Reusable diapers

JuniBjones

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Baby girl is almost 3 months ! 12 lbs 13 oz and diapers are so expensive. We mainly buy in bulk to last us about a month or two. We haven’t had to buy night diapers for my 4 year old in 2 months so we’re saving a bit extra there and that goes towards baby’s diapers and wipes . My point to all this if any of you mamas have any experience in reusable diapers? I know you have to rinse them out and wash them before you throw them in the laundry but does it work well ? How many should I start with ? Would you recommend them ? And do they actually save a money in the long run ? :haha: Just curious to see if it’s something my worth trying . And if they work well I don’t see why I couldn’t save them for my next baby :rofl: But let get this one through her first year first lol
 
I've considered it but honestly it's expensive up front. You could spend easily $500 or more dollars getting set up. I hope someone was more experience comes along because I'm honestly interested.

You also have to clean them in your own washing machine unless you have someone coming to pick them up to clean them for you which is obviously going to cost more money.
 
I'm just hoping there's someone out there with more experience who can come along and say that what I'm saying is incorrect and you really don't have to spend that much money and maybe they know some tricks around it?
 
Yes I’ve seen some shops sell them for up to $20 a piece I wouldn’t get those ,But I’ve also seen some on Etsy 12 for $13 so if they’re actually worth it id look around and buy more . I’m so tempted and getting them just try for a couple days ,some of the prints are soo cute :haha:
 
I have cloth diapered all of my kids to some extent. DS1 was exclusively cloth diapered until he potty trained at 2.5 years old. The rest of my kids were cloth diapered for at least 4 months before I switched to disposable diapers for a variety of reasons. I plan to cloth diaper the baby I'm currently expecting too.

My advice is to shop around a bit for the best deals and do your research. There are SOOOO many different options out there for cloth diaper/reusable diapers with different price points. There are the old fashioned pre-fold kind that you put on the baby, secure with pins or a nifty little gizmo called a snappi, and cover with with a separate waterproof cover and there are the kind with separate liners that you use with a waterproof cover as well as ones that are all one piece. The pre-folds are the cheapest option but you often have to buy different sized pre-folds as your child grows and they can take some practice to get used to using. And depending on the type/style of diaper covers you get, you may need to invest in larger sizes of those as well. The ones with removable liners are more expensive and you do have to reassemble the diapers after washing/drying. Depending on which style you go with here, you may need to buy bigger sizes as your child grows but most of these kind diapers are an all-in-one variety that uses snaps to make the diapers smaller or larger so they can grow with your child. The most expensive kind of diapers in my experience are the all in ones that come as one piece with the liners attached to the cover. These are probably the easiest to use as they are most like disposable diapers and you can use them for many years as you can adjust the size of these according to how big your child is but they are the priciest option.

The other consideration is if you use cloth diapers, you have to make sure you care for them right or they don't last as long. Before you buy a particular kind of diaper, you might want to see what the manufacturer recommends as far as washing/drying instructions as many of them recommend you don't put your cloth diapers in the dryer if you don't need to. You can't use certain kinds of laundry soaps and may need to adjust the amount of soap you are using as this can lead to a build-up in the fabric and the diaper becoming less absorbent. The other thing to keep in mind is that you have to be aware of what kinds of diaper creams and rash ointments you can use with cloth diapers as certain brands aren't usable with cloth diapers.

When I have cloth diapered my kids though, I kept things as simple as I could. I didn't get the fancy sprayer attachment for my toilet to make rinsing dirty diapers easier. I just dunked the dirty diaper in the toilet, sloshed it around a bit to loosen any solids and flushed the toilet to kind of rinse things out as much as I could. Then I'd toss the diaper in a 5 gallon pail with a lid til I was ready to wash a load of cloth diapers. If they were particularly dirty, I'd do a pre-soak in the bucket (I'd dump out any excess water, cover the diapers in warm water with a splash of cloth diaper appropriate soap and let sit for at least 30 minutes before dumping out the extra water. I'd do a spin cycle in the washing machine to get rid of any extra water left in the diapers and then wash as usual.) but mostly I just washed them like the rest of our clothes. I use homemade soap made from Fels Naptha, washing soda, and borax and that has been a pretty good soap for my diapers but I have also used Tide Free & Clear and Dreft liquid detergents too. I hung my diapers to dry as much as a possible and I got a solid 2.5 years worth of use out of the first batch of cloth diapers I had. That was exclusively cloth diapering one kid that entire 2.5 years as well as cloth diapering kid #2 for 4 months. I washed diapers every 2-3 days and used a combination of prefold diapers with a snappi and diaper cover (mostly at home) and bumGenius all in one diapers (for on the go/in town/at church/etc). I had around 35 prefolds with 6 diaper covers (I used rumparooz covers) and I had 12 bumGenius all in ones. This was enough to get me through 3 full days with a few extra to tide me over on Day 4 while the diapers dried.

I will also add that we would use cloth diapers if we were just going to town to run errands or basically planning to only be gone for a few hours. If we were traveling or going to be gone all day for some reason, we'd use disposable diapers. We traveled with a cloth diapered kid once and that was enough. If I was changing a cloth diaper and I wasn't at home, I'd rinse the diaper if possible and put it in a water resistant bag (called a wet bag) but plastic grocery bags or the disposable plastic bags people use for disposable diapers or dog poop work just as well.

I can give more advice, pointers, etc if anyone is interested but this is kind of an overview. And really, cloth diapering is something you really have to just try out for yourself. It's alot of trial and error at times but I love it. I live 25 miles from the nearest town with a store big enough to carry disposable diapers and I hated having to make a special trip to the store because I forgot to stock up on diapers again or we unexpectedly ran out. Some of my kids have done okay with one brand of diaper but didn't like other kinds/brands of cloth diapers. One of my kids couldn't be cloth diapered after 4 months because she was such a heavy wetter, she peed through everything no matter how many extra liners I put in the diaper. I had her checked out at the doctor's because I was concerned this was a medical issue but it wasn't. She just held her pee for so long, she'd pee through absolutely everything as soon as her bladder let loose. It took alot of trial and error before we found ONE brand of overnight disposable diapers that wouldn't leak but even with those, I had to change her halfway through the night even after she started sleeping through the night becuase if I didn't, she'd wake up soaking wet.
 
Wow thank you so much ! That’s all great information to take in . I think I’m going to give it a try, baby rn goes through 10-12 diapers during the day and about half of that through the night . It feels like I’m constantly asking OF to bring home diapers. I’ll take a look at those brands you mentioned ,but I probably will buy the toilet attachment :haha: and it’ll serve a bidet for OH and me .
 
There is a bit of a learning curve when you first start out and you may find you have to size up their clothes because cloth diapers are much bulkier than disposables but there's just something so cute about a bulky bum on a baby. Certainly looks cuter on them than it does on me. :haha: And it is expensive to get started if you buy everything brand new. But if you aren't turned off by getting used ones, you can sometimes find them at thrift stores, garage sales, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist. I got rid of all of my cloth diapers 2 years ago when we were told we couldn't have more kids so I had to buy everything this time. But I lucked out and one of my good friends was dumping her entire cloth diaper stash so I got them free. I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth so I happily took them. I might still invest in a few all-in-ones for on the go use but I still need to go through all the diapers my friend gave me to see what will need replacing before I do so.

I have always figured the diaper sprayer thing wasn't worth the cost but your suggestion of it being a bidet has me reconsidering. The hemorrhoids are the worst they have EVER been for me this time round and my poor bottom screams at me every time I go bathroom these days because even the softest cushiest toilet paper is like sandpaper. :blush: :rofl:
 
I have only used reusable diapers a few times. It seemed simpler and safer for me to use ordinary diapers. But recently I found very cool reusable ones. Fortunately, I will soon have a nephew and I contacted kissy kissy customer service to discuss a few details. So I think this will be a nice little gift from me
 
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