Babies in Cloth

One of my friends used cloth diapers for her two kids. She really liked them and said they contained the mess better than disposables (which they used once in a while when they were on the go).

I'm off and on. When I'm on, I love the Motherease ones. They are really one size fits all (not to be confused with all in ones, which I have never used). So far, I haven't used them yet with my newest one. It's all I can do to keep up with the other three kids stuff right now. But maybe I'll start soon again. Maybe.

We used cloth for a long time with my first girl, though then we lost touch with our diaper service and that was that. DH wanted to do washing our own with the 2nd, and promised to be in charge of it. About 6 months later, we were disposables all the way!!

FWIW, the first girl did potty train easier, but I think that's just a personality thing.

Having a lot of diapers helps, and just getting into a rhythm helps -- as it does with everything. You wash on certain days at certain times, you dry at certain time, you fold and put away at a certain time . . .

Regarding environmental impact, what I once read in Consumer Reports was that it depends on where you live and what the scarce commodity is: landfill or water. For most areas, cloths is ecologically better, but in some places (e.g. parts of California) the water usage is a big issue. I suppose if you used tons of chlorine and other chemicals in your wash it might be a water issue too, but I don't think that's how most folks wash their diapers.

I liked using cloth and did not find it more inconvenient than disposables at all. I would have even done the wash myself but DH started in with the disposables all the time, so it was hardly worth it.

Shaun
www.homeschoolblogger.com/shaunms

I enormously preferred cloth. Josie was a diaper service baby and Lou was a disposables baby. The difference was, we had Jo when we had money for a diaper service and Lou when we didn't. I can barely get our clothes washed let alone diapers, but I wish I were that kind of person.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

And loved them. I had regular, plain cloth diapers that I folded to fit inside a wrap with velcro on it. I didn't mind the washing, just did one load a day. I had asked for the diapers for my shower, and I got enough for 3 days! I just always rinsed dirty ones in the toilet and threw them in a 5 gallon bucket until I was reay to wash them, which I usually did after supper. I would throw them in the dryer on my way to bed, and had a bunch ready to go each morning.

DD5 was unexpected (after 8 years of infertility) and all my diapers had been turned into rags and the coveres handed down, so she was a disposables baby.

We did disposables with my son because I was still working on my degree, and he was on campus with me and DH quite a bit--we didn't want to carry around the messy ones!! BUT I bought a package deal of cloth diapers (just the prefolds with wraps that either velcro or snapped) for use with my daughter. It's been so easy, toss poop in the potty, put the soiled ones in a bucket (I don't soak, I think that's yuckier), then I wash in hot with OxyClean and a wee bit of detergent. Works great. (I get it for about $1/lb at Sams Club). I have to say, they are not nearly as inconvenient as people would have you believe.