When I had Bug, I assumed all parents nowadays used disposable diapers. I was first introduced to the idea of "modern" cloth diapers through blogs of moms who were cloth diapering with various reasons. I was intrigued because 1. I want to be a good steward of the Earth God has given us 2. Buying nice cloth diapers has an initial investment, but saves money in the long run, and 3. The new cloth diapers looked cool!
I searched and read and priced and researched and finally bought six Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers:
Fuzzi Bunz are pocket diapers, which to me seemed like the best of both worlds. It works just like a disposable diaper but you wash and keep them! (Not to mention they come in all sorts of awesome colors!)Having become hooked, I bought more Fuzzi Bunz as seconds (diapers that are marked down in price because of minor cosmetic flaws-- a great deal!), and purchased some BumGenius one size diapers too:
I am not as gungho (does that word look awfully weird to anyone else?) about cloth diapering as many bloggin' mamas, but we've made cloth diapering work for us. How's that? Thanks for asking...We cloth diaper part time. Our kids wear sposies to church and when we're out. It's just easier for us to toss a diaper in the trash than carry it home in a wet bag (don't shoot me!) If Kid 1 or Kid 2 is sick, we use disposables. If I'm having a bad day (or a pregnant day!), I use disposables. I'm not single-handedly saving the world, but I have cut down on the diaper waste we produce.
I must also confess that cloth diapering hasn't happened much since Little Man arrived on the scene. I needed some normalcy of routine first! Now that we're settling down (and Little Man fits our medium Fuzzi Bunz), we're getting back into things.
How does diapering with pocket diapers work? The diaper has an opening in the back where a cloth insert fits inside. The diaper goes onto your child just like a disposable would, hooking with snaps or velcro in the front. When your baby is wet (or you smell something funky), you remove the diaper and deal with it according to its contents.
A wet diaper: Pull the insert out of the diaper and put the diaper and insert into a holding container of some sort-- a pail or waterproof bag.
A dirty diaper: Shake the poo off diaper into the toilet and flush. Pull the insert out of the diaper and put the diaper and insert into the holding container.
On laundry day, wash the diapers according to the manufacturer's instructions. For me that meant starting a rinse cycle and dumping my bag of diapers and inserts into the wash, washing them with the specified amount of detergent (I use Tide), and then running one more rinse cycle after the wash. On nice days I hang the diapers and inserts outside. On not-so-nice days I dry the inserts on high heat, and hang the diapers inside.
Confused yet?
I will vouch for the fact that pocket diapers are very easy. I have dubbed them "cloth diapers for dummies" because that's what I was when I got my first Fuzzi Bunz in the mail!
Still not sure? Don't feel pressured, cloth diapering might not be your thing! (gasp!) Or maybe cloth diapering part time would work for your family.
If you'd like some more information, here are some great cloth diaper resources:
Diaper Swappers: Community for buying/selling/trading diapers
Cloth Diaper Terminology
Cloth vs. Disposables
Cloth Diapering 101
3 comments:
I'm seriously so excited about your diaper chatter week...especially since I'm exhausted and laying around, spending more time on the computer than I've spent in a while! Thanks for the practical advice! Wish you were closer... :)
http://diapering.wallypop.net/infocostcomparison.html
that link shows a great chart for cost comparison of cloth v. disposable
The thing I've most learned from cloth diapering is that you must examine the speck in your own eye before talking about the log in another's........
It's easy to think you are doing something great for your finances by using cloth...or great for the baby's bottom by not putting those nasty chemicals next to their tush.....or for the earth...
But I've come to realize it doesn't much matter what others are doing or not doing.
I need to listen to the Lord's convictions about being a good steward. The convictions are for me alone!
I sometimes wish I used all the cute diapers other people swoon about, but I've found pre-folds and basic covers do the job. For me, I simply cannot justify using anything else.
I even bought a BumGenuis diaper b/c "everyone" loves them. Turns out I hate them! Taught me a good lesson. :)
The best way to clean cloth diapers is to pre-rinse them off in the toilet using a Bathroom Bidet Sprayer. So convenient and if you are trying to help the environment (and your pocket book) you can give it a double whammy by virtually eliminating toilet paper use at the same time as you use it on the diapers. Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com they come in an inexpensive kit and can be installed without a plumber. And after using one of these you won't know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper. Now we're talking green and helping the environment without any pain.
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