Cloth diapers

[kymied]

So who has experience with cloth diapers? My friend lent me a book on all the different types and kinds of diapers and it suggests waiting until the baby arrives to try and find the best fitting type/brand for your baby's bum as not all diaper fit all bums equally. But I was looking on Craig's list and found people selling off their stashes of pocket diapers and it seems like a good deal.

Do you find that one sizes work as well as the fitted, do they fit for all the diapering years? That would make them more cost effective yes? Do you find that the velcro wears out? Would you suggest snaps instead?

 

[NDH]

You'll find a lot more advice in the Natural Parenting section. Lots of really helpful ladies in there.

 

[thelioncub]

I've not had my baby yet to comment on how well cloth works, but we certainly plan to use cloth nappies. I've done a shed load of research on this, and have decided on a couple of brands. I've then bought a few of each of the ones that have the best reviews as and when I've seen them on offer. From what I've read, the only issue with velcro is that as the baby becomes more dexterous, they are likely to undo the velcro themselves. The poppers therefore are perhaps longer lasting in that they will find it harder to undo them. In theory, you should be able to use cloth from birth to potty, although I believe we will likely use throwaways for the first month until the baby is just that bit bigger - cloth nappies do tend to be a bit bulkier.

You will also need to consider the clothes you buy, as stuff that hasn't got much room around the crotch may not fit over cloth nappies. We've bought organic clothes as they are more roomy and tend to be designed with cloth in mind, although you can also pick up some vest extenders which helps make 'normal' clothes fit over the nappies.

I intend to use the onesize Bumgenius, Flips and Pop-In's as I think the sized nappies will work out a lot more expensive, and perhaps negate some of the savings you'd make from using cloth to begin with.

I agree that waiting until you meet your baby is probably a sensible thing to do, but personally I wanted to prepare in advance so that I didn't get too stuck on using disposables, and then found it harder to switch. I would say as long as you don't go crazy and buy loads, getting some when you see them for a good price is fine, as the 2nd hand value is very good anyway, so worst case you could always sell them on.

Good luck!

 

[SoyLatte]

We are also going the cloth route as well. I ended up adding some to my registries at Target and Babies R Us too! Why not, right? I watched several reviews on YouTube from experienced mommies to see what they did and didn't like about different brands.

Also I remember listening to one reviewer suggest that if you're a FTM wait till the baby is a few weeks old or even a month before you go all cloth. The suggestion was made that just getting used to night feedings and recovering in general after delivery might make the extra diaper laundry seem overwhelming. I thought about me and how I can stress and we are going to give it a few weeks before we go all cloth. Just get used to LO before I add in laundry days...especially because early on they go through soo many diapers in a day!

I registered for BumGenius and Charlie Banana pocket diapers.

 

[Mabythistime]

I dont have personal experience, but my sisters 3rd child was on cloth nappies. She never had any kind of rash, and the cloth nappies really saved her a lot of money.

After the baby (who is now 10) was born, she was allergic to something in the throw-away nappies..and there dear sister had loads and loads of pre-bought throw-away nappiest that she could not use.

I am still in two minds about what will be best..Thinking for whilst on maternity to use cloth and then switch to throw-away after I am back at work. But lets see how much energy will be left to wash nappies...

 

[aevenstar]

We're now potty training dd and have used cloth from about 2 weeks old-bumgenius and flips. I found that once she was around 15 mths I could not get cloth to last all night so we use Eco disposables.

Love cloth though-and one more washing load every other evening is not much. Saved a fortune!