In all my research about cloth diapers, I have learned that many people use cloth diapers as a way to avoid the chemicals in disposable diapers. These chemicals are used to absorb liquid and keep the baby’s bum dry. Some baby’s are allergic to the chemicals and some chemicals are too harsh to be used on a baby and can cause serious problems. That is not our reason for using cloth, however, and this story is simply an antidote I remembered while researching.
When I was in fourth grade, we were given a disposable diaper, a plastic sandwich bag, some water, and some bean seeds. We were instructed to pull the diaper apart until we got to the fluffy stuff inside. Then we put the fluff in the plastic bag and added water. The fluff swelled and turned into a gel. We put our bean seeds inside the gel, closed the plastic bag, and taped them to the window. Then we would check them every day to see what was happening. Our seeds grew marvelously in the diaper gel. There was enough water for them that we never had to worry about them drying up.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Cloth Diapers
I knew that I had cloth on my little bum when I was a baby, and I certainly knew that disposables hadn’t been around forever. Something had gone around our tiny tushes since the beginning of time, and it definitely wasn’t plastic and who knows what else. But when my friend first introduced me to cloth, I had the same gut reaction that everyone else does. “Why in the world would you use cloth? They take so much time to clean, and you actually have to do something with the poop. We have disposables for a reason, and they’re cheap enough.”
Soon after finding out that she was using cloth, we decided to hang out for the day. She showed me her large stash of Sunbabies pocket diapers, in an adorable array of colors, how easy it was to dump a bunch of soiled diapers in the washing machine, and how the same diaper that fit her 6 month old also fit her 2 year old toddler! What? Now I completely understood the money savings aspect of it. If I only had to buy diapers once during the course of my children’s lives, I would obviously save money.
I still wasn’t totally convinced, though. I began doing my research, because I wasn’t about to invest over $400 in something that could save me money, but might ultimately cause me more problems than it would be worth. I talked to other ladies on forums and read blogs about cloth diapering. I found as many retailers as I could, so that I could see as many different kinds of cloth diapers as I could. I decided that it might be worth a try. My friend was more than willing to let me try one of her diapers for the night to see if I liked how a pocket worked. I found it to be just as easy as a disposable diaper.
Now I just had to find the right diapers for us. Thankfully www.diaperjunction.com has a 30 day trial program, so I felt I could safely take the leap into experimenting with cloth. My first purchase was 1 BumGenius 4.0 with snaps, 1 FuzziBunz, 1 GroVia wet bag, and 1 box of BumGenius cloth diaper detergent. At first glance, I loved the FuzziBunz, but when actually on my daughter, I really loved the BumGenius. They fit her perfectly, and we didn’t have any problems with leaks, except for at nights.
I decided that both diapers were worth keeping, and wanted to try some different kinds. My second purchase was 1 Happy Heinys, 1 Flip, and 1 BumGenius 4.0 with hook and loop (a.k.a. Velcro). As well as cloth wipes and spray, another wet bag and more detergent. I was very excited to try the Flip, as it was a different type of cloth diaper (not a pocket). It turned out to be the cloth diaper to give all cloth diapers a bad name. We never use this diaper anymore. It is just not worth the time for us. The Happy Heinys and the hook and loop BumGenius had us dying to get more just like them. With our squirmy little girl, the hook and loop turned out to be the most like using a disposable diaper.
Cloth wipes were a total dud for us. We tried them and decided that disposable wipes were easier and gentler on the skin than the cloth wipes. We can’t just throw the disposable wipes away in a diaper now, so we usually wrap the used wipes in a clean wipe and throw them in the garbage. The price is also very manageable, since we buy them in bulk and only have to buy them every 2-3 months.
Our most recent purchase was six BumGenius 4.0 hook and loops, a very large wet bag with a zipper, 3 Hemp Babies Little Weeds and 2 Hemp Babies Bigger Weeds. The large wet bag is double lined, and the zipper keeps the smell inside the bag, so our laundry area never smells like stinky diapers. I wrap a little weed around the insert of a diaper at night so that our daughter can go for over 12 hours without leaking. This works better than any disposable I have found for the nighttime. Also, the hemp is so absorbent, that many times the diaper layer that touches the skin feels completely dry, even though you can feel how heavy the diaper is because it was used a lot.
Occasionally, when we run out of clean cloth diapers (10 is not quite enough to be comfortable), we have to use a disposable diaper at night. The poor diaper doesn’t stand a chance with how often it is used during the night, and we end up dealing with a wet little girl in the morning. Disposable diapers simply cannot absorb as much as organic fibers, such as cotton, bamboo, and hemp can.
So, we are cloth diapering family now, and we enjoy it. It takes maybe a minute to shake the poop off into the toilet, usually less. It really depends on how runny the poop is. You wash your hands after you change a diaper just like you would with a disposable. And it takes practically no time at all to set the controls on my washing machine so that my diapers come out clean and sanitized. We had a slight issue with clean diapers smelling, but after switching detergents, we have fresh smelling diapers again on our cute little baby’s bum.
Soon after finding out that she was using cloth, we decided to hang out for the day. She showed me her large stash of Sunbabies pocket diapers, in an adorable array of colors, how easy it was to dump a bunch of soiled diapers in the washing machine, and how the same diaper that fit her 6 month old also fit her 2 year old toddler! What? Now I completely understood the money savings aspect of it. If I only had to buy diapers once during the course of my children’s lives, I would obviously save money.
I still wasn’t totally convinced, though. I began doing my research, because I wasn’t about to invest over $400 in something that could save me money, but might ultimately cause me more problems than it would be worth. I talked to other ladies on forums and read blogs about cloth diapering. I found as many retailers as I could, so that I could see as many different kinds of cloth diapers as I could. I decided that it might be worth a try. My friend was more than willing to let me try one of her diapers for the night to see if I liked how a pocket worked. I found it to be just as easy as a disposable diaper.
Now I just had to find the right diapers for us. Thankfully www.diaperjunction.com has a 30 day trial program, so I felt I could safely take the leap into experimenting with cloth. My first purchase was 1 BumGenius 4.0 with snaps, 1 FuzziBunz, 1 GroVia wet bag, and 1 box of BumGenius cloth diaper detergent. At first glance, I loved the FuzziBunz, but when actually on my daughter, I really loved the BumGenius. They fit her perfectly, and we didn’t have any problems with leaks, except for at nights.
I decided that both diapers were worth keeping, and wanted to try some different kinds. My second purchase was 1 Happy Heinys, 1 Flip, and 1 BumGenius 4.0 with hook and loop (a.k.a. Velcro). As well as cloth wipes and spray, another wet bag and more detergent. I was very excited to try the Flip, as it was a different type of cloth diaper (not a pocket). It turned out to be the cloth diaper to give all cloth diapers a bad name. We never use this diaper anymore. It is just not worth the time for us. The Happy Heinys and the hook and loop BumGenius had us dying to get more just like them. With our squirmy little girl, the hook and loop turned out to be the most like using a disposable diaper.
Cloth wipes were a total dud for us. We tried them and decided that disposable wipes were easier and gentler on the skin than the cloth wipes. We can’t just throw the disposable wipes away in a diaper now, so we usually wrap the used wipes in a clean wipe and throw them in the garbage. The price is also very manageable, since we buy them in bulk and only have to buy them every 2-3 months.
Our most recent purchase was six BumGenius 4.0 hook and loops, a very large wet bag with a zipper, 3 Hemp Babies Little Weeds and 2 Hemp Babies Bigger Weeds. The large wet bag is double lined, and the zipper keeps the smell inside the bag, so our laundry area never smells like stinky diapers. I wrap a little weed around the insert of a diaper at night so that our daughter can go for over 12 hours without leaking. This works better than any disposable I have found for the nighttime. Also, the hemp is so absorbent, that many times the diaper layer that touches the skin feels completely dry, even though you can feel how heavy the diaper is because it was used a lot.
Occasionally, when we run out of clean cloth diapers (10 is not quite enough to be comfortable), we have to use a disposable diaper at night. The poor diaper doesn’t stand a chance with how often it is used during the night, and we end up dealing with a wet little girl in the morning. Disposable diapers simply cannot absorb as much as organic fibers, such as cotton, bamboo, and hemp can.
So, we are cloth diapering family now, and we enjoy it. It takes maybe a minute to shake the poop off into the toilet, usually less. It really depends on how runny the poop is. You wash your hands after you change a diaper just like you would with a disposable. And it takes practically no time at all to set the controls on my washing machine so that my diapers come out clean and sanitized. We had a slight issue with clean diapers smelling, but after switching detergents, we have fresh smelling diapers again on our cute little baby’s bum.
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