Cloth Diapers or disposable?!

Marion

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 4:15 am

Formed stools I dump in the toilet. Apparently, so does my daycare. (I used to get the diapers coming home in the wetbag with everything wrapped neatly inside; I'd dump it into the toilet and flush once for the whole day's worth...) Infant (non-formed) stools can go straight in the machine. If it's particularly icky I might rinse first, or if there are enough of them like that I'll do a pre-wash. I don't generally soak/rinse/pre-wash.

Marion

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 4:44 am

Kayza wrote:

Marion wrote:

That said:
Cloth was not on my radar for DS#1. He was in diapers for 3.5 years (42 months). 42 x $25 is $1050...on garbage.

I inherited fitteds and covers when DS#2 was born. The daycare he started at used them no problem, but the 2nd daycare refused. 22 months of disposable diapering (for daycare only): 22 x $20 is $440.

$1050 + $440 = $1490

Fr anyone who is reading this, there is absolutely no reason to spend this much on disposables. You can if you want to, but it does not take a lot of effort to spend, literally, less than half of that.

You said you spend $9/week. That's $36/month. How exactly is that "literally half" of $25?

imamama

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 5:22 am

Kayza wrote:

about $9.00 per week

9 dollars a week for, say, the two years your baby is in diapers comes to over 900 dollars. I think you can buy all the cloth diapers you need and use them for future children as well, for about 300. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't use cloth now, but plan to with my next kid, b'ezrat Hashem.

In the kitchen

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 6:26 am

Poll is not specific enough...I don;t cloth diaper because I want to save the Earth so to speak.

I cloth diaper for the health of my children. They don't need all those chemicals from the disposables sitting on their precious sensitive skin all day and night. Exceptions are that I use disposables for long trips or 3 day yom tovim.

The extra laundry is barely noticeable if you have your own washer and dryer at home.
Also as others are mentioning cloth diapering (especially if you save them to use for another child) can really save you money. Also when I lived in Montreal there is no charge for water there and I only washed them with baking soda which is also dirt cheap so the cost of washing was very very minimal.

I use prefolds and covers, have 24 prefolds and 12 covers. The covers get washed whenever I make whites (almost daily) since they can't be in the super hot cycle that I wash the prefolds on and hang to dry. The prefolds I would wash every 3 days with that amount.

Good luck in your deicision making OP, cloth diapering has gotten a lot more simple than it was during our parents or grandparents times for sure!

Isramom8

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 7:00 am

I never used cloth diapers but I just want to point out that the ecology is where we live and what we breathe, and if that was in trouble then our sanity would also be in sad shape.

I find clothe menstrual products more comfortable than disposables, so if I had a baby who seemed sensitive to disposables, I might choose cloth for that reason. I'm sure you get used to it; everyone in the past did.

But if the father wants cloth and the mother wants disposable, it won't work, I bet. Either decide you want to try or don't bother investing.

Britmummy

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 7:16 am

I used disposables for my first two, then cloth for my youngest, who had sensitive skin and was allergic to all the brands of disposables.

Honestly, the cloth was really not much more work than disposables - after each change, I simply put the dirty nappy into a bucket (with a tight-fitting lid), containing a few drops of tea-tree oil, to reduce smells, then wiped and put a clean nappy on, just like with a disposable. Twice a week I washed and dried the nappies in the bucket (in the washing machine and drier).

And when she outgrew them, I sold all the covers and prefolds on e-bay, for around 2/3 of their original price!!!

Any future kids of mine will wear cloth, for sure :-)

Hippi Dippi

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 11:05 am

I'm surprised that no one here mentioned diaper rash! Yes, cloth is great for our planet and pocketbooks, and absolutely wonderful on sensitive baby tushies! I made a decision before my daughter was born to start off with cloth diapers and IF it was terribly difficult like everyone said/I didn't like it, I would sell them and use disposables. Guess what? I never looked back! Cloth all the way! Every time I have to put my daughter in a disposable (happened only a few times in her life), she would get a diaper rash. And, now that she's older and can communicate well, I held up a disposable diaper and a cloth diaper and asked her which one she preferred. She grabbed the cloth diaper! And then I said, "not this one? (the disposable)" and she said "NOOO!" Smile

Every time I do the wash, I mentally calculate how much I'm saving (costs around a shekel a diaper for the brand-name disposables) and it makes me quite happy! Not to mention the cute factor mentioned before...

granolamom

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 11:22 am

rovacat wrote:

excuse my ignorance. I don't know anything about cloth diapers, but what do you do with the actual poop? I can't imagine putting all of that into my washing machine. do you take whatever big pieces you can out of the diaper and throw into the toilet? then the rest you throw into the machine? I'd be afraid of it stuffing up my machine. sorry for the details.

breastfed poop goes right in the wash, no stains, no smell.

once baby is eating solids I dump solid waste in the toilet, the hold onto the diaper and flush anything 'sticky'. then into the diaperpail.

at that point its no different from washing a toilet training toddlers soiled underwear.

gp2.0

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 11:27 am

FTR, I spent $29 on amazon.com for 204 pampers. (You can spend even less with coupons, which I didn't have. I got 15% off for subscribe and save and 15% off for amazon mom. Free shipping, too. Though I don't know how this works out of the US.) Using approximately 3 pampers a day, that's 21 pampers a week, 85-90 per month. So that's approximately $30 for a little over 2 months. That's less than $15 a month. Equaling to less than $200 a year, which is very, very far from $1000.

Wow. That does seem like very little $. Anyone is welcome to redo the math and see if I went wrong somewhere. Math is not my strong suit. LOL

Laughing Bag!

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 11:52 am

gp2.0 wrote:

your math went wrong when u change your kid only 3x a day!
Anyway I was using disposables dor DD (and was laughing at sil for using Cloth)
Now for DS I started using disposable but at 4 weeks he got a rash I tried everything nothing was taking it away changed 3 different brands of diapers and stayed stuck with them too! And then finally after 3m realised that although I had made fun of sil 2 years ago I should try using the Cloth diapers.
I inherited prefolds and bought 5 covers with the hanging pail. I wash every other day I zip open the bag while its in the washer and shake it out then close door add detergent and out comes clean cloths the covers I was in any of my cold cycles (in mesh bag).
I thought it would be a lot of work But Bh it isn't I do find that child needs to be changed promptly as it leaks wet quicker HOWEVER I find that since im using cloth DS NEVER leaked his poo. he is bf.
Now ill surely stay with cloth . Iyh when ds grows a litttle bigger we will IYH go up to the next size in cloth I dont think ill be spending more than 100$ for that and he will be using it for way longer than 3m (abt the mt we spended on disposables for this duration!).

gp2.0

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 12:09 pm

Laughing Bag! wrote:

gp2.0 wrote:

your math went wrong when u change your kid only 3x a day!

I find the disposables to be very absorbent. How often do you change your dc's pamper? Hmm, maybe I'll start a spinoff...

Ezrachar

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 1:37 pm

Okay, I have to put my $0.02 here... and I'm not even going to rant about the pricing of cloth vs. disposables or the ecological benefits to cloth (4 diapers a day for 2 years is over 3000 diapers in the trash!!!)

But for those of you who change your disposable diaper only 3 or 4 times a day --

YES, disposables are very absorbant. And I know that means you can leave your diaper on your baby until it sags down to their knees, which is what you are doing if you only change them 3x per day (either that or they are VERY dehydrated)

BUT have you ever done your research into why they are so absorbant? They are chock full of chemicals!!! The more urine in those diapers, the more chemicals are released and are leaching onto your babies skin!!! They are proven to be carcinogens!!! Disposable diapers have been linked to rises in ovarian and testicular cancer, because your poor babies privates are exposed to those toxic chemicals 24 hours a day for 2-3 years!

Just FYI, my mother is a labor and delivery nurse. They use huggies with no chemicals in them, specially made for newborn babies, and only sold to hospitals. The hospitals has now banned using disposable wipes, as there are chemicals in them that are harmful to babies skin, and they now use cotton balls with water to wipe. JUST FYI.

Miriam

Ezrachar

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 1:45 pm

Okay, now that I've posted that, I'll tell you that I did disposable for the first 2 years for my first, and cloth for the other two.

Cloth is as easy, if not easier than disposables. I don't have the horrid smell from the diaper pail, I don't have the ecological worries or the chemical worries that I did with disposables. I don't have to make a run for diapers because I forgot to buy and I'm out.

I have diapers (I make my own) in SO many colors -- I have ones with trains and frogs and lizards, blue and green and bright orange and red and pastels and bold colors. I have winnie the pooh, trains, planes, clowns, robots, you name it. I've turned old tshirts into diapers, old sweaters into wool covers, etc.

For a newborn I would use newborn prefolds and covers (I like wool best) and then I'd use pockets because they are super easy (you just have to prestuff them) and dry in a flash.

For newborns I wash with poop (breastfed only) and then I dump solids (or spray a bit because my kids never have solid poop) put in my hanging zippered bag, and when it's full I unzip, stuff the opening in the washer and shove everything in without touching.

DH is totally on board. I figure I've saved at least $2000 on 5 years of diapering so far.

I am starting to sell my diapers online, so if anyone in Israel is interested, let me know!

BinahYeteirah

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 6:06 pm

gp2.0 wrote:

Even changing much more often than three times a day, it is possible to find deals on disposable diapers and do it fairly cheaply. I got a case of Seventh Generation diapers (176 diapers in the case, iirc) for $4.99 from Amazon.com using coupons. To get them close to that cheap on a consistent basis, one has to spend tons of time chasing deals, trading coupons, and all that.

Washing cloth diapers is much easier.

Kayza

Mon, Feb 14 2011, 9:38 pm

Marion wrote:

You said you spend $9/week. That's $36/month. How exactly is that "literally half" of $25?

No, I said that if you want brand name diapers, without shopping around you can spend as little as $9 per week.

I do stand corrected on my misreading of the message I was responding to, though - I was figuring on the wrong time period.

Last edited by Kayza on Mon, Feb 14 2011, 9:57 pm; edited 1 time in total