When Robots Reproduce

17 Feb

Cloth Diaper Debate

mysocalledttclife:

Until recently, I’d never really considered cloth diapering. But my middle sister, who is expecting twin girls in April and who already has a 20 month old in diapers, recently attended a workshop on cloth diapering and is planning on making the switch.

So it got me thinking: should we be cloth diapering, too, and is it too late?

Apparently it’s not too late. But, man, I have SO many questions. My friends on Twitter have been a TREMENDOUS help—a long, detailed email from Al at Mission Motherhood was probably one of the biggest bits of advice I’ve received—but I’m still just so confused. So I’m hoping you ladies, who have done cloth diapering can help.

-I guess I’m just confused about how it all works. The lingo is confusing enough, but I don’t know if I understand the basics. So there’s a cover and then a liner for a cloth diaper, right?

It depends on the kind of diaper. There are a few different ways you can go:

• Flats/prefolds with covers: Prefolds are basically just flat pieces of cloth. There are usually multiple layers sewn together for absorbency. You have to fold these yourself, and use either pins or snappis to hold them shut. Then you put a waterproof cover, like these from Thirsties, over them.
• Fitteds with covers: Fitteds are basically the soft cloth insides of diapers that come folded for you. You still have to use a waterproof cover with them, though.
• Pocket diapers: Pocket diapers are basically a waterproof shell lined with some kind of fabric (usually microfleece) that have a pocket in them where you slip in a padded insert that adds absorbency. Some examples of these are FuzziBunz and bumGenius 4.0.
• All-in-one’s (AIO): All-in-one’s are exactly what they sound like. It’s a waterproof shell lined with fabric and padding. You just put these on baby like a normal diaper and take them off like a normal diaper. There is no folding, no separate parts, no stuffing pockets with inserts. Some examples of these are the bumGenius Freetime and Thirsties Duo All in One Wrap.

Here’s a helpful infographic. 

You can use liners with your cloth diapers (and there are both reusable and disposable liners available), if you want to help prevent staining on the cloth and to make clean-up easier, but you don’t have to. 

And when you change the diaper, you put in a new liner but keep the cover until either it gets soiled or 3 days have passed?

If you are using prefolds or fitteds, you have to replace the prefold or fitted but can reuse the cover. If you have a pocket diaper or AIO, the whole thing will need to go into the wash bin.

-How do you rinse off the dirty liners? Secret Sloper mentioned in one of her posts something that attaches to your toilet. What is this? Is it necessary? Is it expensive?

You can get a diaper sprayer for your toilet if you’ve got a #2. They all run around $50. For a newborn, they aren’t really necessary. You can just toss a newborn #2 into the wash and do a rinse in the washing machine. As they get older, though, and things get solid, you might want to invest in a sprayer, OR you can do the dunk/swirl method in the toilet. Or you can use liners: disposables can be flushed, reusable can be dunked/swirled or sprayed.

-How many diapers—covers and liners—do you need for one baby?

It depends on the age of the baby. For newborns, the guidance is at least 12 diapers/day. You probably want enough diapers to get you through 2 days, but won’t need more than a 3-day supply since you really should wash your cloth diapers every 3 days.

For our newborn, we have 30 prefolds and 5 covers, plus 36 cloth wipes. 

-Where do you store your dirty dipes? I’ve read about these special buckets. Will any bucket do?

There are two ways to store dirty dipes. There is the wet pail method and the dry pail method. Diaper pin has a good explanation of the two different methods. The only “special” thing I recommend is having a lid that seals to contain the stink.

We’re doing a dry pail method. I basically just got a regular kitchen-sized trash can with a pedal to open the lid and a lid that seals. You’ll also need a couple of waterproof cloth diaper pail liners, preferably one that can go in the wash with your diapers. We have a rotating supply of Planet Wise pail liners. Just toss your dipes in the pail and go.

-I heard you need special detergent. Is that a huge money suck? I already think Dreft is expensive so is this “special detergent” going to cost me an arm and a leg?

There are a lot of different detergents you can use. I love this list from Diaper Jungle, which ranks several different kinds of detergents for how they do with cloth. Some are more expensive and some are harder to find than others, but it doesn’t have to be super expensive. We’re using Planet, which is pretty cheap and easy to find at our grocery store. Ecos is fairly inexpensive, too, and again, easy to find at our grocery store. I recommend going to your grocery store armed with this list from Diaper Jungle and see what you can find. :)

-What are the best brands? Lots of people have mentioned Tots Bots Easy Fit, Bum genius, Flip Covers, etc. Thoughts?

This is a really touchy subject with a lot of very different opinions. What will work best for your baby will probably depend on your baby’s shape, and the kind of diapers that will work best for him/her will very likely change over time. The best advice I’ve received on this topic is to read a lot of reviews, and don’t buy a huge supply of any one diaper until you know it works well for your baby. Buy 1-2 of a lot of different diapers and see what works out. Don’t be surprised if what works for your baby at 6 months doesn’t work very well at all when they hit 18 months!

For us, we’ve got prefolds and Thirsties covers for our newborn, because that’s about as basic as it gets. But for when our baby gets older, I’ve got a few FuzziBunz pocket diapers, a couple of Lotus Bumz pocket diapers, a couple of Happy Heinys pocket diapers, and a few different bumGenius (and I have two different versions of their pocket diapers AND a couple of AIOs.) We only have about a day’s worth of “big girl” diapers right now, and eventually I’d like to have 3 days’ worth. I figure if we find something that works really well for us, we’ll just add more of those to our stash. Until I get to try them out, though, I don’t want to sink a bunch of money into them.

-How much more time am I going to devote to cloth diapering versus just using regular old disposable dipes?

It will be 2-3 extra loads of laundry a week…but you won’t have to run to the grocery store to pick up extra diapers, either. So…

-How much money should I plan on spending out right to get started with this? $300? $400? More?

Our entire newborn stash cost less than $300, and I think we’ve sunk another $200 into our big girl stash—but I’ve been a big bargain hunter and never pay full price on diapers, which has helped keep the cost down. The total cost of your stash really depends on how you want to go, though. Prefolds and covers are the cheapest method. Pockets and AIOs are the most expensive.

Diaper Decisions has a great breakdown of the lifetime cost of diapers depending on what method you use.

Whew! I think that’s it! Any help would be MUCH appreciated because ideally I’d like to get started on using them sooner than later if we are going to do it.

Thank you all SO much!

I have a lot of posts on this topic on my blog. Mostly I link to the resources I’ve used to figure out how to do this. You might find it helpful to browse through them. :) If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

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