We have washed our last diaper, friends. We are now all disposable all the time — with mixed feelings.
When I was pregnant with Lucy, I used to sit up for hours (literally) at night “researching”:http://diaperpin.com cloth diapers. Are they less expensive than disposable ones? Which ones are the easiest to use? Is it gross to buy them used? And how can anyone choose between all the adorable patterns?
p{color:gray}. Photo: Gotta keep this cute little butt happy!
We used cloth diapers probably “80% of the time”:/news/2006/growth-spurt/ with Lucy. We bought some used Fuzzi Bunz from a friend and loved them. Sure, they occasionally leaked, and we often used a disposable diaper for long outings, but it felt really good to use them — we didn’t fill up the trash so quickly, we were saving money on buying paper diapers, and they were so cute!
When Rosie came along, it took a month or two for us to start up with the cloth diapers again — I just wasn’t in a big hurry to further complicate our lives with daily diaper washings. By the time we started, we discovered that Rosie had already outgrown our size-small Fuzzi Bunz (which Lucy was probably in until she was 9-10 months old). Our size-mediums were looking pretty rough around the edges, so I bought some used ones on “craigslist”:http://craigslist.com/. Fluffy, colorful, new diapers — we were ready to go!
It turned out that the new Fuzzi Bunz leaked almost every time for Rosie. (She is certainly shaped differently than Lucy, so that probably has something to do with it.) I quickly got tired of changing Rosie’s entire outfit for every diaper change. I found that I was often making excuses to just put a disposable diaper on Rosie and not worry about it. So, after several weeks of trying and a bit of angst, we finally decided to call it a day and give our Fuzzi Bunz a new home.
If I were more dedicated to cloth diapering, I could have done some more research, tried other brands of diapers, really worked the system until we found something effective. But as it turns out, we have mixed feelings about cloth diapers anyway. It is definitely great to not fill up the trash with them, and they are less expensive than paper (especially if you buy them used) (the cloth diapers, I mean). But the cost savings gets lost when you factor in the price of energy to wash them — plus, using all that energy is hardly very eco-friendly either. The main loss, in my opinion, is cuteness (although even that can be called into question, since cloth diapers create bizarrely giant baby-butts). The main gains are effectiveness, convenience, and not having to do laundry *every* day — and those are big gains!
So, I’m continuing to do research to find the least-expensive disposable diapers out there, since we are going through a lot of them these days. Currently, I think Target wins with size 4 diapers under $0.13 each — not bad, but it certainly adds up when you are doing six or more diaper changes each day!
And, in terms of cuteness, I’m growing to adore those little Wonder-Woman “underpants”:/news/2008/belly-shot/ that often come with baby girl dresses. Lucy and Rosie both wear the same size of these super-undies, so we have lots to choose from!
We love these: http://www.gdiapers.com/
We did cloth diapers of various kinds and found these toward the tail-end of kid #3. Kid #4 uses them almost exclusively. They seem to be the best of both worlds. And you’re not putting human waste into landfills (bad idea for a number of reasons) but into a system designed to handle it.
Check them out!
—
Jeffrey, father of four
Although if you are going for less $$$ g-diapers are more expessive than anything out there and if you aren’t sure about your plumming watch out…friends have reported issues in older homes.
I am sorry about the diapers not working out. We had lots of leaks with Maddy in the cloth, but Lydia not nearly as many. I really think it has to do with size and shape of the kid. Plus is cloth you really do have to do more changes a day and if you only have 12 or so diapers, it is a lot of work. Some how we ended up with about 36 diapers and I am only washing every 3 days. Really not much, considering a family of 4 has a ton of laundry. But our new house has the wash on the main floor, I think this makes it way easier as I do it while doing every thing else and it isn’t going up and down the stairs. Nice.
We just bought our first package of (size 3, ahh she is so different than her sister) diapers last week (we use paper at night only) and Lydia is 8 months. Considering we haven’t put out a penny on diapers since Maddy was three months (when we bought the cloth) it has saved us a ton.
In the long run I think you have to do what is right for you.
Oh, the diapers. Will they ever go away? Josi’s motherease diapers are so threadbare that it’s embarrassing. That girl needs to get on the toilet, but I’m stalling. Maybe *I’m* the one who needs M&Ms and jelly beans.
So you dont have to do laundry every day? I am so jealous. I need to do at least one load a day….and could always do more.
I have really liked the Target brand diapers for Gwenna.
Blessings to you.
I’ve heard from several people that didn’t like Target brand, but I personally love them! They’ve worked great on both my kids, price is good (especially when they go on sale, or you can buy a case on clearance), and they are sturdy. I never cloth diapered with Kaia, and with Mo it was on the weekends. Now that he’s older, he’d much rather wear “pull-up” style so that when he feels like it he can use the potty.
Of course good mom that I am, my son is currently wearing princess pull-ups (bought on sale with a coupon) and the pink generic pull-ups because the store was out of blue in his size. He doesn’t think it’s strange at all!