Monday, August 9, 2010

Cloth Diapering Decisions

One thing that I have had my mind made up on from the beginning is the fact that I want to do cloth diapering. I can't tell you how many negative reactions I have received from this little adventure, but it doesn't bother me one bit. I feel lucky to be able to stay at home with my baby and this is one way I can help make that happen. I just hope I love it as much as I think I'm going to! 

The last few days I have been completely immersed in the world of Cloth Diapering. There is so much information out there and so many options. It truly is overwhelming. Obviously I have no baby to try them out of just yet, but I'll go ahead and "preview" the selections I have made as testers. 

One site that I have found extremely helpful in sorting out this cloth diapering situation is Jillian's Drawers. If you click on the New to Cloth tab you will find an answer to probably just about every question you could think of when it comes to cloth diapering. The most intriguing information to me was the fact that you save somewhere between $1300 - $1900 per child with these babies. That's no small chunk of change!

There are so many different options now and I have to say it totally baffled me! One thing that I was kinda disappointed to find out is that you really need 2 systems. One for newborns and one for the rest of the time they are in diapers simply because newborns are so small at first.

At first I thought it might be best just to use disposables for the newborn stage, but after crunching the numbers I found that even with the two different systems I will be purchasing that it's still more economical to do the cloth diapering. 

Once my child is out of the newborn stage I will most likely be switching to the one size fits all variety of cloth diapers, but for now I will be doing the "perfect sizes" since they cater a little bit more to the small newborn body. I have ordered 4 types of cloth diapers to test out on my little guy and see what works best.

The first type is the contour which actually just wraps around the body of the baby and then topped off with a waterproof cover. It's a step above pre-folds which are even less expensive, but require folding. The brand I've selected is Imse Vimse in Organic Cotton Terry.

I have to say that I bought this one mostly out of curiosity. I was honest with myself and pretty much knew I wouldn't be able to handle the prefolds, but thought this would be my little way of giving them a shot. I'll be interested to see how well it stops leaks since it does not have elastic around the legs.

The next type I have picked out to try is the fitted diaper which also requires a cover. Again this wasn't my first pick when I began looking and doubt I will continue to use this type once he's a little bigger, but I have read in so many places that they are the best fit when it comes to newborns so I thought I better give it a shot. The brand I selected on this one is the Kissaluv brand in size 0 which is supposedly the best when it comes to newborn diapering. It looks like it has great potential, I'm just not sure I'm going to like having to buy and put on covers as well.

Speaking of diaper covers....I've chosen two to test out. The first is the Imse Vimse Organic Cotton Diaper Cover which has easy to use velcro. I do worry about the velcro because I have heard that it doesn't hold up as well over time but thought I'd give this a shot for ease of use.

The second is the Thirsties Snap Duo Wrap which has more durable snaps as opposed to velcro.
  
Don't you just love how cute they are? One upside to the waterproof covers is the fact that you will probably only need to purchase about the half the amount since you can wipe them clean instead of throwing them into the wash every single time.

The final two types of diapers I decided to test out are the Pocket Diaper and the All in One. I have read multiple rave reviews on other blogging sites about both of these and can't wait to try them out. I will most likely be purchasing these two types when my little guy gets big enough to wear the one size diaper.

The pocket diaper brand I chose was Fuzzibunz. The advantage to these is first off the durable snaps as well as the fact that you are able to put extra inserts in as needed for naps or long car rides. I see these being very handy for overnight!


The All in One I chose was Bumgenius. These are the most easy diaper to use because you don't have to "stuff" them if you don't want to. Although the newborn set does have that option if needed. One downside is that the Ex-Small size only comes with velcro. I'll be buying the snap version of the one size down the road.

Now I just need the baby to try them out on! I'll be sure to post a follow up once I have the actual results.

3 comments :

  1. Loved reading this!! I plan on cloth diapering, too, and my mom has already laughed at me and my MIL completely wrinkled her nose. I am excited for it, though!

    I can't wait to hear more about your adventures when the little one comes!

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  2. Oh my goodness, they are sooo cute!! My mom used to try convincing me to use cloth ones because that's how she raised me and my sister when we're babies. I think it's good for baby's tiny bottom. As long as you're comfortable with it, you should go for it!!!!

    xoxo

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  3. Yes, please post your results. I'm dying to find out. I really want to cloth diaper, and my husband and I went to a class, but they were only on prefolds, not diapers like bumgenius. I don't think I can keep up with prefolds. I'd love to do gdiapers, but they're really pretty expensive. Thanks for sharing what you know so far, pics included!!

    I've received a lot of backlash, too. Both my Mom and MIL think it's unsanitary, and non of my friends (except one) gets it. That ONE friend I have is actually going to make me a cloth diaper to try out since she's trying to get pregnant and wants me to tell her how I like it. lol The problem is that we're going to be staying with our families for two weeks this winter and I'll have to use sposies since they don't want me using their washer for it. (They'd buy us diapers, too.) And since it's their house I have to respect that. And I'm not going to a laundry mat just to do diapers, you know?

    Any way, please keep updating us! :) Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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