Cloth diapers are a ton of work, do you think they’re worth it?
2 Timothy 2:23-24 asked:
Sure they save money and the environment but after all the extra work of cleaning them do you think its really worth it? I'm debating cloth diapers with my second but I'm just not crazy about the idea of cleaning them.
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June 28th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Do you have a washing machine? If so, they aren’t ‘a ton of work.’ You wash them, just like you wash other clothes.
If you don’t have a washer, it’s probably not practical.
July 1st, 2009 at 6:34 am
If I have another baby, I am seriously looking into this. I have heard good things about Bum Genius. Trouble is, I work FT, so my day care provider would have to be cool with it too.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:12 am
I’ve also been doing a lot of research on them and considering switching…but not sure yet. They run about $25/each and i’ll need at least a dozen of them if i’m washing them every other day. That would put me at $300 to get started – or roughly the cost of 8 boxes of diapers. We decided against it to begin with because we are outdoorsy people who go camping a lot in summer, so it’s not practical for us…we will probably just continue to use disposables for the convenience factor – even though they cost more in the long run and are worse for the environment.
July 3rd, 2009 at 2:43 am
They are totally worth it. I did disposables for our first 3 kids. Its years later now and I chose cloth for #4. I use Bum Genius and love them. I can stuff them thin or thick depending on day or night. I bought the one size pockets, so I’ll never have to buy another diaper (they are birth to potty trained). I loaned my sister an off-brand newborn size I bought. She wanted to try them but was skeptical. Her daughter’s **** was bright red her rash stayed so bad. Within 12 hours of trying the cloth, her bottom looked 110% better. She’s now totally hooked too. I know a woman that uses cloth because her daughter has eczema. Anything but cloth keeps her daughter itchy, red, and miserable.
My son is 6 months now and eating solids. I bought a diaper sprayer to clean out the poo. It hooks to the toilet’s water line and is like a kitchen sprayer. I can high pressure spray the poo off into the toilet, then put the diaper in the pail and wash it with no worries of not getting it all out. My husband was skeptical, but he loves them now too. No more 2 AM diaper runs. If I’m washing at night, I just start a load at one feeding, switch to the dryer at the next feeding, and by the 3rd feeding I have a clean load. Cloth is only hard if you let it be. I love ours, especially the cute colors. The deep blue color matches my son’s eyes and looks so much cuter than a disposables!
July 4th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Some people say they’re great because of diaper rash issues. And they’ve come a long way in the years since they were used on us. But as far as being better for the environment, I think it’s a toss up. Because you use an awful lot of hot water to clean them, plus you are using chemicals, too (detergents, possibly bleach, an additional rinse cycle, etc).
July 7th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I tried cloth diapers with my first son. He always seemed to wet through to his clothes, even though he had pilchers on as well. So I not only changed his diaper, but his clothes as well. Also, even though I changed him as soon as he was wet, he had nappy rash all the time (or it felt like it). In the end I gave up and switched to disposables. You can buy environmentally friendly ones now. I can’t remember what they are made from (some plant or something) but they break down easier.
July 10th, 2009 at 5:57 am
Not that much work actually. I have two kids in diapers and I wash them every other day, occasionally I need to wash them everyday. It takes you a few minutes to chuck them into the washing machine and then a few more minutes to transfer them to the dryer, or a bit longer than that if you’re hanging them out to dry.
July 11th, 2009 at 10:44 am
no, we use disposable
July 12th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
They also make flush-able paper slips that you put in the diapers and simply drop them in the toilet to remove most of the poo. I was also going to mention the sprayer that hooks straight to the toilet line. You could also look into a diaper service which isn’t really that much vs disposables. You could always use disposables for trips and such when storing dirty cloth diapers would be an issue.
July 13th, 2009 at 6:54 am
I know I am going to be eaten alive for saying this BUT I would and do use disposables. I can feel the safety pins getting ready to attack me now! I had my daughter in disposables and then thought, hey why not go out and get all the bits and pieces for cloth diapers – so I did. I got home and on it went. When I went to change her — mmmm — and off it came and never went back on. Cloth diapers require cleaning off then washing then drying then folding. Disposables require putting them in the bin. The disposable nappies have Aloe and great absorbency and fit well around their legs. Yes I know that they are not good for the environment but at 2am you really don’t give a toss.