[DancinBear63]

DH and I have decided to give cloth diapers a try when we become parents. I had no idea it was such an expensive venture! Of course, the savings is in the long run, but my goodness...!

I have started to purchase used diapers that I've found online, but I'm not sure how many we'd need. Our goal would be to do laundry every 2-3 days, if that's reasonable.

Any ideas?

[sugarandspice697]

We use cloth diapers for Firefly and it's not inconvenient for two working parents. When were out in public, we sometime use a disposable diaper or we tie up soiled diapers on a plastic bag and wash them when we get home. We use the "dry method" for Firefly - which means we put urine diapers in a diaper pail in her room and sprinkle baking soda on top. For diapers with fecal matter, we dunk them in the toilet, hand wash them with a little detergent and put them in the diaper pail with baking soda.

I tried using safety pins when she was a newborn but now that she squirms around, we use the Velcro ones more.

When she's at daycare/montesorri school, the staff ties up all of her soiled diapers and gives it to us at the end of the day. Make sure you ask daycare providers their policy on cloth diapers. Some will give you a hard time, and I highly suggest that you give those places to boot if you want your child 100% cloth diapered.

I wash Firefly's diapers every two to three days so I believe its doable for a newborn.

You can visit this site for more infomation on cloth diapering: How Tos and FAQs of Cloth Diapering - Diaper Pin

[mommieof2cuties]

I would get the ones with the vel/snaps that grow with baby...and buy a ton of used ones of ebay or CL. That will help you save. The more you have the long you can go

[robandjulie]

We did exclusively cloth with DS. We tried it with DD at various points from newborn to PT at 2.5 but we never committed to it. IMO, cloth diapers are no more work than disposable IF you do them pretty much exclusively.

If you go back and forth a lot you have to have two diaper pails/bags (one for trash, one for wash) and it takes forever to build up enough to make a decent load so either doing small loads every 2-3 days which feels inefficient or waiting for a good sized load which means really stinky stuff after it's sat there all week. And you're still hauling out trash and buying disposables so basically you get all the work both both styles.

When we did exclusively cloth we used the g-diapers with cloth inserts (handmade at the time; g-diapers now makes and sells inserts but they're cheaper to make yourself). They were size-specific but we only had to buy the outer covers as he grew and only needed 5-8 in each size b/c the covers could go several uses between washes--you just removed the insert kind of like a fem. pad. The inserts continued to fit into larger sized covers so the stash we had for that was used for the whole time and we spent about $150 on outer shells in two sizes (he came home at a "M" and grew into the "L" before he PT'd).

Here's our experience
And They Never Slept Again (AKM3): Everything you ever wanted to know about cloth diapering with g-diapers

[aclee]

We did with Ty at daycare and at home. One really large, messy poopy diaper while we were out and about and that was the end of travelling anywhere with cloth for DH so we use disposables when we are out and about. With two (for me) it has been really really hard to find my groove again with cloth. We have so many specialist appointments and Matty is a belly sleeper, so he also wore sposies to nap/sleep or the pee would run down his belly and soak his clothes...he's a VERY heavy pee'er. So it seems like every time I changed him we are either going out, or he is getting ready for a nap. I think part of it is that we got Matty at 3 months and at that point it's easier to be out and about with them...had we gotten him as a newborn, you stay home more and I think we would have hit our groove with the cloth.

I don't find them any more work that sposies for the most part. I love folding them, and washing them is no biggie for me. I have a very basic stash of covers in multiple sizes, and prefolds and flats. I like cloth diapering in them. After the cast comes off, one of my main priorities is to get the laundry caught up and get back at the cloth more full time. I use snappis for securing the prefolds and flats and most of my covers are velcro.

I like diaperswappers.com for cloth info

Good Luck

[Ladyofmoonlight]

We love cloth diapering! Of course, the smell of disposables literally makes me gag so it's not much of a choice We used FuzziBunz on P (same 12 diapers for almost 2 years now! But now it's only at night). We're using a mix of prefolds with homemade fleece covers (very cheap, easy and warm) and BumGenius Onesize (bought used on CL) for A. So far so good! Feel free to PM for advice

[meghann]

We use prefolds & covers with Julia. I bought 3 dozen prefolds & 5 or 6 covers, and when she was a newborn that had me doing laundry about every third day. Now we go longer between diaper loads because she doesn't need to be changed every five seconds.

We also bought a half dozen fitted diapers & a wool pull-up cover, and we use that at night with a doubler inside, just for the extra absorbency (she pees a lot at night sometimes, for some reason).

We haven't found it to be inconvenient; although since I work from home it's easy for me to throw in a load of laundry when needed. For traveling we have this: Nicki's Diaper - Planet Wise Hanging Wet/Dry Bag. It's been really handy because you put the clean diapers in one side & the other side is a lined wet bag, so as you go through them you put the dirty ones in that side. We have used disposables a few times when we were traveling somewhere without convenient laundry (at my in-laws, where they have no dryer, last Christmas, we decided disposables was preferable to trying to dry them on the line in freezing temperatures!).

It's definitely a big outlay at first, but in the long run you'd spend more on disposables; looking at it that way kept me from passing out when I bought all our diapering stuff.

[DancinBear63]

Thanks all! From what I'm hearing, I think at least 24 will be needed during the newborn period. DH will be a SAHD, so no worries about daycare issues. I'm sure there will be moments that disposables will be handy, like on long trips.

I have checked out diaperswappers.com, but the lingo is hard for me to catch. Talk about alphabet soup! It seems even more difficult that infertility and adoption language.

I've purchased several diapers in the past few days, and can't wait to see how they look.

I told DH that worst case, I sell them back. Can't do that with the sposies (hey, I'm catching on).

[OnTheJourney]

Ohh! I think you joined the Adoption Waiter's Club over at Diaperswappers... Yes? I have a different name over there. If you need help finding your way over there, feel free to ask!

I love love love cloth. I actually find it easier than sposies. I have 2 in cloth right now (16+ months now of 2 in cloth) and CD'd me DS for about a year before DD joind us. CD'ing a NB is great. 24 should be enough. I think for NB I had about 15 tiny fitteds, a couple PUL covers, several fleece and wool soakers and longies, 8 pockets, and then I had a dozen prefolds. All of my NS stash except for the prefolds was homemade! With NBs, cloth is MUCH better at containing the poo and preventing blowouts. I am actually the oppisite of Aclee, one huge poo blowout in public with a sposie and I will never leave the house without cloth on the bum.
We use wetbags when out (which I make and also sell) which hold in the smell and mess and are reusable.

Anything else just ask, as I can kinda go on...lol

Oh, and if you like, pop on over to my blog, link is in my siggy (there is also a link to my FB page on the blog). I am going to be running a couple contests on my FB page in the coming months ... one may be for an adoption inspired set in honor of adoption awareness month...

Good Luck and have fun buying all the cute fluffy goodness!

[LivingOnFaith]

We haven't gotten placed yet but we are getting together our CD collection. I didn't fully read everyone else's responses ... but I just wanted to say, for me, we're going the one size CD's.

I have some Bumgenius 3.0 right now and love them but my Lord they are sooooo pricey! I think we're gonna mix it up a bit on brands. I also shop for them on ebay!

GL I think it's a wonderful decision and there are much easier options on CD'ing than there used to be!

[DancinBear63]

Journey- Yep, that's me. I've been away from a.com playing the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt, and admit that I'm more than a little hooked. I will likely pick your brain in the future, so thanks!

Faith- Glad to hear that I'm not the only futue mama stockpiling.

Ok, another question- I just got my first shipments of diapers, and boy are they BULKY!! How on earth does the baby fit in there?

[OnTheJourney]

Originally Posted by DancinBear63

Journey- Yep, that's me. I've been away from a.com playing the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt, and admit that I'm more than a little hooked. I will likely pick your brain in the future, so thanks!

Faith- Glad to hear that I'm not the only futue mama stockpiling.

Ok, another question- I just got my first shipments of diapers, and boy are they BULKY!! How on earth does the baby fit in there?

How are you doing on the GCDH? I am soooo terrible at it... I was up way to late last night because I was going to get "a bunch" lol For the life of me I cannot get past the first clues! Unless it is on a site I am already familiar with.

So what type of diaps did you get? Yes some are very bulky, some very trim. If you are used to seeing sposies on kids, they seem huge at first, but soon you will thinkit is cute! With DS it was awesome because he is so skinny, the cloth diapers keep his pants up.

I made my own really tiny trim NB diaps, because I wanted them to fit really nice - and you are changing so often for the first few weeks that they don't need to be super absorbent. Maybe not practicle to buy a whole stash of super tiny ones though, as they are out of them quickly. My babes were 6 lbs and the tiny NB stash fit for 6-8 weeks tops. That is why they are so bulky for NB, so they can work longer. You may want to get a couple tiny ones for cuteness factor, and then bigger ones for practical reasons.

[DancinBear63]

I am doing pretty well with GCDH- I got the first 75, and have 10 to go for the next level. I haven't done any of the Extremes yet-I'm saving those for this weekend. My goal is to get them all! (I am embarrassed to say that I was doing this at 4:30 this morning.)

So far I've purchased a few lots that have come up on the FSOT thread. I have mostly fitteds- about a dozen Cricketts (small), a bunch of WAHM originals (NB and up), and another 12 Clovers (medium). I also have a smattering of other types too. DH says "No more Diapers!!!"

I lived the look of the Cricketts on the web, but I love the way the Clovers look, too.

What do you use?