Too late for cloth diapers?
December 28, 2014 6:09 PM Subscribe
I have a nine month old. I finally have a washing machine. Worth getting some cloth diapers?
I always thought I'd use cloth diapers for my kid, but I had no laundry at the start (or shared laundry). Now I have a washing machine, but no dryer. I am frugal, and willing to buy cloth diapers second-hand. My kid is now 9 months old. Is it too late? Is it (still) worth it? Or just too much work for too little return? Does it really help with toilet training? If so, what kind is good for a bigger kid? (Would hope to use anything I buy now for another kid, if that helps . . .)
Thanks!
I always thought I'd use cloth diapers for my kid, but I had no laundry at the start (or shared laundry). Now I have a washing machine, but no dryer. I am frugal, and willing to buy cloth diapers second-hand. My kid is now 9 months old. Is it too late? Is it (still) worth it? Or just too much work for too little return? Does it really help with toilet training? If so, what kind is good for a bigger kid? (Would hope to use anything I buy now for another kid, if that helps . . .)
Thanks!
We've used cloth since our daughter was born two years ago and I'd say it was definitely worth it. We had to hand wash for awhile and flat diapers are your friend when it comes to not having a dryer. We used a combination of flats inside of diaper covers like Flips and Thirsties and flats folded inside pocket diapers. My husband mostly used the pocket diapers because he never really got the hang of folding a diaper onto our very squirmy child and I used the flats with covers. We actually only have 6 true birdseye flats (linked above) and the rest are flannel receiving blankets I got at a yard sale (15 for $1!) and used as flats. Honestly I can't tell a difference in the absorption rates and they've both held up very well in the wash. Since you have a washer you could really use any type but hemp and microfiber inserts can take forever to air dry in my experience (southern US, ymmv) so I'd stick with flats. You could get a good 3 day supply of cloth diapers for around $100 so were I in your shoes I'd look at how much you're currently spending on disposables and see how long it would take you to break even. Your kid is going to be in diapers for at least another 9 months since 18 months is really the minimum for potty training but more than likely you're looking at potty training at 2-2.5 so some quick math will tell you if it's worth the investment. If you have any other questions feel free to memail me.
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 6:41 PM on December 28, 2014
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 6:41 PM on December 28, 2014
I didn't cloth diaper, but I do line dry some of our clothes, and certain fabrics are quite stiff and scratchy feeling when they air dry. We have some towels that are 50/50 cotton & hemp and they just cannot be air dried.
I would also take your climate/housing situation into consideration. Do you live somewhere where it's sunny and warm, and things will dry quickly and you can put up a clothes line? If so it seems doable. If you live somewhere where it's damp, or you don't have a place to put up a clothes line, are you OK with a large drying rack taking up lots of room in your house? Will you be able to buy enough diapers so that it's OK if it takes a looong time for the washed ones to dry?
posted by aviatrix at 6:47 PM on December 28, 2014
I would also take your climate/housing situation into consideration. Do you live somewhere where it's sunny and warm, and things will dry quickly and you can put up a clothes line? If so it seems doable. If you live somewhere where it's damp, or you don't have a place to put up a clothes line, are you OK with a large drying rack taking up lots of room in your house? Will you be able to buy enough diapers so that it's OK if it takes a looong time for the washed ones to dry?
posted by aviatrix at 6:47 PM on December 28, 2014
I have strong and fairly negative feelings about the culture of cloth, as a warning. We used a diaper service for my daughter's first seven months, and even though a service is the low-labor version of cloth diapering (and perhaps even more eco-friendly!), there were several things that I really disliked about using them:
An additional difficulty I can imagine with an older baby is squirmyness. At 11 months, we have trouble getting a disposable on her in time. Doing a newspaper fold with a snappy and then getting a cover on sounds like a headache to me, but your mileage may vary.
Remember, if nothing else, they're just pieces of cloth made to contain poop. Your time and effort are valuable, and you can always do some part time cloth if you want. It won't make you lose your frugal/crunchy/caring mama card, even if you don't do cloth, promise.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:53 PM on December 28, 2014 [14 favorites]
- Fit - my daughter is a big-thighed chunky monkey. We used prefolds and covers and by the end, she was wearing 18 month pants to fit her butt, which were way, way too long on her.
- difficulty of use outside the house - always having to carry a wetbag and extra diapers, which, in infant sizes, take up way more space than disposables.
- nighttime ineffectiveness - I wasn't willing to go the route of lanolizing wool covers, or whatever. My daughter peed straight through even double-layered diapers at night and would be rashy and wet.
- solid poop stink - pretty much the last straw for me. Even when you're peeling off the poops into the toilet, the cloth smells so, so bad with solid poops. With the service, our dry bag only went out once a week and it stank. After we canceled the service, we had to throw out the entire garbage can because it smelled disgusting and made our apartment smell like funk.
An additional difficulty I can imagine with an older baby is squirmyness. At 11 months, we have trouble getting a disposable on her in time. Doing a newspaper fold with a snappy and then getting a cover on sounds like a headache to me, but your mileage may vary.
Remember, if nothing else, they're just pieces of cloth made to contain poop. Your time and effort are valuable, and you can always do some part time cloth if you want. It won't make you lose your frugal/crunchy/caring mama card, even if you don't do cloth, promise.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:53 PM on December 28, 2014 [14 favorites]
We used cloth from the beginning with our son, but I don't think it made any difference as far as the timeline of potty training. It also meant more washing in general, since there's no way to keep them from leaking and getting pee on his pants, shirt hem, bed sheets, etc. Once he hit pre-preschool (at around 27 months) he was in disposables because the school wouldn't deal with cloth. Now he's 32 months and other kids in his class are well in advance of him in potty training.
posted by goatdog at 7:39 PM on December 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by goatdog at 7:39 PM on December 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
I grew up in the era of cloth diapers, I remember it well. I babysat kids in cloth diapers. It's a LOT of freaking work!
The wet diaper pail full of pee and poo diapers, going to pee and seeing a diaper in the john soaking (that was a neighbor, not MY mom!) The stinky diaper bag in the back of the car if we had been out.
A story: Pampers were introduced in Stockton, California in 1966 and my parents glommed on as no parent has glommed to anything. (Because cloth diapers are gross.) We made a train trip back to Pittsburgh and my Mom packed the Pampers, and away we went. We ran out of Pampers. No problem, sent my Dad off the train to get a new pack. Discovered that while Stockton, a test market, had Pampers everywhere, the places near the train did not. Thank goodness Mom still used old cloth diapers for burp rags.
You can do cloth at home, and disposable when you're out and about. If you find that they don't work well overnight, nothing says you can't use disposables for that too.
If you have nothing but time, and just LOVE dealing with nasty diapers, then have at it, but everyone in the free world went to disposables because they're better. My mom stayed home with the two of us and had NO compunction about switching to disposables because while she had time, she appreciated that she could read a book, rather than scrub diapers.
If it's an eco diaper you want, check out Honest or Seventh Generation.
Let's just get this out of the way. Diapers and sanitary napkins and tampons have something in common. The products are made of paper and cellulose and once used they're thrown away. In the past we used cloth, that we had to wash and mess with. Now, do you intend after buying cloth diapers, to buy cloth sanitary pads? Because....no, of course not.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:43 PM on December 28, 2014 [6 favorites]
The wet diaper pail full of pee and poo diapers, going to pee and seeing a diaper in the john soaking (that was a neighbor, not MY mom!) The stinky diaper bag in the back of the car if we had been out.
A story: Pampers were introduced in Stockton, California in 1966 and my parents glommed on as no parent has glommed to anything. (Because cloth diapers are gross.) We made a train trip back to Pittsburgh and my Mom packed the Pampers, and away we went. We ran out of Pampers. No problem, sent my Dad off the train to get a new pack. Discovered that while Stockton, a test market, had Pampers everywhere, the places near the train did not. Thank goodness Mom still used old cloth diapers for burp rags.
You can do cloth at home, and disposable when you're out and about. If you find that they don't work well overnight, nothing says you can't use disposables for that too.
If you have nothing but time, and just LOVE dealing with nasty diapers, then have at it, but everyone in the free world went to disposables because they're better. My mom stayed home with the two of us and had NO compunction about switching to disposables because while she had time, she appreciated that she could read a book, rather than scrub diapers.
If it's an eco diaper you want, check out Honest or Seventh Generation.
Let's just get this out of the way. Diapers and sanitary napkins and tampons have something in common. The products are made of paper and cellulose and once used they're thrown away. In the past we used cloth, that we had to wash and mess with. Now, do you intend after buying cloth diapers, to buy cloth sanitary pads? Because....no, of course not.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:43 PM on December 28, 2014 [6 favorites]
I used a combination of diaper service and disposable. Kids train when they're going to train. There's no way to tell if the earlier or later training is due to using cloth or disposable. The pros and cons of using one vs the other offset each other and end up cancelling each other out. In conclusion, there's no way I'd use disposables without a dryer unless I was using a diaper service. That's crazy talk.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:49 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:49 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
I would agree with some of the points PhoB mentioned, although I happily used cloth for the first year with my daughter and am about to use it again with my new baby.
I think your main issues will be:
- how much sun do you have where you are for air drying the diapers? I hung a clothesline in our basement here in New England and air dried them there, but you need a bigger stash to accommodate that because you need diapers to use while the wet ones are drying, and not drying them in the sun is much less ideal in terms of how long it takes and getting out stains.
- Certain fabrics get really crunchy with air drying, as mentioned above - more so the natural fabrics like cotton and bamboo - microfiber and fleece are fine air dried. It helps hugely to have a dryer even just to use to touch them up for 5 minutes when they're dry or almost dry.
- The best best nighttime diapers are fitted, and they take a LONG time to dry. I used bamboo fitted diapers for overnight and they worked fantastically. Never leaked. I doubt there would have been any way to make the simple flat/prefold diapers work for overnights for my daughter because she sleeps for 12-14 hours straight. Also, a lot of people like all-in-one diapers because you don't have to stuff inserts in them, and again, those take a long time to dry. Without a dryer, you're best off with pocket diapers - the insert comes out, they're micro fleece and microfiber, dry fast and stay soft.
I think if you would plan to use the diapers for another kid, and you buy one size fits all diapers (which won't fit as perfectly as a sized diaper), you would definitely save a lot of money, especially if you buy secondhand. There are sites where you can get a trial set of the diapers to use that you can actually return at the end if you decide you don't want them (here's an example from Jillian's Drawers). I'd suggest doing this or buying a stash from Craigslist or a Facebook swap group. Even if you buy, they hold their value incredibly well, and you could likely sell them for a similar price to what you bought them for. This would help you see how your child's skin does with the diapers, what fits, what types you like. Do be prepared to size up his pants!!
It's important to keep in mind that the new cloth diapers are not similar to the old cloth diapers referenced above - they are made out of many different kinds of materials and the design is far far superior. Even if you're using simple flats/prefolds, the covers that are used with them are much much nicer than what moms back in the day had to use (and SO much cuter! Cuter than disposables). Then again... I'm the type of person who would happily wear cloth sanitary pads and I use a menstrual cup... so....
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:49 PM on December 28, 2014 [5 favorites]
I think your main issues will be:
- how much sun do you have where you are for air drying the diapers? I hung a clothesline in our basement here in New England and air dried them there, but you need a bigger stash to accommodate that because you need diapers to use while the wet ones are drying, and not drying them in the sun is much less ideal in terms of how long it takes and getting out stains.
- Certain fabrics get really crunchy with air drying, as mentioned above - more so the natural fabrics like cotton and bamboo - microfiber and fleece are fine air dried. It helps hugely to have a dryer even just to use to touch them up for 5 minutes when they're dry or almost dry.
- The best best nighttime diapers are fitted, and they take a LONG time to dry. I used bamboo fitted diapers for overnight and they worked fantastically. Never leaked. I doubt there would have been any way to make the simple flat/prefold diapers work for overnights for my daughter because she sleeps for 12-14 hours straight. Also, a lot of people like all-in-one diapers because you don't have to stuff inserts in them, and again, those take a long time to dry. Without a dryer, you're best off with pocket diapers - the insert comes out, they're micro fleece and microfiber, dry fast and stay soft.
I think if you would plan to use the diapers for another kid, and you buy one size fits all diapers (which won't fit as perfectly as a sized diaper), you would definitely save a lot of money, especially if you buy secondhand. There are sites where you can get a trial set of the diapers to use that you can actually return at the end if you decide you don't want them (here's an example from Jillian's Drawers). I'd suggest doing this or buying a stash from Craigslist or a Facebook swap group. Even if you buy, they hold their value incredibly well, and you could likely sell them for a similar price to what you bought them for. This would help you see how your child's skin does with the diapers, what fits, what types you like. Do be prepared to size up his pants!!
It's important to keep in mind that the new cloth diapers are not similar to the old cloth diapers referenced above - they are made out of many different kinds of materials and the design is far far superior. Even if you're using simple flats/prefolds, the covers that are used with them are much much nicer than what moms back in the day had to use (and SO much cuter! Cuter than disposables). Then again... I'm the type of person who would happily wear cloth sanitary pads and I use a menstrual cup... so....
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:49 PM on December 28, 2014 [5 favorites]
Regarding potty training, I don't think it helps unless you try starting potty training early. Because of the new fabrics that are used, kids don't necessarily 'feel wet' in cloth diapers either because the fabrics can wick away the moisture. I do think if you are working on doing early potty training and you want your child to be able to be more aware of when they feel wet, that it could help, but it doesn't necessarily make them naturally potty train sooner.
If you really want to potty train earlier then you can work on that as a separate issue. Doing things like elimination communication costs zero money and can save lots of diapers. I did it with my daughter and saved a boatload of diapers, although since I only did it part time (I have a full-time job and my husband is not an elimination communicator), my daughter is just getting potty trained now at about 22 months. Believe it or not, she was better with the potty a year ago than she is now because of elimination communication. Anything that reduces the amount of poop you have to deal with in life is a win. MeMail me if you want to know any more about it.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:54 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
If you really want to potty train earlier then you can work on that as a separate issue. Doing things like elimination communication costs zero money and can save lots of diapers. I did it with my daughter and saved a boatload of diapers, although since I only did it part time (I have a full-time job and my husband is not an elimination communicator), my daughter is just getting potty trained now at about 22 months. Believe it or not, she was better with the potty a year ago than she is now because of elimination communication. Anything that reduces the amount of poop you have to deal with in life is a win. MeMail me if you want to know any more about it.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:54 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
With my first son, I started cloth diapers at 9 months and just loved it. I joined a diaper swap board and had so much fun trying all kinds of fitted diapers and cute covers, many of them made by moms as a side buisness. The diapers held their price well and I was always able to sell ones or swap ones he'd outgrown for new ones. With my second son I cloth diapered from birth until about 1 year of age. I stopped due to a change in circumstances.
My first definately potty trained earlier than my second, but I'm not convinced that cloth vs disposable played a huge role. Im really not sure. I didnt personally have a problem wrangling my squirmer to get him diapered when using cloth any more than disposable.
But the lack of a dryer would give me pause. Part of what contributed to me switching to disposables when my second was a year old was laundry issues. We were on a 5
Month motorhome trip to the National Parks and I had to rely on laundrymats. It worked out " ok" , at first, but after a few months I just got tired of all the schlepping. I never felt that way when Id had access to a washer, dryer and dedicated laundry room at home. And now that I think back, yes there always did seem to be one toilet that had a dirty diaper soaking in it at any given moment. If you can borrow some diapers from someone or score some cheap ones, just to try it out for a week or two while still having the disposables for back up that would be great.
posted by Rapunzel1111 at 8:13 PM on December 28, 2014
My first definately potty trained earlier than my second, but I'm not convinced that cloth vs disposable played a huge role. Im really not sure. I didnt personally have a problem wrangling my squirmer to get him diapered when using cloth any more than disposable.
But the lack of a dryer would give me pause. Part of what contributed to me switching to disposables when my second was a year old was laundry issues. We were on a 5
Month motorhome trip to the National Parks and I had to rely on laundrymats. It worked out " ok" , at first, but after a few months I just got tired of all the schlepping. I never felt that way when Id had access to a washer, dryer and dedicated laundry room at home. And now that I think back, yes there always did seem to be one toilet that had a dirty diaper soaking in it at any given moment. If you can borrow some diapers from someone or score some cheap ones, just to try it out for a week or two while still having the disposables for back up that would be great.
posted by Rapunzel1111 at 8:13 PM on December 28, 2014
Triple posting here... but just wanted to mention, if you're diligent yes you can potty train by 2 -2.5 years old, but actually because of disposable diapers, the average age for potty training has been rising and many kids are not potty training until they're about to start kindergarten. I find that incredible, but it's apparently true. The age in the 1940s was 18 months, but now it's nearly 40 months for boys. Consider the cost of disposables for 30 more months instead of 15 more months and you may find it more motivating to do more laundry....
A case of my eco-friendly Earth's Best diapers costs $45 on Amazon without the subscription service, and I now have to use 1-2 cases per month (because cases of bigger diapers contain fewer diapers, as I'm sure you've sadly noticed). If we say that I'm spending about $75 a month on disposables, that's $2250 for 30 months, which is probably double what I'd pay if I used cheaper but non-eco-friendly disposables. I tracked my costs for the stash I purchased, I have about 30 cloth diapers and they cost me about $500 (I bought expensive ones, definitely nowhere near the cheapest). Certainly, there is a cost to water and also for buying cloth-friendly detergent as well, but considering I'm reusing them for a second child and could probably sell the stash for at least $400 when I'm done... that's just an example of how huge the savings are with cloth.
Just thought that answering along these lines might be more what you were looking for specifically by asking if you were 'too late' for cloth.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:18 PM on December 28, 2014
A case of my eco-friendly Earth's Best diapers costs $45 on Amazon without the subscription service, and I now have to use 1-2 cases per month (because cases of bigger diapers contain fewer diapers, as I'm sure you've sadly noticed). If we say that I'm spending about $75 a month on disposables, that's $2250 for 30 months, which is probably double what I'd pay if I used cheaper but non-eco-friendly disposables. I tracked my costs for the stash I purchased, I have about 30 cloth diapers and they cost me about $500 (I bought expensive ones, definitely nowhere near the cheapest). Certainly, there is a cost to water and also for buying cloth-friendly detergent as well, but considering I'm reusing them for a second child and could probably sell the stash for at least $400 when I'm done... that's just an example of how huge the savings are with cloth.
Just thought that answering along these lines might be more what you were looking for specifically by asking if you were 'too late' for cloth.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:18 PM on December 28, 2014
Check your memail--- Maybe I can send you some to try out to see if it is worth it for you to switch.
posted by Rapunzel1111 at 8:21 PM on December 28, 2014
posted by Rapunzel1111 at 8:21 PM on December 28, 2014
Now, do you intend after buying cloth diapers, to buy cloth sanitary pads? Because....no, of course not.
Funny, I actually use cloth pads (and a cup), so I wouldn't consider this a reliable test. There's a world of difference there. Blood is way, way less stinky, and the one week a month you spend cleaning pads is nothing compared to the endless months of labor of cleaning poopy cloth.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:26 PM on December 28, 2014 [6 favorites]
Funny, I actually use cloth pads (and a cup), so I wouldn't consider this a reliable test. There's a world of difference there. Blood is way, way less stinky, and the one week a month you spend cleaning pads is nothing compared to the endless months of labor of cleaning poopy cloth.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:26 PM on December 28, 2014 [6 favorites]
I think it's worth it! Any way you can save money and take disposables out of the landfill is a good way. I've mostly cloth diapered (disposables at night because he is a world champion pee machine) my son for the last 2.5 years and consider it a successful experiment. It was HARD at the beginning when he was a demanding newborn that wouldn't nap or let me hang out the washing, but long term it's no more than collecting them in a bag and sticking them in the washing machine every other day. We've saved about a thousand dollars, and being that you have to tip out the solid poops into the toilet regardless of what diaper you use, no more gross than disposables. I actually find it more gross to put all that plastic and gel up against his skin and then throw it all away afterwards.
My advice would be to get on eBay, find some of the low end pocket diapers (if you buy from US based sellers, they go for about $5-8 a pop with inserts included, Memail me if you want a direct recommendation) + a wet bag you can hang on a hook (I like Kanga Care), and see how you feel about it. You don't really need special laundry detergent as long as it's fragrance free (although I really like Country Save for cost/efficiency) and the microfiber inserts dry great on a rack. You wouldn't want to put your covers in the dryer anyway. If you don't like 'em, find your local Facebook cloth diaper group/Craigslist and put them up for sale. You'd get at least 50% back.
If you do like them, there are plenty of sites around that have great return policies. FWIW I'm a repeat customer of Nicki's Diapers (they also have "gently used" and "seconds" sections).
If you think 9 months is too late by the way, consider this: my kid is sizing out of most all in one diapers right now, but probably has another 6 months to a year before he's potty trained. He uses about 4 diapers per day at this age, and sure, I could switch to disposables... but for the same price, I can (and did) buy 5 slightly larger diapers (these Thirsties, although Blueberry coveralls go up to 40lbs too) plus some covers for cloth potty training diapers to add to my stash. And then I'll be able to sell on or reuse on a second child after he's finally potty trained. Which will happen soon. I hope. But while he's not, I at least don't feel like I'm wasting my money.
posted by saturnine at 9:43 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
My advice would be to get on eBay, find some of the low end pocket diapers (if you buy from US based sellers, they go for about $5-8 a pop with inserts included, Memail me if you want a direct recommendation) + a wet bag you can hang on a hook (I like Kanga Care), and see how you feel about it. You don't really need special laundry detergent as long as it's fragrance free (although I really like Country Save for cost/efficiency) and the microfiber inserts dry great on a rack. You wouldn't want to put your covers in the dryer anyway. If you don't like 'em, find your local Facebook cloth diaper group/Craigslist and put them up for sale. You'd get at least 50% back.
If you do like them, there are plenty of sites around that have great return policies. FWIW I'm a repeat customer of Nicki's Diapers (they also have "gently used" and "seconds" sections).
If you think 9 months is too late by the way, consider this: my kid is sizing out of most all in one diapers right now, but probably has another 6 months to a year before he's potty trained. He uses about 4 diapers per day at this age, and sure, I could switch to disposables... but for the same price, I can (and did) buy 5 slightly larger diapers (these Thirsties, although Blueberry coveralls go up to 40lbs too) plus some covers for cloth potty training diapers to add to my stash. And then I'll be able to sell on or reuse on a second child after he's finally potty trained. Which will happen soon. I hope. But while he's not, I at least don't feel like I'm wasting my money.
posted by saturnine at 9:43 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Just reading up thread: the trick to dealing with the smell of cloth diapers before you wash them is as simple as popping a small washcloth with some eucalyptus oil (or other essential oil of your choice, but not lemon because then you associate lemon with poop and that is the worst) in your wet bag. Cancels it out completely.
posted by saturnine at 9:55 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by saturnine at 9:55 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
We've been washing cloth diapers for a while now. If your washer is a front loading HE model, I'd recommend googling around a bit to learn about the challenges you'll face getting diapers clean and soap free. It is a pain.
posted by pheide at 10:45 PM on December 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by pheide at 10:45 PM on December 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
Google your washer and cloth. I washed cloth diapers in four different washers and the new high efficiency ones suck.
posted by k8t at 11:28 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by k8t at 11:28 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
We have a 9 month old who's been in cloth since about 8 weeks. They've worked out really well for us, so I'd say give it a shot if you're curious - you don't have to invest in a huge load of them upfront if you're not sure.
Our setup:
We have a washer-dryer but hardly ever use the dryer part. Nappies are hung out to dry most of the year (we have an overcast rainy climate so they won't always get 100% dry, but even a few hours blowing in the wind massively speeds up drying time and stops them getting too stiff), and hung inside on laundry racks or on a heated laundry rack for the rest of the drying.
We have 20 bamboo fitted nappies (Little Lambs). These fasten with Velcro and are shaped like a disposable, but bulkier, with a cover (Velcro or poppers) over the top. We also have some prefolds, which can be fastened with nappi nippas (like stretchy clips) or just folded up inside the cover. The fitteds take longer to dry but are easier to put on an older, wrigglier baby, so we mostly use those now.
We have no festering nappy pails. Used nappies go in zipped up wet bags, bag gets emptied out into washing machine.
We don't use cloth exclusively. We mostly use disposables if we're out and about for any length of time. We also use disposable liners (allegedly 'flushable' but... no), so we don't deal with spraying off poo. (We didn't bother until she was eating a decent amount of solids and things changed in that region, though.)
We use cloth at night - fitted nappy with an extra bamboo booster. It lasts her about 12 hours.
I costed it out for us a while back and it took us about 4/5 months to break even on the initial cloth investment. That's us, though; there are various factors in that which would change for someone else (we always did a lot of changes because she hates being wet even in a disposable, for one).
We also switched to cloth wipes, which are about 80 times better than standard baby wipes and get washed alongside the nappies. Highly recommended!
posted by Catseye at 2:54 AM on December 29, 2014
Our setup:
We have a washer-dryer but hardly ever use the dryer part. Nappies are hung out to dry most of the year (we have an overcast rainy climate so they won't always get 100% dry, but even a few hours blowing in the wind massively speeds up drying time and stops them getting too stiff), and hung inside on laundry racks or on a heated laundry rack for the rest of the drying.
We have 20 bamboo fitted nappies (Little Lambs). These fasten with Velcro and are shaped like a disposable, but bulkier, with a cover (Velcro or poppers) over the top. We also have some prefolds, which can be fastened with nappi nippas (like stretchy clips) or just folded up inside the cover. The fitteds take longer to dry but are easier to put on an older, wrigglier baby, so we mostly use those now.
We have no festering nappy pails. Used nappies go in zipped up wet bags, bag gets emptied out into washing machine.
We don't use cloth exclusively. We mostly use disposables if we're out and about for any length of time. We also use disposable liners (allegedly 'flushable' but... no), so we don't deal with spraying off poo. (We didn't bother until she was eating a decent amount of solids and things changed in that region, though.)
We use cloth at night - fitted nappy with an extra bamboo booster. It lasts her about 12 hours.
I costed it out for us a while back and it took us about 4/5 months to break even on the initial cloth investment. That's us, though; there are various factors in that which would change for someone else (we always did a lot of changes because she hates being wet even in a disposable, for one).
We also switched to cloth wipes, which are about 80 times better than standard baby wipes and get washed alongside the nappies. Highly recommended!
posted by Catseye at 2:54 AM on December 29, 2014
We use cloth at home and at daycare but disposables overnight and when we travel. When my son is pooping on schedule, I'll usually have him in a disposable to avoid having to wash a dirty cloth liner.
I find very little difference between the two for putting them on a squirmy toddler. It's a miserable experience either way!
I generally air dry the liners overnight and then pop in the dryer the next day to get all the dampness out. If you have a clothes line, that's the best way to dry, but otherwise I would not attempt without a dryer.
posted by betsybetsy at 4:50 AM on December 29, 2014
I find very little difference between the two for putting them on a squirmy toddler. It's a miserable experience either way!
I generally air dry the liners overnight and then pop in the dryer the next day to get all the dampness out. If you have a clothes line, that's the best way to dry, but otherwise I would not attempt without a dryer.
posted by betsybetsy at 4:50 AM on December 29, 2014
My dear friend used cloth diapers gleefully and exclusively from birth to 13 months. At 12 months, baby developed open sores in her diaper area. After weeks of screaming pain and misdiagnoses, she was tested for a type of staph that required more serious antibiotics than she had been getting. All the cloth diapers had to go. They cannot be made sterile after staph.
My mom had a home daycare in the 70's and 80's when cloth diapers were very common and staph was not. The kids all remained healthy but, I will never forget that wet diaper smell. It is nasty.
Stick with what you know. A disposable diaper is sanitary and easy. It does not hurt baby unless baby has a skin allergy to it, which isn't common and can usually be solved by switching brands. China is killing the environment, you are merely changing a dirty diaper, so, I wouldn't worry about environmental issues.
posted by myselfasme at 8:00 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
My mom had a home daycare in the 70's and 80's when cloth diapers were very common and staph was not. The kids all remained healthy but, I will never forget that wet diaper smell. It is nasty.
Stick with what you know. A disposable diaper is sanitary and easy. It does not hurt baby unless baby has a skin allergy to it, which isn't common and can usually be solved by switching brands. China is killing the environment, you are merely changing a dirty diaper, so, I wouldn't worry about environmental issues.
posted by myselfasme at 8:00 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
Just as a data point, I did cloth diapers for the first six months with my son but switched to disposables after that, as I found it too much work for too little return, especially after he started solids. We were motivated more by the ecological impact of cloth versus saving money--which was good, because we definitely spent a ton of money on fitted diapers and it was way more expensive (given we stopped after 6 months) than disposables would have been. We plan to have a second kid and don't plan to try cloth diapering next time around.
We're a two-worker family, though, and having us both back at work by 6 months was a big factor in the amount of work vs. return calculation. For us, the every-other-day washing of the diapers wasn't the deal-breaker, it was more the huge of amount of research and experimentation of different laundering / treatment methods that it became apparent would be necessary after he started solids--at that point, his poops became much more smelly (newborn poop dissolves in water and is super-easy to deal with, not so once older), and his diapers seemed to have more issues with leaking and with smelling even after laundering. There are thousands of cloth diapering folks on the internet who can help you trouble-shoot those issues but that trouble-shooting becomes quite a bit of work in and of itself.
I think cloth diapers work well for people who either end up lucky in terms of not having leaking / smell / diaper rash problems, OR for people who are really committed and enjoy on some level the experimentation of trying to isolate and tweak different variables to make it work well for their family. I live in an area where cloth diapering is very popular--the local hospital actual uses cloth diapers and not disposables on all newborns born there (!!)--and I know a decent number of people who have stuck with it and love it through the early toddler years. But I also know far more people who started and stopped because they found it just one more very intensive, potentially expensive project (in terms of buying new diapers or new detergent or sprayers or whatever) at a time when they didn't have a lot of extra energy to spare.
posted by iminurmefi at 9:04 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]
We're a two-worker family, though, and having us both back at work by 6 months was a big factor in the amount of work vs. return calculation. For us, the every-other-day washing of the diapers wasn't the deal-breaker, it was more the huge of amount of research and experimentation of different laundering / treatment methods that it became apparent would be necessary after he started solids--at that point, his poops became much more smelly (newborn poop dissolves in water and is super-easy to deal with, not so once older), and his diapers seemed to have more issues with leaking and with smelling even after laundering. There are thousands of cloth diapering folks on the internet who can help you trouble-shoot those issues but that trouble-shooting becomes quite a bit of work in and of itself.
I think cloth diapers work well for people who either end up lucky in terms of not having leaking / smell / diaper rash problems, OR for people who are really committed and enjoy on some level the experimentation of trying to isolate and tweak different variables to make it work well for their family. I live in an area where cloth diapering is very popular--the local hospital actual uses cloth diapers and not disposables on all newborns born there (!!)--and I know a decent number of people who have stuck with it and love it through the early toddler years. But I also know far more people who started and stopped because they found it just one more very intensive, potentially expensive project (in terms of buying new diapers or new detergent or sprayers or whatever) at a time when they didn't have a lot of extra energy to spare.
posted by iminurmefi at 9:04 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]
I cloth diaper my two-year-old, and don't find it to be much work or a big deal at all, really. However, we do use disposables at night, and when we're going to be out of the house for awhile. We use pocket diapers, rinse poop out into the toilet with the shower head (we bought a longer hose), and launder every 2-3 days. Covers are air dried and inserts are put in the dryer. I would not hang-dry microfiber inserts, they would take days to dry - so cotton flats would be a better choice for you. I would recommend just picking up a couple to see how you like it before committing to a whole "stash."
posted by Safiya at 9:19 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Safiya at 9:19 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
Is it (still) worth it? Or just too much work for too little return?
Cloth diapers are only "cheaper" or "worth it" if your time is worth nothing. Pardon my feminism, but I think your time is valuable!
From an economic standpoint, cloth diapering is not "worth it" IF you could spend that time doing something else that would feel more enriching to you personally than doing laundry, such as earning an income, or spending that precious time playing with your child. YMMV.
Does it really help with toilet training?
No. What "helps with toilet training" is starting earlier to toilet train them. In fact, you can start today with your 9-month-old by getting them a little potty chair and letting them have some diaper-free time every day. See The Diaper-Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh, and Diaper Free Before 3 by Jill M. Lekovic, MD.
posted by hush at 9:45 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]
Cloth diapers are only "cheaper" or "worth it" if your time is worth nothing. Pardon my feminism, but I think your time is valuable!
From an economic standpoint, cloth diapering is not "worth it" IF you could spend that time doing something else that would feel more enriching to you personally than doing laundry, such as earning an income, or spending that precious time playing with your child. YMMV.
Does it really help with toilet training?
No. What "helps with toilet training" is starting earlier to toilet train them. In fact, you can start today with your 9-month-old by getting them a little potty chair and letting them have some diaper-free time every day. See The Diaper-Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh, and Diaper Free Before 3 by Jill M. Lekovic, MD.
posted by hush at 9:45 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]
From an economic standpoint, cloth diapering is not "worth it" IF you could spend that time doing something else that would feel more enriching to you personally than doing laundry, such as earning an income, or spending that precious time playing with your child. YMMV.
Personally, it's worth it to me because a) it's cheaper, b) I like reducing the environmental impact of bringing up a child where possible, and c) it vastly cuts down on the amount of time and energy I have to spend buying disposables and carting them home. The laundry does not take a significant amount of time out of my day, and doesn't cut into the time I spend earning an income or playing with my child. I'm a feminist, I work, I don't consider my time to be worth nothing, and cloth is the right decision for my family.
But that's me, and these calculations vary for everyone. There's no one correct ideal balance of time/effort/money. Cloth is worth it for some people in some situations, and not for other people in other situations. There are a lot of variables that will affect whether it's worth it for you in yours, OP, but I do think the best way to find out is to buy a few (not a whole set, just a couple) and see for yourself. Since you don't have a dryer I think one of the biggest issues will be drying time, unless December is really sunny where you are - I have prefolds that will pretty much dry overnight, but the heavy bamboo fitteds take about 3 days to dry if they're just on a laundry rail inside.
(I would also gently suggest that when it comes to other people's advice on whether cloth is a good idea, the best advice you'll get is from those who've tried it themselves and relatively recently - there's a lot of "my mother tried it a generation ago and it sucked" in this thread, and cloth has changed a great deal since our mothers' day.)
posted by Catseye at 10:35 AM on December 29, 2014
Personally, it's worth it to me because a) it's cheaper, b) I like reducing the environmental impact of bringing up a child where possible, and c) it vastly cuts down on the amount of time and energy I have to spend buying disposables and carting them home. The laundry does not take a significant amount of time out of my day, and doesn't cut into the time I spend earning an income or playing with my child. I'm a feminist, I work, I don't consider my time to be worth nothing, and cloth is the right decision for my family.
But that's me, and these calculations vary for everyone. There's no one correct ideal balance of time/effort/money. Cloth is worth it for some people in some situations, and not for other people in other situations. There are a lot of variables that will affect whether it's worth it for you in yours, OP, but I do think the best way to find out is to buy a few (not a whole set, just a couple) and see for yourself. Since you don't have a dryer I think one of the biggest issues will be drying time, unless December is really sunny where you are - I have prefolds that will pretty much dry overnight, but the heavy bamboo fitteds take about 3 days to dry if they're just on a laundry rail inside.
(I would also gently suggest that when it comes to other people's advice on whether cloth is a good idea, the best advice you'll get is from those who've tried it themselves and relatively recently - there's a lot of "my mother tried it a generation ago and it sucked" in this thread, and cloth has changed a great deal since our mothers' day.)
posted by Catseye at 10:35 AM on December 29, 2014
Response by poster: Wow! So much info -- thanks everyone! I'm thinking that perhaps its not necessarily the best idea in our circumstances (rainy weather) to rely solely on the washing machine, but I think I'll test out a cloth diapering service that gives you everything but I could cancel if it is Hell or I realize that I could do it cheaper and better. I like the point that hush makes about my time -- I hadn't quite thought of that, and it's a pretty compelling argument.
posted by caoimhe at 2:53 PM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by caoimhe at 2:53 PM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
One option might be to get a few (4-6 or so) BumGenius One-size 4.0s (with snaps!) and occasionally have a day of cloth - maybe every other day or every third day. Cloth diapering doesn't have to be all-or-nothing! It might make for some smallish laundry loads if you are only washing five or six diapers at a time, but I don't see anything wrong with cloth diapering part-time to try it out. If nothing else, it'll cut down on the number of disposables you'll have to buy. You'll get a feel for how long the diapers take to line-dry (and with removable inserts, it shouldn't be too bad - we line dry ours in the summer) and you can make a more informed choice on whether or not you'd like to buy more and commit, continue as-is, or do away with it entirely. Or pick a different system (prefolds, etc).
Anecdata: I cloth diapered my first baby pretty exclusively from about 4 months on, until he was about a year old and started peeing through them at night. At that point, we used cloth during the day and a disposable at night. He potty trained right at around 2.5yrs, for what that's worth.
With my second baby, we're doing a pretty fair combo of cloth and disposables. We realized very early on that she's a heavy wetter so there was no way cloth was going to work at night, so we didn't even bother. Some days are 'sposies for her and some days are cloth. Again - don't feel like it has to be all or nothing!
Since you mention you're willing to buy diapers second-hand, check out the "Marketplace" section of the forums at diaperswappers.com. You can often find really great deals there and it might be a good place to try out some different styles (pocket, AIO, etc). I bought most of my stash for my first baby from there.
posted by meggan at 5:32 PM on December 29, 2014
Anecdata: I cloth diapered my first baby pretty exclusively from about 4 months on, until he was about a year old and started peeing through them at night. At that point, we used cloth during the day and a disposable at night. He potty trained right at around 2.5yrs, for what that's worth.
With my second baby, we're doing a pretty fair combo of cloth and disposables. We realized very early on that she's a heavy wetter so there was no way cloth was going to work at night, so we didn't even bother. Some days are 'sposies for her and some days are cloth. Again - don't feel like it has to be all or nothing!
Since you mention you're willing to buy diapers second-hand, check out the "Marketplace" section of the forums at diaperswappers.com. You can often find really great deals there and it might be a good place to try out some different styles (pocket, AIO, etc). I bought most of my stash for my first baby from there.
posted by meggan at 5:32 PM on December 29, 2014
Forgot to add: I mention snaps because they last longer than the velcro, in my experience, and you mentioned wanting to use them for a second kid. I ended up having a bunch of my velcro diapers converted to snaps because they were driving me nuts - wouldn't stay shut on the baby but happily stuck to each other in the wash and made for a lot of unsightly pilling on the outside of the diapers.
The nice thing about the one-size BumGenius diapers is that they "cinch" with snaps so that you don't have to buy a whole new stash of differently sized diapers every few months. A 2 year old and a 3 month old can wear the same diapers, just on different snap settings.
Also: what seems to work for early potty training (for us, at least) was a ton of naked time. I assume the cloth diapering helped, but I think the nakedness helped way more.
posted by meggan at 5:41 PM on December 29, 2014
The nice thing about the one-size BumGenius diapers is that they "cinch" with snaps so that you don't have to buy a whole new stash of differently sized diapers every few months. A 2 year old and a 3 month old can wear the same diapers, just on different snap settings.
Also: what seems to work for early potty training (for us, at least) was a ton of naked time. I assume the cloth diapering helped, but I think the nakedness helped way more.
posted by meggan at 5:41 PM on December 29, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
I really liked the cloth overall, but I really can't imagine doing it without both a washer and dryer.
posted by murrey at 6:14 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]