I cloth diaper both my kids. I use a little bit of everything.. I have a few pockets/AIO's, some fitteds and prefolds, and a variety of PUL covers and wool longies/soakers. I like my pockets for the diaper bag or if someone is watching the kids (including BD), but I honestly find myself reaching for my fitteds and wool most often. Another thing.. you dont need your own laundry facilities to Cloth Diaper either.. Ive been using cloth since te was 2 months old and weve never had our own washer/dryer.. I use the apartment laundry which is coin-op, or Ive been known to take them to the laundromat or my parents house if Im really broke.

I cloth diaper Ais, but I didn't start until about 4 months ago... I had always wanted to, but haulign water, Neil wasn't so supportive.... I finally won him over...... He expected Ais would be potty-trained by 18months, but she wasn't... so that helped.... And even though I'm late off the mark, I have still saved money. I use organic cotton/hemp prefolds mostly, I have a few fitted's but most of the time i don't use them... they are for others to use, like Amanda mentioned! Stacinator covers.... and a few Bummis covers. Oh and snappi's. THEY ROCK! Good thread Hun!

Congrats for jumping on the cloth wagon Eileen!! Thats awesome that youve switched over! Better late than never.. and maybe it'll give Ais a jumpstart on the potty-learning And I agree.. Snappis rock For a long time I used pins, but the snappis are SO much easier (well for me.. my MIL and BD cant figure it out to save their souls!)

I'm planning on cloth diapering the new bub. I never did with Trey, I was one of those ones that always "wished" I could but never did anything about it, so when I found out I was preggo again I started looking into what the terms meant, how to do it, where to get it, etc. I ended up using www.bellabottoms.com, she's a WAHM. I got my entire supply from her, from hemp soakers to covers, and the actual diaper I'm using is a one size fits all diaper that she makes. I looked at a dozen other ones, because one thing I didn't like was that you had to buy for each size, and what if one size doesn't fit properly, etc, but with hers it has layers of snaps so it's completely adjustable. I put it on my son's toy baby and it was snug, I put it on my 4 year old son to test and it still fit well, I feel better knowing one group of diapers is going to last me from baby to potty training. Plus all the reviews I read of other one size diapers some were good but most were iffy to bad, but she had a LOT of great reviews on her style, how they never leak, how easy they are to use and how they truly were adjustable, plus they were cheaper then a lot of other kinds of diapers. A little expensive to start up, I ended up getting about 550$ worth, from the diapers to the soakers to the covers, but I figure in the long run I paid about 3-4 times that amount on disposables for Trey, and these ones I can re-sell once I'm done with them as long as I treat them well, and I can feel better knowing that 1. I'm helping the environment by not dumping another thousand diapers into a landfill that won't dispose for hundreds of years, and 2. The natural material will be better on my babys skin because it's not full of chemicals.

I would love to do it, but the start up costs are not in my budget right now.

we do, i have never cloth diapered a newborn before so it will be an experience. Alexa was cloth diapered from when she was about 4 months till she potty learned at 2.5 if you can't afford diapers/start up costs, check out http://miraclediapers.org/

I planned to CD Avi from birth, but she came sooner and smaller than expected, so none of my newborn stash fit her She was barely 5 lbs when we brought her home, and the newborn dipes and covers were just swimming on her! So we ended up using preemie sposies until I could get a small stash of preemie cloth.. I ended up with a dozen preemie prefolds, 6 preemie fitteds, and about 7 preemie prorap covers.. I was doing ALOT of washing, but it was enough to get us by until she grew into her newborn stuff. At 8.5 months she is JUST outgrowing her smalls. After my issues with Avi not fitting my newborn stuff, ive decided to hang on to all my preemie cloth for the next babe, as Im sure that one will be an early bird too. I love One-Size dipes.. I have some Haute Pockets (www.mtdiaperstore.com) that I bought when they had the 2nds on clearance for $7.50 ea and they are fantastic for the diaper bag since I can use the same dipe on either of my kids. I also 2nd miracle diapers for mamas who want to CD but cant afford the startup costs. Also, prefolds and covers are fairly cost effective for newbies.. You can get a dozen for $20-25 and you really only need about 2 dozen if you wash every 2-3 days. And a few covers should get you by.. or if you can sew you can make them out of old sweaters (which are usually $1 or so at the thrift store).

I do cloth diapers at home, plastic ones at daycare. I usually end up washing the cloth ones in my kitchen sink (hehe, now NOBODY will eat the salad at my dinner party), I wish I could afford some pocket diapers, because my daycare begged me not to send him in prefolds again. I use thirsties covers, snappis, and gerber prefolds.

Thanks Amanda, And I must add that Ais is not liking being wet these day, MWAHAHAHAHA! I recently ordered her some Imse Vimse undies.... here we go! Cost was one of the original reason I went with pre-folds..... but another big part was that since they are hemp.... they will be around forever. So Neil will have plenty of shop rags one day, if they go through enough kids to not function well as diapers anymore..... The fitted ones I have all for all sizes too. http://www.parentingbynature.com/25-hemp-cloth-diapers.htm But this site sells basic prefolds, for pretty reasonable amounts...$2.99... and you can save money by shopping in Canada too, so long as you keep an eye on shipping charges. http://www.parentingbynature.com/products.php?cat=41 I know a Mama who sewed her own pre-fold from flannel too, and saved a bundle.

There's auctions on Ebay too that for I think like 5 bucks sell you the pattern for some good cloth diapers, you could get the pattern (or just try to find one on the internet for free), get second hand blankets and fabric from thrift stores and make your own. I was thinking about that too, but hell, I'm no where NEAR crafty, but misfit I know you're really crafty and good at making stuff so would that be an option?

I posted diaper stuff in the other thread for you, Misfit. Seriously, I hope you find a way to cloth diaper, since in the long term, it will really help. We use cloth diapers - prefolds, only. Mostly vinyl covers, though we have one microfleece cover that I love and have fantasies of getting more microfleece when she moves up to the next size.

i like the idea of cloth diapers but i find disposables easy and convienient enough, also since i am now working and in school full time so i also have to consider the preference of her sitter.

I've been cloth diapering since my baby was born, but we're now moving into cloth underpants and using the potty/floor. I wouldn't have started him with the potty learning so young, but he was really really into it. It's going well so far! Misfit - how big/old is your diapered baby? My daycare teacher gave me a TON of cloth diapers that she had used on her own son when he was in diapers, and now that we're moving to diapering less I'm definitely up for passing some dipes on via US postal service.

katie87 wrote:i like the idea of cloth diapers but i find disposables easy and convienient enough, also since i am now working and in school full time so i also have to consider the preference of her sitter. Haha Katie.. you should have known this was coming.. but seriously girl, cloth diapers are convenient and easy too But I totally understand the babysitter thing.. my family is adamant that I need my kids in sposies if they babysit.

I keep disposables around for that reason too.... but being in school now, cost wise, I couldn't NOT use disposables!

yabinti wrote:I keep disposables around for that reason too.... but being in school now, cost wise, I couldn't NOT use disposables! You mean you couldnt NOT use cloth?? Sorry, Im just a lil confused.. but Im guessing thats what you meant

Um yeah....... I don't exactly know what happened there!!!!!!!!!!! I swear I have something wrong with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I meant couldn't NOT use cloth. Where I live it was costing us over $100 a month is Huggies..... And now with school, relocating money, has become crucial. A credit for me is $85. That's a whole lot of credits, when you start calculating......

I cloth diapered both my kids. Disposables for trips and stuff though. I think it was totally worth it.

I cloth diapered DS for most of his first year. I loved it.

Hows the cloth going for the mamas who were awaiting the arrival of their new babes??

its going OK for us. Blake doesn't really wake up at night so we use sposies then, since they will last a LONG time. When he first came home he was in sposies more too until his umbilical cord stump fell off, and now all the other smalls we have fit him. my favorite right now is bumgenious i never had them with Alexa, and I only have 1 for Blake, but i love it. And i still squeeze him into his newborn fitteds because they work well.

the one size fits all ones I got are actually fitted for 8lbs-35lbs, and Theo's just hitting hte 8lb mark now. He's got skinny legs, so before they'd leak. We're waiting a few more weeks to try again, give him some time to bulk up a lil ;D and we wanted to use disposables anyways for the beginning because the diapers I have would have pushed into the umbilical stump.

I'm gearing up to start using the ones you sent me We got some disposables so we are using those until she gains just a bit more weight.

I have a question. Where do you begin? What do you do about daycare? To be honest i really am interested in this especially just watching a video on a website after 365 days a diaper is still NOT decomposed. YUK! Makes me want to vomit. I try to be as enviromentally friendly as i can. sometimes im not or dont even think about things. I know SO will be like eww why? So this is something id have to research and talk with him about. What do you need? How do you wash? We plan on moving in the next few months and once we do we will have our washer and dryer set up. So it will be easier to wash and not have diapers sit forever.

I'm not sure how daycare will be, I guess talk to them, see what you can do to make it easier on them if they say yes (supplying a closed pail, not requiring them to scrape off solids before putting it in, etc?) I got mine from bellabottoms, www.bellabottoms.com I got the one size ones so they're adjustable from newborn up to 35lbs (and it's true, they fit Trey actually) they're pretty good, they're really bulky but they don't leak I got about 48 diapers, 25 inserty type things for extra absorbency (hell if I remember the technical name, heh), and 12 covers. All in all it was like just under $600, but since this one batch will last me until potty training it's worth it, I don't have to buy a new batch for small, medium and then large. I wash them pretty much the same, I use 1/4 the detergent I'd usually use for laundry, put some baking soda in to begin with, and add white vinegar to the rinse cycle, then dry it in the dryer, (though the covers have to be washed a different way) Honestly though are you crafty at all? A good from on my LJ just had her baby a few weeks before mine and she's making her own cloth diapers by buying her own fabric, using a pattern, buying her own PUL for covers, and hers look AMAZING. They're as snug as a disposable diaper so they're not super bulky like mine, and they work well. If I was crafty and had a sewing machine I would do that because I'm incredibly jealous of how hers look, they're better then any ones i've found online.

My moms pretty good with a sewing machine. Im pretty crafty but if i even tried to use a sewing machine id probably sew my finger to the fabric. Seriously! lol too quick for me! Making them sounds much cheaper. The one size up to 35 lbs sounds really convenient. Instead of buying all different sizes. Im going to check out that site. Thanks. When you have dirty cloth diapers, what do you do with them before you wash? How do you make sure there is no odor or try to reduce the odor?

keep them in a dry pail with a lid and about 1/4 a cup of baking soda in the bottom of the pail, it keeps the odors down.

We have cloth diapered since A was about two weeks old. We used disposables for the first little while, because I thought it would be too hard (it wasn't) Next time, I'll use cloth from birth. Our stash now is 25 Motherease one size (8-35lb). I had a random collection before he was born, and when he was small we used mostly Kushies. We EC, so we don't use covers. At 11 months, we are dry overnight and 1 or 2 pees during the day. Kel: I put all my diapers in an uncovered pail in the laundry room (if I had no laundry room I would probably keep them in the bathroom). I put about 12 at a time in the washer and run a cold rinse, then a hot wash with only a teaspoon of liquid detergent (no more! more detergent causes buildup that retains odour), then run another cold wash. I line dry (depending on weather) or tumble dry hot (no covers in the dryer) with no fabric softener. I have never had an issue with odour! At daycare (he goes 4 hours a day while I am at school), he wears cloth without a cover, just like at home. If he pees there, our provider tosses the wets in a plastic bag. It's not that different from disposables. There is a cultural assumption that it is harder, and it was, back in the late seventies when disposables first became available. But the cloth diapers available now are nothing like the old method. An All-in-one is exactly like a disposable, except that you can wash and reuse it! My best piece of advice: don't let your diapers sit more than 3 days without washing. The sooner you wash, the better. If you have your own W/D, fill your washer and toss your diapers in as you go about your day...let them soak then run a load at night. Diapers wash best in small loads.

i am really interested in this. i want another baby within the next 2 yrs. and just by reading this thread, i want to and will use cloth diapering. although i do have a question that hasnt really been covered, what happens if you leave it for like 2 days, does it go moldy?? do u rinse them after the baby pees in it and then leave it until u wash it, or do you leave it with the pee in it until you wash it?

I washed some I found in the car (poopy prefold inside its cover, plus a wet one up under the seat) and they came out fine.