by reneeisorym 48 Replies latest social family
So .. My husband and I are going to start trying for kids next year. We had a long discussion last night about disposable diapers vs. cloth diapers. I know this decision can wait but I just like talking about my expectations early rather than end up with conflict later on.
I want to use cloth diapers and he thinks disposables are the way to go.
Have you parents had any experience? What do you think?
Hi there
As a mom of two littlies, aged two and four, I highly recommend disposables - if for no other reason than your sanity... I know that they are more expensive, less eco friendly and our parents did without them in their day but if you use a good brand, your baby very rarely gets nappy rash, you just wipe and throw away and you save yourself a whole lot of hard work ito washing etc! Make your life easy girlfriend and save your energy for the important stuff like playing with your baby!
What was your reasoning for wanting to use cloth nappies?
Princess Mommy of 2
Hey Renee,
I used cloth diapers with my first child (she is 30 now). When she was six months old, I started working again (I quit when I got pregnant). I had to take disposables for the babysitter to use, but I still used cloth at home. It was a lot of work (especially the poopy diapers). But disposables 30 years ago were not as good as they are now, and I felt the cloth ones were better for her skin.
When baby #2 came along, she ended up being in the hospital for a month with meningitis. Then when she came home she had a condition that required me to use medicine on her bottom that dyed everything purple that touched it. I relegated the cloth diapers to burp cloths at that point.
When baby #3 arrived, I became a stay at home mom for the next 12 years. I kept cloth diapers for emergencies, but was a disposable diaper convert by then (and with 3 children under 6 and a husband with a very dirty outside job, I had the perpetual motion washer-dryer anyway).
My youngest daughter got some really beautiful cloth diapers at her baby shower. They have never been used on Whitny's behind, though...
So that's my 2 cents. It's doable, depends on if you want to expend the effort.
The new disposable diapers (such as the Swaddlers) are really kind to little bottoms.
Here is one cloth diaper source. These things aren't cheap!
Here's an article that explores the pros and cons:
http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html
Enjoy!
Ruth
Nana to seven, including one in heaven and one arriving next Spring
I used cloth diapers with my first two, had a diaper service which I loved. It can get stinky especially when the baby starts to eat solids but I thought it was great. Didn't have a problem with diaper rash but you will have to change the baby more often, cloth doesn't hold as much as disposables. I tried to use cloth with my third child but he had an adverse reaction to them so I had to use disposables. With my fourth I couldn't find a diaper service in Indiana so again had to use disposables.
I think it's a vaild choice but I do have a suggestion to cut done on the stinkiness: if you use a service try to dump as much of the poo as possible when the poo is in more solid chunks or if you buy your own supply rinse rinse rinse.
There's a lot of sites out there that sell cloth diapers and some have instructions on how to make your own diapers and diaper covers. Before I had my kids I shopped at a lot of second hand stores and was able to fine alot of diaper covers that way, from newborn to 2 years.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cloth+diapers
Good Luck
Josie
I was a Mr mom for 3-4 days each week when my daughter was still in diapers. I could not imagine having to deal with cloth diapers and we live too far away from any city to use a diaper service. The disposables are clean, neat and easy to use and in my area the same cost as a diaper service.
Even though that six years ago I still deal with post traumatic diaper syndrome whenever the topic comes up. If I had a nickel for each time I blew chunks during a poopy change() I could retire now.
Cloth is good for burp clothes but disposables are the ONLY thing I would use for diapers. The smell and mess is so much easier to manage and diaper rash is not as bad.
Heya coming from experience, cloth nappies are great if you have a fantastic baby that lets you go away and do several loads of washing a day. I used them with my first, and it was hard, you have to soak and then wash them add that to your already doubled washing load coz babies tend to go through a few clothes a day.
I use disposables and even now Im some what snowed under with the washing load.
But hey it doesnt hurt to give it a go.
es
White Dove's right about the rash thing. I used cloth for a while, but where we lived, it was always so humid that I had a hard time keeping the diaper rash in check. Switched to disposables and everybody was much happier.
We had 7 children between 1975 and 1989.
At first my wife was adamant that she would use only Terry nappies (as we call them here in UK)
But after the second child she changed to disposables.
Mainly because she found them easier to use and the baby tended to have less nappy rash.
I had five children in ten years. The first four had cloth diapers.....the disposables were just becoming popular when I had #5. The disposables are ever so much better for convenience, laundry, and everything in between. By the time I began raising my grandson at five months of age....I could not imagine having to go back to using the cloth diapers!
hugs,
Annie
