Sarah and I decided to use cloth diapers. Part of it was the long-term monetary savings of not continuously buying more disposable diapers. The other part was the appeal of being "green," or environmentally sensitive. After a lot of reading, mostly on Sarah's part, we realized it wasn't as cut and dry as we had originally thought. The amount of water used to wash the diapers each time, plus the energy used, especially by the dryer, is not to be ignored. However, we decided that if we could line dry the diapers, it would end up being the best option for us.
When I was a baby, I'm pretty sure the options for cloth diapers were white rectangles... or white rectangles. Though fewer people use cloth diapers now, there are more creative options than there ever have been before. With the generous help of friends and family, as well as some large buy in from us, we got the Bum Genius diapers seen in the photo above. They apparently work as easily as the preform disposables that are widely used, but can be used over and over again. They also come in fun colors if white doesn't cut it for you.
We're just at the front end of using these diapers, and will probably give an update as we develop our opinions of them. If you're interested in cloth diapering, let us know, and we'd be happy to share any info we found while researching, as well as anything helpful that's come from our own experience with them.
3 comments:
How do the diapers work for holding the urine for longer periods of time? I am thinking of night time... for example, Oliver wakes up once at the most to nurse and I don't want to change him (then he REALLY wakes up) so he in in the same diaper from around 9pm until 6am. Just curious if you have to change them very frequently then.
Post new pictures of him soon! I bet he has changed a lot already.
Good question. We're still feeding Elliott multiple times a night, and he usually needs his diaper changed most times (because it's poopy, not because it's soaked through). However, each diaper comes with both a newborn insert, which is small, and a toddler insert, which is larger and more absorbent. Most people seem to use the toddler insert for their infants overnight once they're sleeping longer, like Oliver, and you can also use both the newborn and toddler inserts together for extra absorbency if you need it. I've got friends with older kids who use these diapers, and they don't seem to have problems with them overnight, even once they're sleeping through the night. The diapers fit babies from 7 lbs - 35 lbs, so they should be made absorbent enough to contain even as much as a 35 lb toddler could wet during a full night's sleep.
I have a 16 mo old boy and the inserts from Bum Genius DID NOT work to keep him dry over night or even through his 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon. So I bought the old Chinese pre-folds and used those as the insert with the bum genius cover around it.
That works great. It's a lot of padding but at least I'm not changing the sheets every night! Jealous you can line dry down there in FL!
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