I'm afraid I can't help with your problem, as I use disposables myself. But I am thinking of switching, too. I would really like to know about the chemicals that are used in making disposables. Would you mind sharing what you learned?

Well, how frugal are we talking, here? Because all of the diapers I have I either made myself, bought used, or had given to me.

So my first suggestion would be to mention to other mom-friends that you're looking into getting some cloth diapers. It's a good way to put yourself in the way of windfalls! So far I've had 3 moms hand down their stash to me, and another mom let me clean out her sewing room & keep everything I found. I managed to get a HUGE stack of diaper-service quality prefolds (which, incidentally, tend to wear the longest. I think the ones I have have been through 5 kids altogether), about 3 dozen newborn-size contours, and a batch of MotherEase one-size snap diapers, plus all the diaper covers I'll ever need.

If you'd like to sew them, I like the Better Baby Diaper pattern, which is a one-size pattern. It served me quite well with my little ones, although they definitely don't last as long as the DSQ prefolds.

As for buying them used, you can find TONS of used diapers on e-bay, mothers nature auctions, and lots of other diapering boards. I think diaper selling & swapping has become a form of entertainment for many moms!

If you're afraid of pins, you have lots of options. You can even use the prefolds and not use pins! There's diaper clips (I think it's called the Di-Dee clip or something like that) that work along the same lines as a suspender clip, and there are velcro wraps that you can just lay the prefold into and velcro it shut. There are lots of all-in-one diapers to choose from, though. But those don't seem to be the most economical option - you have to buy them in sizes, they're EXPENSIVE, and they can't be used for anything else (like cleaning rags or menstrual pads) when they wear out.

Have you looked at the Born To Love site yet? I think that would be the best place to start, because she carries a HUGE selection of diapers (just about everything offered!), plus she's got links to diapering boards, swap boards, make-it-yourself sites......

Anyway, I hope this will at least get you started! e-mail me if you've got any specific questions!

Becky,
Thanks for all the info! I hadn't even thought of ebay, but I will go take a look there for some used diapers. Unfortunately, I have absolutely NO sewing ability so making diapers isn't much of an option. (I know, I know, I'm sure sewing diapers isn't that challenging... but I have honestly never sewn a thing!)

And unfortunately again, I don't know ANY other mothers that use cloth diapers. My sister used to, but she had a diaper service. In fact, I just mentioned the fact to my SIL's and MIL that I'm thinking about switching to cloth and they all got really irritated. --Like, I am doing something wrong. My MIL went on and on about how after I factor in how much it costs to wash the diapers that I wouldn't really be saving money anyways and blah blah blah... Whatever.

I'm going to take a look at the Born to Love site right now... Thanks!

And Kiwimum, here's a link to the articles I read about disposable vs. cloth. http://www.thebabymarketplace.com/securestore/c42038.2.html

I can't remember which articles talk about the chemicals in disposable diapers, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the links in that list. If not, just do a search for cloth diapers and you'll find all sorts of information.

One of the key issues concerning chemicals in disposables is dioxin, a known carcigonen.

I'll try to answer as much as I can, but we only have 1 kid. He's 19mo and has only worn cloth diapers.
1- How long will they last? I'm planning on having 5 kids, and I'm just curious if they will hold up
through all of them?

Most websites claim they will. And if you buy DSQ (diaper service quality), they should. They're meant to last through industrial washings and multiple clients.

One of the better bets for multiple kids, especially of different ages (like 2 and newborn) are adjustable diapers. Snug/snap to fits run from 8 to 35 lbs., depending on how you snap them.

Prefolds are handy for infants because they can be laid right in a cover. You can use them later on as a doubler for older kids, espeically for overnight.

We've probably spent about$300 on cloth, and here's what we have: about 60 kooshies basic, small size (8-22lbs.), a dozen or so kooshies classics and ultras, small size. 36 dsq prefolds. Way too many AIO carosouls. Maybe 6 AIO dimples. 12 large (22-40?) kooshies ultras. And a dozen or so snap-to-fits. $300 sounds like a lot, but I know plenty of people who are spending $20/week on disposables. Of what we have -- I wish we had started out with more snug-to-fits, which would have kept us from buying a lot of different sizes. The prefolds are handy, and not too expensive. Carasols don't work for DS; the snaps don't stay closed. Dimples are great for overnight. Kushies AIO/ultras are so easy for going out, and the person who sits DS allows us to use them there.

Borntoluv is a good starting place. Also check out kidalog.com for patterns (I don't sew, so can't help you there) and reasonable diapers. Kanggah.com has a resale board, and plenty of outlet prices (Canadian, too, so it's real cheap!), and eBay is always a good source. Do a search for cloth diapers; there's something like 7 pages.

2- It seems like it's pretty expensive to start out... I don't have ANYTHING right now. So about how
much do you think I would need to spend to diaper the two kids I have now. (I'm hoping my 2 year
old daughter won't be wearing them for too much longer anyways...)

Oh -- see above.

It depends on how much convenience you want. Prefolds are probably the cheapest, but need higher quality wraps and/or pinned. All in Ones (AIOs) are the most expensive, but don't need a cover.

For covers -- I like Alexis snaps, or the target brand. Gerbers are also okay. These are cheap, usually 3 pairs for $5 - $7 -- some people would recommend nikki's or motherease, but they're at least $8/wrap and the size range is small. Jardine.com (or jardinediapers.com?) has a wrap program that lets you sign up for discounts if you keep ordering through them.

A lot of people claim that it's easier to potty train in cloth, too.

3- Do you use the kind with the velcro or snaps, or are you using safety pins?

When DS was new we used prefolds and pinned them. Now we use a combination of fitted and AIOS -- all of our diapers either snap or velcro. We really have never had problems with leaks. He even wears the same diaper all night without leaking -- and he's a heavy wetter.

4- Washing... How do you wash them? I remember when I was a kid soaking the poopy diapers in

Two great inventions: diaper ducks, a $10 item you hang in the toilet that "wrings" out the diaper for you (no hands in the bowl!) and diaper liners. These look like dryer sheets -- they're flushable and biodegradable. When baby poops, you can just dump it in the toilet and flush. They work better after the runny newborn stage, but they're still helpful then. If they're just wet, you can wash & reuse them. A roll of 100 is about $4. I prefer the Imse Vimse to Kooshies -- I think they hold up better, and they're much softer. The Gerber brand isn't flushable, so I can't imagine why someone would use them.

We do a "dry pail", no soaking, just toss the diapers in. When it's on it's way to full we launder -- it averages out to not quite 2x a week. We do an initial wash with vinegar to take out the urine, then wash with Arm & Hammer Free or All Free. We then do a second rinse with vinegar. Never use Ivory Snow, other "pure" soaps, or bleach on cloth diapers.

5- What do you use to contain them until it's laundry time?

A cheap $5 kitchen trash can that I bought at family dollar. We've been using it for over a year and a half, and I have no odor problems. When we go out, we just take a plastic bag along, or a bag we get through chooseydiapers.com for that purpose. We've cloth diapered on vacations, car trips, other people's houses, events -- everywhere, and never had a problem with containing or transporting them.

I'd like to add that I think cloth diapers (and breastfeeding) is one of the best decisions we made for DS -- for health, economic, and environmental reasons. It's not gross, it's not hard (I work full time, am a full time student, and manage). There have been some studies linking the outgassing of disposable diapers to asthma, and the use of dioxin remains a central concern. We have not seen an increase in our water usage, and we mostly line dry outside and fluff in the dryer, so our electric bill hasn't gone up either.

And, environmentally, much more water is wasted in the production of disposable diapers than in the laundering of cloth. Add to that the degredagtion of the forests, the chemical by-products of paper mills, the fossil fuel in transporting and running to stores and trash hauling, and the leaking of human feces into the water table through landfills ... we didn't choose cloth for environmtal reasons, but it certainly is an added benefit.

Sorry to go on and on and on; I hope some of this helps. If nothing else, you now "know" another mother who cloth diapers!

Mary, the things your MIL & SIL are saying about cloth are the rationalization THEY used after deciding that THEY didn't care for the "hassle" of doing something better for their baby and their environment. Ignore them. They know you're choosing the best - if it wasn't, why would they be so defensive?

I forgot to answer about washing & diaper pails!

When we're gung-ho diapers (we're almost toilet learned now, so there's not many diapers right now), we use a 2-pail system (which works well because 2 full pails makes one XL laundry load.). I keep the wet diapers in one pail, and the messy ones in another. If the baby is getting any food other than breastmilk, I use a diaper liner, which even you can make by cutting rectangles of polar-fleece to fit inside the diaper. The fleece wicks away moisture (which usually solves any persistent rash problems), and you only have to dunk the fleece liner in the toilet & the poop comes right off. Then both diaper & liner go in the "messy" pail.

I'm not sure about the smell - maybe I'm desensitized. I know that I sure smell the disposables when we use those!

To wash, I empty the messy pail into the washer, and wash them on warm with soap and about a 1/2 - 1 c. baking soda or washing soda. When that's done, I leave them in the washer & empty the wet pail in, and wash it all on hot with the soap & soda. Then I do an extra rinse with a cup of vinegar in it. Line dry if possible (it makes the diapers last longer). If you feel the need to bleach, use OxiClean - it won't eat your diapers or cause the toxic residues that you're trying to avoid from the chlorine. (It's chemicals created by reaction to chlorine bleach that cause the problems with disposable diaper materials, so it makes sense to skip the clorox!)

I *do* use a bit of chlorine bleach to clean the diaper pails periodically. I rinse them out with warm water, scrub any messies off the sides, then fill the pails about half-full with hot water & glug in just a bit of bleach. Swish that around, dump it, rinse with a bit of plain water, and then sprinkle the bottoms with a bit of baking soda. It takes a lot less time than it sounds, and I do it after every other wash or so (like when my eyes water just from opening the empty pail!)

I have a friend who uses her Diaper Champ with her cloth diapers - that might work well for you. Who knows!

In case it helps - my friend is going to use cloth diapers via a service for her new baby because of skin allergies. Here in the Atlanta metro area, one month of diaper service for one child is running them $82.

Her reasons are mostly skin-related, as this is not more frugal or cheaper than disposables. Purchasing and laundering your own, once you consider time, wear and energy for laundering, etc, the savings are somewhat eaten up. I'm not sure the 'green', environment argument falls solidly on one side or the other either, once you factor in detergents, energy to launder, etc. it seems there are pros and cons on both the disposable and the cloth side.

Good luck either way you go! Hope the $82 pricepoint helps!

oops - I forgot to say something about pins - to pin, all you do is put two fingers between the diaper & the baby. That way, if anyone gets jabbed, it's YOU. I think I've only jabbed myself 5-10 times in the 10 combined years of diapering I've done. (I cared for my baby sisters a lot when I was younger....and am still using some of their 17yo Curity seconds on MY kids! They're FINALLY starting to fall apart!) If the pin doesn't want to slind through, rub the pin shaft across your forehead, or down the side of your nose - the skin oils will lubricate it, and the pin will slide right in.

Another question - do you knit or crochet? If you knit, I have a wool diaper soaker pattern I can give you. I'll be using soakers primarily with this baby - they're all-natural, totally breathable, and I can make them myself for around $5 apiece or less.

Another place for you to check out - weebees.com I think they have some of the best prices on prefolds, and I *think* they carry the Alexis covers (I like the side-snap ones, too!) They'll probably be right up your alley - WeeBees caters to frugal moms of many, because that's what the owner is herself! I think their diapers run around $25 a dozen fro DSQ prefolds....and I like to have on hand about 4-5 dozen. 3 dozen will work, though. And 3-7 covers in each size (they don't need to be washed as often, and they're easy to rinse & air-dry between washings). I'll be doing 5 of each for my wool covers.

Here's a link to a cloth diaper sale/swap/question board:

Here is a link that might be useful: Cloth Diaper board

Hi form Iowa, Mary,

When my first child was born I contemplated using cloth diapers, too. I even went out and bought 4 or 5 dozen cloth diapers and some covers. I tried it for two weeks and hated it! The urine smell was so awful in the diaper pail ( I tried putting water in and also the dry way). We won't even mention the rinsing in the toilet of the dirty ones...Yuk!
I guess it just wasn't for me. I ended up trying to make training pants out of some of the cloth diapers and I didn't love them either. The rest of them I have used for years as cuddles (a blankie type thing to sleep with) for my two kids and burp cloths also. I also have done child day care for many years and are still using them for burp cloths for many children. I also hated the washing part of it. The smell just made me sick. I didn't mind folding them at all. That was the only part about using cloth that I didn't mind.

I'm sorry if I sound negative about using cloth...but this was my experience. I can tell you if one of my daycare people wanted me to do the cloth diapering thing...I would have to pass.

I hope you make the right decision for you and your child.
May God Bless You!
.....Brenda

Brenda's problem is common for people who go to their local store, or Walmart, or whatever, and buy a pack of birdsweave gerber prefolds. They're lousy, and it's no wonder so many people give up when using them.

Please don't be discouraged! I've been cloth diapering for 19months, and I wouldn't change for a second. And Paty and Becky have great experiences, too.

I didn't read the other responses so some of this might be repetetive, but here's my story:

We use cloth diapers on DD who is now 3 months old. We use disposables for traveling but that is the only time we use them (a jumbo pack will last 4-6 weeks in this case). The only reason we don't travel with cloth is because they take up too much room in the diaper bag and are messier than I want to deal with.

I bought all my diapers from organic bebe.com. (No, I don't work for them.) (I believe jardine diapers has a good website too - has lots of FAQ on cloth diapering. Type the name in a search engine. I've never ordered from them though.) After trial and error and several orders I've decided that 3 dozen diapers and about 5 wraps is a good amount to have on hand. This leaves you doing laundry every other day. We only use the prefolds because it's the cheapest and not any less convenient than all-in-ones or fitted diapers. Plus, I don't have a lot of space to store several different kinds of diapers. With the prefolds, I just stack them up and put them on a shelf. Works very easily. We have a wet pail and a dry pail. Basically a wet pail is a bucket of water that we keep in the bathroom that has a presoak in it (we use BIZ - look in the laundry aisle). Poopy diapers go in here. We also have a dry soak that lives by the crib. It is a diaper pail with a trash bag in it. Wet diapers go in here. We were just using a wet pail but it was filling up too fast and I wasn't sure wet diapers needed to really "soak" anyhow. Since DD only has a poopy diaper about once a day it's very convenient to have the dry pail so close to the crib! The wet pail lives in the bathroom so that you can dump the solids in the toilet before allowing the diapers to soak. When it's time to do a wash I dump all the diapers in the washer and run it on hot. We use dreft detergent on the cloth diapers but any detergent will do. (Somebody gave it to us and I thought we should make sure baby's bum isn't sensitive to Tide or other detergents. Plus, somebody said Dreft gets the diapers the whitest-don't know if that's true or not. When we run out of Dreft we'll probably use the family detergent. I use Tide on all her clothes as well as ours.) I do not dry the wraps in the dryer. I let them air dry. But, I do use the dryer for the prefolds.

When buying prefolds you want to make sure they are good quality. Chinese prefolds and Baby textiles are supposedly the best but I go by their absorbancy chart. 4x8x4 is what I buy. That means there are 8 layers of absorbancy in the middle and 4 layers on each side. You can also buy diapers in 4x6x4 or 2x4x2 depending on how much absorbancy you want. I don't go any less than 4x8x4. I also don't use pins. What's great about prefolds is they will fit into a wrap very easily. Just fold into thirds, slip into a wrap, and slip under baby, velcro up. I like the Bummis Super Whisper wrap. (Look at the www.organicbebe.com diaper packages.)

I had no idea what I was doing when I decided to use cloth diapers. I placed several posts similar to this one (Kara_PA is a lifesaver!!!) to get a general idea of where to start. Like you, I wanted to use them for financial reasons and because they're better for the environment. I hate seeing all those disposables going into the landfill. I guess this is how I'm doing my part to help. My folks used cloth diapers so I got a lot of help from them. They taught me about the presoak and how to diaper the baby. Things have changed since my brothers and I were babies, but the basics are still the same. Some people don't like cloth because the clothes fit bulkier. That is true, but it's not that bad. Besides, I figure if I'm taking DD anywhere that really matters she'll be in disposables anyhow! Who cares how their clothes look around the house! If you do decide to cloth diaper you will go through all kinds of trial and error and find a system that works for you. And, like me, your system might even change a little until you're comfortable with what you have. We had several fitted and all in one diapers on hand until I decided they weren't that much better and I couldn't justify the cost. An all-in-one Bumkins diaper costs about $11 (give or take). It will last about 6 months according to the manufacturer. You can buy disposables cheaper than that! So, I sold all of my all-in-ones and fitted diapers on ebay! Don't hesitate to ask more questions!

Good luck to you!

Thank you all for your responses! Really, I was totally clueless about the world of cloth diapers before this!

So, here's my current plan: I'm going to try out our local diaper service for awhile (just waiting for them to call me back...) to see how I like cloth, and to decide which type I want to buy. I've looked at a bunch of different styles online but I still feel like I'm clueless about them... I just don't have enough experience yet to figure out which type to buy.

And luckily, DH has decided that he can go along with it since it's obvious to him that this isn't just some passing whim for me (not too surprising, he's a pretty easy going sort). But I really appreciate all your help. I'm going to have to print off this thread to make sure I don't lose all your tips!

Mary

Juat wanted to invite you over to the diapering your baby board over at babycenter. There are lots of cloth diaper users over there and I think the board's format makes it easier to read than some others (just click on message, then "view all" then "expand" to read the whole thread with all responses). Also (as previously mentioned) www.borntolove.com is great-- basically anything you ever wanted to know about cloth diapering!! I especially like the diaper review link because it lets you see what other cd'ers have thought about a particular diaper BEFORE you buy it.

That said-- cloth diapering really is easy!! The only thing a little different from previous posters is that I do a cold rinse first as feces is a protein and hot water can set those stains (or so I've heard-- 10 1/2 mo.s and no stains yet!). If we have several "messies" I add Purex or 20 Mule Team to this presoak. We follow with a hot wash and a cold rinse. I'd skip the dreft-- it's my understanding that it has built in softeners that "coat" the fibers-- making them less absorbent (same reason you don't want to use fabric softeners). If you are worried about sensitivity-- get the no perfume/no dye kind until you are sure kiddo is not sensitive. We primarily use velcro closure fitteds with velcro diaper wraps and some fuzzibuns style (polar fleece inner and PUL outer) that I made myself (we stuff them with DSQ prefolds). All really easy-- even for DH! :) We bought our diapers off e-bay-- some brand new-- and I calculated that we broke even at 3 1/2 mos. (even with water/detergent costs) compared to what we would have spent on cheapo dri bottoms from Wal-Mart-- and most supplies will be re-usable for kiddo #2! We had to buy another size of supplies-- break-even for everything was at 6 mos. If I had done only prefolds-- I would only have had to buy more covers, so it would have been an even better deal!
Anyway-- congratulations to you and good luck with cloth!!

Magdelena

Here is a link that might be useful: diapering your baby forum

Juat wanted to invite you over to the diapering your baby board over at babycenter. There are lots of cloth diaper users over there and I think the board's format makes it easier to read than some others (just click on message, then "view all" then "expand" to read the whole thread with all responses). Also (as previously mentioned) www.borntolove.com is great-- basically anything you ever wanted to know about cloth diapering!! I especially like the diaper review link because it lets you see what other cd'ers have thought about a particular diaper BEFORE you buy it.

That said-- cloth diapering really is easy!! The only thing a little different from previous posters is that I do a cold rinse first as feces is a protein and hot water can set those stains (or so I've heard-- 10 1/2 mo.s and no stains yet!). If we have several "messies" I add Purex or 20 Mule Team to this presoak. We follow with a hot wash and a cold rinse. I'd skip the dreft-- it's my understanding that it has built in softeners that "coat" the fibers-- making them less absorbent (same reason you don't want to use fabric softeners). If you are worried about sensitivity-- get the no perfume/no dye kind until you are sure kiddo is not sensitive. We primarily use velcro closure fitteds with velcro diaper wraps and some fuzzibuns style (polar fleece inner and PUL outer) that I made myself (we stuff them with DSQ prefolds). All really easy-- even for DH! :) We bought our diapers off e-bay-- some brand new-- and I calculated that we broke even at 3 1/2 mos. (even with water/detergent costs) compared to what we would have spent on cheapo dri bottoms from Wal-Mart-- and most supplies will be re-usable for kiddo #2! We had to buy another size of supplies-- break-even for everything was at 6 mos. If I had done only prefolds-- I would only have had to buy more covers, so it would have been an even better deal!
Anyway-- congratulations to you and good luck with cloth!!

Magdelena

Here is a link that might be useful: diapering your baby forum

Hi Mary,

This thread is kinda old... you've probably got things all figured out now, but I thought I'd add my two cents.

It took me until DS was 3 months old to finally switch. I was sooooo overwhelmed by all the different diapers out there and how expensive they are! Money is VERY tight for us right now and I just couldn't afford to try out all the different types of diapers. My inlaws gave us a huge box of 'sposies for christmas, saving us 50 dollars that month in diapers. So I took that 50 bucks and got started.

First, I thought I'd just by-pass all the fancy diaper systems (as great as I thought fuzzi bunz sounded! too much $$!) I found 2 dozen NICE DSQ (diaper service quality) unbleached prefolds (the old fashioned kind you fold) on mothernature auction. Then I searched ebay for used diaper covers and would order one when I found one at a good price to try. I finally decided I like diaperaps and proraps, so I bought more of those used (you CAN get away with only 2 covers if you want to wash one while you use the other, but it makes for a lot of laundry.)

I don't use any pins I just lay the prefold in the cover and velcro the cover on. I did find some used fuzzi bunz on ebay to try, but I don't like them. I got polar fleece from my fabric store out of the bargain bin and cut it up like Becky said. I lay that on top of the prefold to keep DS dry. There is a pinless diaper closure called the snappi though, I haven't tried it.

I put a scoop of oxiclean in with my diapers, we do the drypail method and b/c ds is still exclusively bfing I don't need to dunk any poop in the toilet. I really like CDing. The Borntolove.com site is great, and Rocketbabies.com has a lot of good info to on washing dipes etc.

I'm glad I finally dove in. I have A TON of links for diaper swap boards. Oh, and I didn't buy a pattern for my fitted diapers, I just stretched out one I bought used and traced a pattern from it. Used up my flannel stash... but they are pretty bulky under covers.

I think I'm the one Becky's refering to, I use my diaper champ with my cloth dipes. Just line it with a laundry bag instead of a trash bag. I have a link for a waterproof laundry bag if you are interested. No smell! :0)

Jae