorbent? like would they work as well as a disposable or do you just become used to the cloth nappy ways and deal with the fact they are not that absorbent?
- Night time? for those elusive babies that sleep through the night and you don't want to wake?
- In reality, are they hard to clean? how do you do that?
- Can they be washed in cold water? and well? (hot water washes are so expensive, its almost worth getting disposables and destryonig the planet so i can save a few bucks :P)
- WHAT ABOUT THE POOP!? How does one tackle it?
- Do they go all mouldy if you don't wash them asap?
- How many cloth nappies do you need?
- Nappy rash.. is it worse? Some people swear cloth nappies makes it better but ZJ has never had problems with the right brand of disposables.
- And finally... recommendations.. what do you recommend as a great brand/type? And what system do you use when it comes to this stuff and how much extra trouble is it really.
16 comments:
Ooh ^_^ I'm working on a good answer to these for ya ;) Will post soon!
I could write a novel in response cause there is loads to say about cloth diapers. I am sure Desiree can fill you in.
I have been using them for over 3 years and people are always shocked to learn that I do because I am NOT a crunchy Mama.
I wrote a little post about why I use them. Check it out if you have a sec.
http://themodishmamma.blogspot.com/2010/02/harassing-ellen-for-sake-of-babies.html
My fav brands are BumGenius 3.0 Pockets, SmartiPants and Motherease Sandi's with Airflow covers.
1. Don't feel guilty about bottle feeding or working - happy mother=happy baby
2. I was a disposable Mum but I hear the new cloth ones are very good and much easier to cope with. Big up front cost but it doesn't take long to get that cost back (as I am sure you know
3. Going cloth doesn't mean you can't use disposable ever. I know people who use them at night or when they go out. Go with what works for you
4. Congrats on the impending arrival!
Desiree - Thanks little lady :)
The Modish Mama - thanks for the post, I will read it right now. Un-crunchy mama's opinions are great!
Scrapgeek - Oh i don't feel guilty about. But it doesn't mean I don't get sick of the rubbish that gets thrown my way.
Ooo, I love talking diapers!
1. The absorbent part of the pocket comes out, so they're faster to wash. You have to "stuff" the absorbent part back in after it's been washed & dried. Other than that, when you put them on the baby they're the same.
2. I don't think they're quite as absorbent, but they work really well - my nearly 2 year old goes through about 5 a day if that helps
3. I don't often have a problem with night time, he leaks more often the rare time he's in a disposable overnight. But he's got a LOT of padding at night!
4. Not hard at all, really! I throw them in the machine on a cold rinse, then a hot wash with detergent (sometimes it takes a bit to find the right detergent for you!) Then dry. I have very few stains after 2 years :)
5. I've never tried this, but I suppose you could.
6. Most of mine have fleece liners and older babies' poop is solid enough that it pretty much will fall off into the toilet. You can get a diaper sprayer that attaches to your toilet too, if you want it that much easier.
7. Nope, although I wouldn't leave them for more than 3 days, 4 max. They get stinky after that.
8. Depends on baby's age. 18-24 is a nice number, I think!
9. It goes either way - bums breathe better in cloth, but if you have detergent build-up it can irritate baby's bum. My son gets more rashes in disposables, though.
10. It depends on baby, it really does. I'd get two or three different ones and see what fits best before committing to one kind! I'm a big pocket fan though, they wash and dry quickly and you can add extra stuff to make them more absorbent :)
I really do like them, they don't make my life any harder and they're so cute!
Hope this helps ^_^
1. All in ones, or AIO’s are just that – fitted diaper with a cover and it’s all one piece – pocket diapers have a literal pocket which you stuff the absorbent material into. These tend to dry faster because they aren’t as thick as a dipe which is all together.
2. You’ll prob find you change cloth more because they don’t suck away all that moisture in the same way that disposables do, but they use that creepy gel stuff which is a little gross anyhow :) Plus, who wants their kid running around carrying three pees with them! I find fitted diapers with a nice fleece cover to be really great and we never have leaks to the outside of G’s clothing.
3. I’ve heard wool covers are good for nighttime, though I’ve never tried one out myself. I use my bumgenius dipes at night, or to be honest, sometimes I’ll just throw on a disposable.
4. They really aren’t that hard to clean – I do dipe laundry every 2-3 days. Cold water with a TINY drop of soap, or sometimes no soap just baking soda. Then I do a couple hot rinses, sometimes with vinegar. The rinses are REALLY important so you don’t get build up which you can get with detergents. It also gets them nice and disinfected since there used to be poops on them. :)
5. As I said before, yes, I do my first wash in cold, but you probably don’t want to just do cold.
6. G’s poops are fairly solid these days – we just empty the dipes into the toilet, and if there’s poop stuck, I give it a little swirl as the toilet flushes before tossing it into our dirty dipe bucket.
7. After a couple days they can get a bit of a musty smell, but I’ve never had mold.
8. Depends on how often you want to wash. If you change 10 a day and want 3 days, go with 30. We have about 25 I think. Does about 2 ½ days, sometimes more sometimes less.
9. G has rarely ever had a rash, but when she has it’s always been with disposable dipes. The cloth dipes, in my opinion, are just nicer on their bums, but we definitely use disposables here and there. Usually if I see them on sale, haha.
10. My favourites are my esbaby dipes which are from esbaby.net or esbaby.etsy.com – I use those with a fleece cover, which you can also find really readily on etsy. I also LOVE mu bumgenius diapers, but they are about $25-30 a piece, so we only have 2!
That's cool that you are considering CDing! Honestly, I never had a chance to think about it, b/c we were the subjects of a reality series for a big diaper company, and part of our deal was 2 years of free diapers. I also felt like the extra laundry factor might kill any green-ness of doing it... but as I said, I am totally uneducated about it, so it has been helpful reading the responses! I hope you will blog about it if you decide to try. :)
Most of the answers you asked can be answered by a simple google search. I am busy, so I am deferring to that. The short story: Fuzzy Bunz pocket diapers rock. Stay away from the AIOs. Welcome to the diaper cult. I hope you are successful. You'll be proud of yourself. It is a secret society you'll find yourself proud to be a part of. Here's a good website, too : www.nurturedfamily.com (no, I am not affiliated). Good luck! :)
Thanks so much Pam and Desiree for your answers. As someone else pointed out i could of just done a google search but i was really looking for peoples individual answers and opinions.
Fearless - Yeah look, to be honest, We probably are not going the cloth nappy way. After crunching the numbers it just doesn't seem to make THAT much of a difference financially to our lives (with cold washing then doing a hot rinse which costs a fortune here) especially enough to outweigh the inconvenience factor of the whole thing.
Hi Kate! (It's Catia, from LJ!)
So, it looks like I'm a little late to join the party (I'm usually checking LJ on my iPhone and hate typing long messages on it!), but I thought I'd pop on here and comment (since you just KNOW I love my cloth diapers!) =)
1. As some other people have mentioned, the primary difference between AIOs and pocket diapers is that you have to "stuff" the pocket diapers with an absorbent insert before use. AIOs are exactly like disposables (although some have "snaps" and other have velcro/aplix), and pockets leave you with one extra step. The advantage to pockets, of course, is that you can customize the level of absorbency you need and what kind of insert (things like hemp, for example, hold more pee than something like microfiber and are less bulky!) Also, pockets dry quicker! There are certain kinds of AIOs (or AI2s as they're called sometimes) where you can SNAP IN additional absorbency to suit your needs, or stuff in more absorbency into a pocket opening... this site has a break-down of the 4 main types (pocket, AIOs/AI2s, fitted diapers, and prefold diapers)
http://www.diaperjungle.com/cloth-diaper-types.html
2. Leah has rarely been in disposables, but we were in them for a few weeks when she was 3 or 4 months old because we were battling a yeast diaper rash (which I hear is more common in cloth) and the absorbency was comparable. She's not a very heavy pee-er, though. Our basic cloth diapering system could accommodate her pees as well as the disposable diapers, though (for the amount of time we'd be comfortable leaving her in a disposable, that is; I usually don't wait until the diaper is saturated.)
3. Like I said, Leah is not a very heavy wetter, so night-times aren't a huge deal. When she was still nursing at night (and therefore, I'm assuming, peeing more at nighttime) we'd just double up the regular insert, but now that she's sleeping through 11-12 hours/night, one regular size microfibre insert in her usual (bumGenius 3.0) pocket diaper works great! It's heavy in the morning, but no more than a disposable would be.
4. Cleaning is SUPER easy. For pees, we just through them in a wetbag/pail and throw them in the washer on washing day (after we've pulled out the inserts from our pocket diapers) (2 times / week, usually.) For dirty diapers, we spray them with a diaper sprayer which we've purchased and installed on our toilet (which, btw, that thing is great for rinsing out the tub, filling buckets for cleaning, etc., etc., definitely multi-use!) and then toss them in a pail and wash normally.
5. We wash primarily in cold (and for many months washed ONLY in cold); initially, I thought that hot was required to properly sanitize the diapers but then I heard that washing machines don't really get "sanitize"-hot anyways, so I just make up for it by throwing in a wash cloth with a couple of drops of tea tree oil (also keeps yeast at bay.) I do 1-2 rinses in cold water (only) depending on how long they've been sitting, and then do a heavy duty wash (on cold) with one scoop of cloth-diaper friendly detergent (Charlie's Soap; which we use for all of our clothes) and some OxyClean. Sometimes, I'll do another rinse at the end on hot, depending on my mood, really (ha.)
To dry the diapers, in the winter, I throw everything in the dryer, although I take out pocket diaper shells (the waterproof part) and diaper covers out earlier and let them air-dry the rest of the way. In the Summertime, I line-dry them all because I have this wonderful little retractable clothesline on my balcony and our apartment is west-facing so we have all this wonderful sun! I can't wait for it to warm up some more so I can start doing this again because my diapers have never been whiter/brighter! The sun bleaches better than anything else (and preserves the elastic in the diapers!)
Hi Kate! (It's Catia, from LJ!)
So, it looks like I'm a little late to join the party (I'm usually checking LJ on my iPhone and hate typing long messages on it!), but I thought I'd pop on here and comment (since you just KNOW I love my cloth diapers!) =)
1. As some other people have mentioned, the primary difference between AIOs and pocket diapers is that you have to "stuff" the pocket diapers with an absorbent insert before use. AIOs are exactly like disposables (although some have "snaps" and other have velcro/aplix), and pockets leave you with one extra step. The advantage to pockets, of course, is that you can customize the level of absorbency you need and what kind of insert (things like hemp, for example, hold more pee than something like microfiber and are less bulky!) Also, pockets dry quicker! There are certain kinds of AIOs (or AI2s as they're called sometimes) where you can SNAP IN additional absorbency to suit your needs, or stuff in more absorbency into a pocket opening... this site has a break-down of the 4 main types (pocket, AIOs/AI2s, fitted diapers, and prefold diapers)
http://www.diaperjungle.com/cloth-diaper-types.html
2. Leah has rarely been in disposables, but we were in them for a few weeks when she was 3 or 4 months old because we were battling a yeast diaper rash (which I hear is more common in cloth) and the absorbency was comparable. She's not a very heavy pee-er, though. Our basic cloth diapering system could accommodate her pees as well as the disposable diapers, though (for the amount of time we'd be comfortable leaving her in a disposable, that is; I usually don't wait until the diaper is saturated.)
3. Like I said, Leah is not a very heavy wetter, so night-times aren't a huge deal. When she was still nursing at night (and therefore, I'm assuming, peeing more at nighttime) we'd just double up the regular insert, but now that she's sleeping through 11-12 hours/night, one regular size microfibre insert in her usual (bumGenius 3.0) pocket diaper works great! It's heavy in the morning, but no more than a disposable would be.
4. Cleaning is SUPER easy. For pees, we just through them in a wetbag/pail and throw them in the washer on washing day (after we've pulled out the inserts from our pocket diapers) (2 times / week, usually.) For dirty diapers, we spray them with a diaper sprayer which we've purchased and installed on our toilet (which, btw, that thing is great for rinsing out the tub, filling buckets for cleaning, etc., etc., definitely multi-use!) and then toss them in a pail and wash normally.
5. We wash primarily in cold (and for many months washed ONLY in cold); initially, I thought that hot was required to properly sanitize the diapers but then I heard that washing machines don't really get "sanitize"-hot anyways, so I just make up for it by throwing in a wash cloth with a couple of drops of tea tree oil (also keeps yeast at bay.) I do 1-2 rinses in cold water (only) depending on how long they've been sitting, and then do a heavy duty wash (on cold) with one scoop of cloth-diaper friendly detergent (Charlie's Soap; which we use for all of our clothes) and some OxyClean. Sometimes, I'll do another rinse at the end on hot, depending on my mood, really (ha.)
To dry the diapers, in the winter, I throw everything in the dryer, although I take out pocket diaper shells (the waterproof part) and diaper covers out earlier and let them air-dry the rest of the way. In the Summertime, I line-dry them all because I have this wonderful little retractable clothesline on my balcony and our apartment is west-facing so we have all this wonderful sun! I can't wait for it to warm up some more so I can start doing this again because my diapers have never been whiter/brighter! The sun bleaches better than anything else (and preserves the elastic in the diapers!)
6. Poop > Like I said above, we have a diaper sprayer. I hear some people do the "swirl diapers in toilet" method, but, I'm afraid of getting my hands dirty (seriously!) so I'd rather not try that. Also, I have some fleece rectangular bits that I place in my diapers which wipe away SUPER easy and also serve to pull wetness AWAY from the baby.
7. I've only ever had ONE diaper get mouldy and it was because I *lost* it in Leah's closet, who knows for how long! I only realized it was missing because it was our only orange diaper and I was wondering where it had gone to! It was salvageable, though, and I killed all the yuckies with a couple of hot water bleach washes and drying out in the sun. It's back in our diaper rotation! =)
8. I'd say you need at least 2 dozen, but I have a few more than that for emergencies and such (or when you're lazy and don't want to do the wash straight away!)
9. Cloth has been linked to a slightly higher likeliness of yeast diaper rash, and this holds true for us (because they don't pull away all the wetness from the skin like disposables do; which allegedly leads to quicker potty-training, so keep your fingers crossed for me, haha) On the other hand, Leah is ALWAYS rashy in disposables and that sort of rash clears up right away in cloth. One of the issues with diaper rash in cloth is that you can't use your every-day creams with them for fear of ruining your diapers, so you need to search out some diaper-friendly creams. This link shows cloth-compatible creams:
http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/diaperrashcreams.htm
Also, that website has a lot of awesome information, including cloth friendly detergent and how-tos, so have a peek on over there! =)
10. Now the fun part- recommendations! I'm going to agree with a lot of the people who have posted over here already, and say that I LOVE the bumGenius 3.0s pocket diapers (made by cottonbabies). For me, it was important to get a one-size diaper that would grow with my child (or work on multiple kids- which would be a plus for the diaper bag and errands with more than one!), as well as a diaper that was fairly easy to use (with the exception of stuffing the pockets and laundering, they go on and are used just like a disposable) and that, while expensive, would really last for us. Other bonuses were that they have an awesome resell value AND that they come in really awesome colours.
We also use goodmama fitted diapers. These diapers are GORGEOUS and super expensive... and they require a cover if they're to be worn for a long time (such as overnight) or underneath clothing. We don't like goodmamas for travelling, so we use them around the house, bottom-less (to show the cute design!), and especially during the summertime (since they don't have any waterproof layer they also BREATHE really well). Of course, without a cover, they get damp once peed in, but I find that they hold enough pee that I can notice and change her before she leaves a puddle for me.
I also have some prefold diapers that I picked up as "emergency diapers" for moments when I'm really behind on laundry (and to avoid having to run out for disposables); I fasten these with a little thingamabob called a "snappi" which is super easy to use and not scary at all, unlike safety pins! They, of course, need covers as well. Prefold diapers need to be "folded" onto the baby but it's pretty easy to do- I'm not a pro by any means, but I've never had a poo-splosion in them! You can also just fold them into a cover and fasten it on. Prefolds are BY FAR the most economical diaper! (You can have a whole stash for peanuts!)
For covers (for our goodmama diapers and prefold diapers) I have mostly PUL (polyurethane laminate / waterproof) covers like bummis super whisper wraps and thirsties covers, but I also have some wahm-made fleece covers. Some people use wool, I just haven't ventured into it, yet (and don't think I will.)
We have some random AIOs and other fitteds, but that's the extent of our stash. We have WAAAAAY more than we need (34 bumGenius diapers, 18 prefolds, 8 or so goodmama diapers + 5-6 random diapers + 12-15 covers!) but I LOOOOVE diapering. I love picking diapers out (or rather, Leah does, since she picks out which one she wants now) and I love laundering them! And the stuffing is no problem at all... Marcin and I just put on a good dvd and before we know it they're all stuffed and ready to be put away!
Anyways, I've rambled plenty I'm sure, but if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask! You can get me on LJ or e-mail me @ catiam@hotmail.com! =)
~ Cat
People have pretty well covered the AIO vs. pocket - but I wanted to add, I personally like pockets better also for the reason that you can put extra inserts in to increase absorbency.
I've found they're perfectly absorbent, but they don't hold as much. But really, one is /supposed/ to change a baby every two - three hours anyways, it's just that sposies can hold so flipping much that it doesn't really seem... necessary. With cloth diapers it is necessary, or eventually you get leaks.
For James, we've always used a disposable at night. I kept meaning to try him in cloth over night and never did. However, as I said, with pockets you can add extra inserts for extra absorbency, and kind of customize it to how much your baby wets. I've heard many people recommend a combo of microfleece, which absorbs quickly, and hemp, which absorbs a lot.
You would have to experiment with cold washes. I don't know how well it would work. In my mind, it's the crazy hot water that kills off the bacteria and gets them really clean. I think most diapers say not to use bleach with them because it can damage the waterproofing, so... I don't know.
I'm not sure how different breastfed and formula poo is in the early days. We just chucked 'em in, poo and all, and it washes right out, no problem. I did a cold rinse and a hot wash, with an extra rinse cycle (though I don't know if that's necessary). I've never had them go moldy, and I generally washed 'em every two-three days.
James never had a diaper rash, either way. Most people I know that have trouble with rashes say that in cloth it's better.
We pretty exclusively use Fuzzibunz. I like 'em. They have snaps, which I prefer to velcro. They're pockets. They come in a wide variety of colors. They come in a few different sizes, and each size has several sets of snaps, so they last a long time. We haven't really tried any other brands. I briefly did prefolds when James was a newborn, but he grew out of the small covers and into his medium Fuzzibunz pretty quickly.
I like cloth. I'm not currently using it, though. We moved back in with my parents (oh joy) to save money for awhile, and my mum is not keen on my putting dirty diapers in her washing machine. So, we're just using sposies.
I found the best way of handling the laundry was to put a load in right before bed, then throw it in the dryer in the morning. Kept it from interfering with my regular laundry doing. In theory, anyway, it worked great - I usually forgot. ;)
There's a great cloth diapering community on LJ. I know you're kind of avoiding the crazy crunchykins, and I can't blame you, but they're not too bad. I've only even posted once or twice. Mostly I've found it useful just looking back through the posts to see how different people handle the laundry, reviews of different kinds of diapers, so on and so forth.
I've heard people express concern that the extra water one uses to do the laundry outweighs the greenness of using cloth, but I've read that compared to the amount of water used in the production of disposables, it's marginal.
Good things: Cloth diapers are actually pretty cute. Loads of different patterns, colors, and during the summer you can throw them in a diaper and a shirt and they look fully dressed.
Supposedly makes potty training easier - it's easier for them to tell when they're wet, thereby giving them greater motivation to use the potty.
Obviously, the "green" aspect. Not having to deal with a great deal of garbage. Not having to spend the money on sposies. And I don't know how much things differ in NZ, but while our water is exorbitantly priced here, I noticed very little difference from the extra laundry I was doing.
Contains poosplosions better than disposables, in my experience.
Bad things:
I suck at laundry. Seriously. I procrastinate like crazy, and get behind. For that reason, cloth isn't/wasn't the best fit ever for me, even though I really liked it. Usually once every week/every other week he'd end up in sposies for a couple of days before I got around to doing laundry. That's a me thing, though, YMMV.
Can develop detergent build-up or other problems that can cause leaks. Can totally be remedied. Also, certain of his diapers just always seemed to wick a little at the leg holes. I don't know why. Don't know if it was the diapers or something I was doing wrong. May just have been the diapers were getting old - I got them secondhand.
When you're out and about, you must carry dirty diapers with you rather than just throwing them away. Not a huge deal, you can get a cute bag specifically designed for the purpose, but a mild inconvenience. We often used cloth diapers at home, or if we were just going to be out for a little while, and put him in sposies if we would be out for the day.
I am all about the convenience.
That's all I can think of right now. And I wrote the first half of this several days ago, then got sidetracked and just came back and finished today, so... hopefully I'm not just uselessly parroting what everyone else has already said!
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