Continuing the Cloth Diaper thread

[LuvBug]

Yeah, I am totally not understanding half of what's being said!

lol! well to each is their own, know what I mean?
We have MA/DC/BV/RA and so on, they have AIO(all in one), MEOS(mother ease one size), FB(fuzzybun), and so on.
Its been a long time but I use to know what all of them meant. I try not to type in abbreviations though. I could have easily said kwim? but some people dont know what that means lol!

 

[Shaunam]

Yeah, I am totally not understanding half of what's being said!

It's confusing at first, but after a while you don't even think about the abbreviations, just like with car seat abbreviations here.

Some basics:

pfs are prefolds. There are cpfs and ipfs which are chinese prefolds and indian prefolds. And then it gets more confusing because there's bcpfs and ubcpfs which are bleached and unbleached. LOL

aios are all-in-ones

Some brands names are mother-ease one-size (meos), fuzzi bunz (fb), mommy's touch (mt), happy heinys (hh), and bumGenius! (just bg or bG!, plus there's bg 1.0 and bg 2.0 which are different versions of the same diaper).

And there's abbreviations for different materials. Microfleece is mf, suedecloth is sc, microfiber is mf, and so on.

It's crazy, but it's fun.

 

[stayinhomewithmy6]

As far as the daycare situation goes, I would personally not have a problem with doing cloth diapers if a parent requested it, and I'm sure I'm not the only daycare provider that would be willing (as long as I didn't have to mess with them a whole lot). Back when I worked at daycare centers, the one place that used cloth diapers had to have a diaper service because we were not allowed to 'mess' with the diapers, not even to rinse them or shake them off in the toilet. The employees all knew that it was against the rules, so we just tossed them in the garbage can for the diaper service to pick up, but I'm not sure if it was actually a health code or licensing regulations or what. Either way, as a parent I don't think you would be able to expect any more than for the daycare provider to toss the used diapies in a plastic bag and send them home with you at the end of the day (as we do with soiled clothing, etc...). And that way, for the daycare provider, its really not any different than changing disposable diapers, so it shouldn't be hard to find places that are willing to do it.

 

[Dillipop]

I started cding with my second when he was a little less than a month old. So we are going on 4 months now doing this full time. I absolutely love it! It is so much cheaper for me than putting him in disposables. And I never have to run to the store if I run out of dipes. The only thing I wish were different would be having a washing machine in my apartment. I lug the diapers down to my mom's twice a week along with the rest of our laundry. That is getting a bit tiring, but hey, I have to do laundry anyway, so might as well add a load, KWIM?

I am a mostly SAHM (I work 3 evenings a week for a total of about 10 hours). My sister does cloth, too and she will be working full time. She does have a service, though, so she will not have to do any washing. Her daycare provider is perfectly fine with doing cloth for her. The dirty dipes will just get put in the wetbag for my sister to deal with at the end of the day. The day care mom, will not be doing any rinsing. However, I don't think my sister does any rinsing either, since she does have the service.

The only think I don't like about cloth is that DH is still not totally on board. He will change the baby and leave the dirty one for me to deal with. In fact, there is a dirty one sitting in the bathroom waiting for me right now. He refused to dunk or rinse the dipe. Oh, well, at least he is willing to change the baby, as long as we have daddy friendly diapers laying around. (We use pocket dipes that I prestuff for him. I usually use prefolds or fitteds with covers.)

Sorry about going on for so long....

ETA: Oh, and I like the money savings of cloth so much, that I have put my older son in cloth trainers at night. No more pullups for us. YAY!!!

 

[tchrgrrl]

So, now I'm planning on using Fuzzi Bunz with my next baby (babies?) Does anyone have experience with these particular diapies? Or are there others you like better? Thanks for all the great info!

We *LOVE* our Fuzzi Bunz - we have tried quite a few other diapers/systems and now we use FB exclusively. DS2's medium FBs lasted over a year before he out grew them and they are now in storage for #3. DS1 has been in the same XL FB since April 05 and they are still going strong - have tons of life left in them (I am hoping he will be done with them soon though LOL!). The resale value on them is amazing - so not only have we saved TONS of $$ not buying disposables for the last 19 months but we will be able to recoup some (and sometimes MOST) of the $$ we spent when we sell the diapers after we are done with them.

We decided to start CD'ing when DS1 was 26 months old because he was soaking through every combo of disposables we put on him at night - a diaper with two disposable doublers with a pull up on top and he would STILL soak through. So we tried cloth and he stayed dry, all night! We switched DS2 at the same time and both have been exclusively in cloth until our vacation last week - they wore FB at night and pull-ups during the day (and they complained about the crunchy paper diapers!).

For us - CD'ing benefits:
*$$ savings - wow, we have saved TONS of $$
*health - CDs don't have those strange gel balls when they get wet
*they are CUTE!
*they are soft and they don't crinkle when you snuggle
*they don't smell as awful as paper diapers - even when poopy
*my kids stay dry
*no blow outs - even when both kids had a horrible tummy bug last spring
*we aren't filling up the landfills
*I like to be a little different

I even made a digital scrapbook page about our diapers

 

[Splash]

I wanted to do it for the health of the baby mostly. I didn't care about saving money, and while I cared about the environment and all, it wasn't my main motivator. I didn't know anyone who did cloth (except online) and decided to jump in and give it a shot.
We had to buy all new ones at birth, since mister 12 pound baby didn't fit anything I had bought him!
I love CDing. When I have used paper diapers, I hate them. I hate the way they smell, and I REALLY hate the squishy feeling they get when they are wet.
In the beginning, it cost us far more to CD than use paper. That's because we had to bleach all of his diapers (a no no in diaper world) and we were literally replacing diapers every six weeks or so. But, we soldiered on! Now we don't have to bleach them as often (I still bleach the hemp every few washes) so they last much longer.
The first time Charlie was hospitalized, they wouldn't let me use cloth. I was VERY upset about this but they refused. They even made ME bring the paper diapers, I had no clue what size he wore even! I ended up not putting diapers on him at all for the most part, and if he peed or pooped on their linenes, not my problem! The next time I was adamant that there was no reason not to use cloth. They gave me some BS about not being able to measure output because they didn't know how much they weighed when dry. Surprise people! I can weigh them! So he wore his cloth and the hospital didn't burn down.
Health wise, even if we hadn't started in cloth by choice, we would have switched by now by requirement. Charlie has had times when there is no skin on his face, arms, legs, back, and chest and he is wrapped head to toe like a little mummy, but he has never had a diaper rash!

 

[skaterbabs]

We started to save money, but within no time it became more about the cuteness factor, although we definately have saved money with them. We took disposables on a few trips, and after switching to cloth, even clean 'sposies stink to me. (she was 4 mos old before she really fit anything we'd already bought her. lol)

 

[didymama]

everyone is mentioning rinsing-i have yet to rinse a dipe. just put hard poo in the toilet and the rest in the pail. i wash everyday right now, so it doesn't stink much.

and daycare should be putting poo on the toilet anyway with sposies-it's illegal to throw it in the trash-read the packages!!

 

[skaterbabs]

I use a sprayer to put the poo in the toilet - because Joyjoy still BF, hers are sticky, so they don't just fall out of the dipe.

 

[Lys]

Here are some photos of Ian in his various dipes.
http://lodonal.photosite.com/Album3/

 

[joolsplus3]

LOVE Fuzzi Bunz (and happy heiny's... dad likes the velcro)...love love love them. I figured I would have to do more laundry, so resisted, but then figured I do so much darn laundry anyway, what's an extra load or two a week? I just dump them all in a washable 'wet bag' in a garbage can, which is even easier than walking a sposie out to the trash, and dump the whole wetbag in the wash inside out so the dipes get clean.

And to the PP with the soap issues? There are WAY better detergents out there that actually rinse and do NOT build up and remain impossible to rinse! www.charliesoap.com is absolutely awesome. One tablespoon and a whole load of laundry comes out totally clean!

 

[Yoshi]

When my son was born in '89, Cloth diapers were making a "comeback" mainly for environmental reasons- but the choices were not what they are today. If things were like they are now, I would have definitely stuck with it!

Back then, I tried it using a diaper service (we lived in an apartment with no washer or dryer on premises) and it was not only just as expensive as disposables, it was very problematic for various reasons- my son was a heavy, heavy wetter and I was changing diapers every 20 minutes (he was 4 months old and EBF). I also read up on the diaper service industry's sanitizing/washing practices and because they used large amounts of bleach, this run off wastewater is a source of the environmental pollutant dioxin (like papermills with their bleaching pollution problems) So much for helping the environment!

So, we gave up after a few months and switched back to disposables. Since my second child was born 14 years later, I had no idea how much things had changed. Without friends of family with little ones (all my friends had teenagers, like me!) I just went with disposables from the start with DD. I didn't know there were such things as all-in-ones or cutie covers like there are! Oh well.

I guess when you are in the loop, you know these things. I was SO out of the baby loop, the only thing that was the same seemed to be nursing!!!

 

[Lara]

Hmmm, too bad dd is potty trained. I love all those cute diapers! I think I will try cloth with my next... it sounds much easier than I thought it would be.

Oh and the money savings.... I just added up basically what dd used in the 2.5 years she was in diapers and its scary!

 

[joolsplus3]

Yeah, and you can buy used dipes on ebay or diaperswappers.com and re-sell them in good condition... no one is in the market for used huggies, lol.

 

[Patriot201]

I wish I had a better understanding of cloth diapering.

I have so many questions about it that I wouldn't even know where to start.

How do you know what to buy when you start? Is there some type of guide that tells you what to buy?

What is the difference between wool, microfiber, fleece, etc? Is one better at absorbancy than another?

When you all talk about Costco microfiber towels, is that a type of diaper or are you actually buying towels from Costco and folding them? Sorry if these are stupid questions.

When you use wool, are you using that directly against the child or is it only a cover? I ask because I can't imagine using wool since it sends me (and most people in my family) into a itchy, swelling rash.

HOW do you use cloth diapers? Do you buy the prefold diapers they sell at Babies R Us (the ones I use for burp cloths) and fold that inside a pre-made cover?

I am so sorry I have so many questions. I just am a TOTAL novice and TOTALLY ignorant about cloth diapering. Thanks for your patience!

 

[stayinhomewithmy6]

and daycare should be putting poo on the toilet anyway with sposies-it's illegal to throw it in the trash-read the packages!!

Sorry... we still couldn't do it. There are diseases that can be spread through poo and that is why we must keep it as contained as possible. This rule is there to protect the health of the children & daycare providers.

Anyway, this is all making me wonder if there would be a cloth pull-ups option for my 5 yr old who still doesn't stay dry at night. Right now, he uses GoodNights, which are VERY expensive and they are completely soaked almost every morning, and he sometimes leaks through, too. I have been thinking that I would buy cd's for our next baby, but now I'm also wondering about starting it with my 2 yr old (turned 2 in August). Of course, I'm hoping that he'll follow in his big bro's footsteps and potty train by 2 1/2, but that is getting closer & closer and he doesn't seem ready yet. Do you cd'ing mamas think it would be worth it for me to buy some of the XL FBs and switch him to those (he is about 28 lbs now)? Thanks so much for sharing your insight!

 

[Lea_Ontario]

Cloth Diapering 101

Cloth diapers of today run the gamut of the most basic to those that almost need a rocket science degree to use, of every imaginable fiber content (cotton, hemp, poly, bamboo even !)

The most "basic" would be flats - a large single layer of cloth, usually cotton, about the size of a receiving blanket. This is then folded and pinned onto baby. Washing and drying is very fast for these. These need a cover to be waterproof.

The next step would be prefolds (do not waste your money on the Gerber ones - they're pretty much useless as anything but burp cloths) - these come in various sizes (newborn, regular, premium, toddler) and thicknesses (2x6x2 and 4x8x4 are the most common). Again - folded to fit baby and fastened with either pins or a snappi (a "Y" shaped plastic thing with grips on each end), or is folded and held on with a cover.

After that, there are prefitted diapers - basically a prefold that has had elastic added at the legs, but still needs something to fasten it on with. These need a cover to be waterproof.

Then "fitted" diapers. These are about the most common cloth diaper out there, and they vary widely depending on the brand. But the basic configuration is the same - they are shaped, have leg (and sometimes waist) elastic and have a fastening device on them (snaps or velcro). The fiber content is pretty much anything you can imagine - terry, cotton, hemp, bamboo, and more ! Most have an absorbant core sew in, some snap or lay in for faster washing and drying. These need a cover to be waterproof.

Pocket diapers are a cover (waterproof layer) and liner (wicking layer) in one - you have to add something to them for them to be absorbant (called an insert). Fuzzi Bunz is a popular example. The outer layer is typically either PUL (polyurethane laminate) or fleece. The inner layer is typically either fleece or suedecloth. They are shaped, have elastic and fasteners. These do NOT need a cover.

All-In-Ones are basically a fitted diaper with a built-in cover already attached. They don't wash or dry as fast, and tend to have leakage issues compared to using a separate diaper and cover, but are among the most convenient style available.



Covers :

Covers are what you use to provide a moisture proof layer to keep clothing dry.

Pull-on nylon or plastic pants are still available - sometimes from WalMart, Zellers, Target type places even. Easy, cheap, but not the nicest to look at

Wraps are shaped similar to a fitted diaper, but are made of a moisture proof fabric (PUL, nylon, etc) - they have snaps or velcro to hold them on. Also available are wool fabric wraps.

Soakers are knit or crocheted wool covers - they pull on like the nylon pull-on pants do, and often have either ribbing or a drawstring at the waist. Can also be made using old wool sweaters and sewn together with thread.

Shorties / Longies are soakers with legs on them to be worn as shorts or pants.

For the most part, wool used in diapering is softer and creates less of a reaction in people because it has not been treated with so much heavy chemicals like you would find in your typical adult sweater or blanket. Also - you need to lanolize the soaker to maintain it's moisture proofness, and the lanolin (wool oil) keeps the wool much smoother and softer.

 

[Lea_Ontario]

Sorry... we still couldn't do it. There are diseases that can be spread through poo and that is why we must keep it as contained as possible. This rule is there to protect the health of the children & daycare providers.

Anyway, this is all making me wonder if there would be a cloth pull-ups option for my 5 yr old who still doesn't stay dry at night. Right now, he uses GoodNights, which are VERY expensive and they are completely soaked almost every morning, and he sometimes leaks through, too. I have been thinking that I would buy cd's for our next baby, but now I'm also wondering about starting it with my 2 yr old (turned 2 in August). Of course, I'm hoping that he'll follow in his big bro's footsteps and potty train by 2 1/2, but that is getting closer & closer and he doesn't seem ready yet. Do you cd'ing mamas think it would be worth it for me to buy some of the XL FBs and switch him to those (he is about 28 lbs now)? Thanks so much for sharing your insight!

XL Fuzzi Bunz would fall OFF a 28-lb child ! My DD is 27 lbs and on the very tightest snaps on her larges. She's fit the petite toddler size perfectly.

But as to the worth ? You'd invest now, and save a TON of money by the time your child was night trained

 

[chaoticoctopus]

Sorry I'm not using quotes...

Re: the FuzziBunz inquiry (stayinhomew/my3), I have used them & love them. They (and other similar brands) are some of my favorites. I have fairly slender toddlers, so we never got to the Large size. Petite toddler sized worked for us from about 1yr.(-ish) til potty learning occurred.

Re: whether it's mostly SAHMs using cloth, from my personal experience, I would assume it's *mostly* SAHMs. But I have also done it WOH full-time, and it's not much trouble at all. Like others mentioned, throw the dipes in the wash as bedtime approached, into the dryer before I went upstairs, and they were dry in the morning. I washed every other day, or every 3rd day. I don't like the smell of the diaper pail, so I did them a little more often.

 

[becca011906]

if you did buy them, you could resell them for $ for the new babys cders... when that time came around... I used cders on my 4.5year old when she went to bed, till about 6 months ago when she finally stoped peeing durring bedtime. My 2y/o is starting to potty at home, if she's got nothing on, we do use babylegs to keep her legs warm, but she's starting! thank goodness. She still uses verybaby aio's when we are out and about, thoes are my favorits, but fuzzy buns are good too...