Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Stylish Little Bum

We do cloth diapers here in our household.

Sorry, cloth NAPPIES.

I try to be, what Phillip and I call, bilingual, speaking Australian and American, because sometimes people have no clue what I'm talking about, or it just takes too long to catch on to what words or phrases mean. Anyway...

We do cloth diapers.

I LOVE them. I mean love love love them. They are brilliant. And beautiful. And fantastic. I can't rave enough about them.

Mommy is more excited about the arrival
of a new stash of diapers than Simon
Most people assume, when you say you cloth diaper, that you do it for the environment (also that you want to use those old towel-diaper-nappies that are really just that: a small towel you fold and pin onto baby's bottom). Psh. I do it because it saves money. Most of our research showed that, for one baby, for one year, it costs between $500-800 to use disposables. One year, excluding wipes. We bought modern cloth diapers that will last us at least until Little Wubba is 3 for that much (baring replacing elastic, which is easy enough to do). So we're saving approximately that much until he's three, which means we can put it towards all the food he now eats and uses to fill those pretty diapers. Even with washing the diapers every two days, the price is still lower overall than buying disposables.

I mean, you can get decent ones even cheaper than that, but we learned from experience that it's worth it to splurge a bit and get really nice ones. Our first batch was dirt cheap, and some started leaking through the PUL (waterproof fabric) after 4 months.

Which meant I got to order new ones! We ended up splurging on the Cadillac of modern cloth diapers, some bumGenius's. And some Lotus Bumz and Sweat Peas we got on sale through various websites.

So, I love these cloth diapers. Why? They save money, but mostly because they are ab-so-LUTELY adorable. Even the plain colored ones are super cute. They're so cute and sturdy that, this summer, he's just been scooting around in his diaper, while still looking like I took the time to dress him. (Insta-outfit!) And, since we got ones that snap, they don't come off NEARLY as easy as disposable diapers do. He can pick at those snaps out of curiosity all he wants, they will not come undone unless I want them to.
The kid? Cute. The diaper? Matches the cuteness.

Speaking of the snaps, poop. My mommy friends (and parents) have experienced what we like to call "poop-splosions". It's when a baby poops and it somehow avoids the diaper. And goes EVERYWHERE ELSE. Up the back, down the legs, around their arms, EVERYWHERE. Modern cloth diapers? Nope. Has not happened. The only time I (and my other cloth-diapering mommy friend) have had that happen was we used disposables. On the plane trip. In his bassinet. GROSS. Cloth leaks, true, when it's full. So yeah, poo leaks. A LEAK. Tiny little bits of leaks very occasionally. But those snaps are like little padlocks for the poo, and keep it completely in the diaper (unless the diaper was already very full of wee when poop happens).

Also, we have to take our own trash to the dump. So the less stuff we throw in the trash, the fewer trips Phillip has to make with a car loaded with smelly trash to the dump.

The bad with cloth?

This is not bad. This is adorable.
This is a minky diaper we got as a gift. It is adorable and fantastic.
And also has different absorbing inserts for boys and girls!
They're sometimes more likely to leak if you don't get to them in time, or if you've been washing them poorly. You get a disposable diaper and, to quote my friend, you can put a water balloon in those things and they will soak it all up. Cloth needs to be changed more often. And nighttime? You need either a special night diaper, more liners to stuff in them for more absorbency, or other things that can help that cost money.

Also, you have to clean them. It's gross. Especially once they start solids. Poop, even baby poop, is still poop. You get used to it, but it's still poop. You can't just chuck that stuff in the washing machine. I just try to remind myself it could be worse, and it's still saving money. And the adorableness and reusableness of the diapers makes it worth it.

But it's still yucky.

Cloth swim diapers? Also adorable.
The thing I did end up switching to mostly because I noticed a difference in Simon's skin was disposable to reusable wipes. Only, our reusable wipes are just cheap baby wash cloths and not the kind you can buy for a lot of money. I figured we were washing diapers already anyway, why not wipes? I tried it (mixed up my own wipe solution of baby bath wash, sweet almond or olive oil, lavender and tea tree oil, and some chamomile tea in water) and really did notice a difference in Simon's "nappy area" not looking as irritated as when we use disposable wipes.


2 comments:

  1. What what? At my daycare we have a cloth diaper baby and she uses those exact cloth diapers and I LOVE them. Also, so true about them being cute. Sometimes hard to put pants on a baby wearing those, though. It pads the bum and so there has to be room in the pants for such diapers!

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    1. Yeah, I've found baby leggings work better since they're super stretchy, but baby jeans not so much. Have to go up a size, or he can't move well in them. But the extra padding is great for falling on!

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