Cloth Diapers for this family

Having two children who are 12 months (and 10 days) apart means I basically have two babies. Well, actually, they are often referred to as, "Irish twins". This also means double diapers, which means double expense! After a month and a half of paying over $300 a month in diapers, I knew there had to be a better, more cost effective way. We weren't even fitting all the diapers in our weekly garbage pick up! THAT was embarrassing, knowing that Americans produce more garbage than any other country in the world. I was becoming more of a contributor to this problem than I cared to! So, after much research and preparation, we went cloth.

This took a lot of finesse with my husband. I'd suggested we try it with our first son, but I never got him really on board. He thought it was too much work, very icky, and inconvenient. By our second child, he was immune to the stank of poop ass, was used to baby bodily fluids spilling onto him, and had realized that children in general were inconvenient. As I started to throw the idea around out loud after our second, he softened up a bit, then when I told him how much we (he) was spending a month on diapers, and how much we'd save on cloth, he was SOLD.

I'd already decided on using a brand called, gdiapers (www.gdiaper.com OR www.diapers.com) for two reasons. One, they could be purchased locally at Fred Meyer. Two, we could use cloth or a disposable insert. The disposable insert sounded more user friendly for traveling outside the home, because it meant not having to pack around wet used diapers. Plus, the disposable inserts can be flushed down the toilet, which is convenient for almost anywhere you are!

For our trial period, we started out with 6 diapers for both kids, and 6 inserts. Not enough. We now have 8 diapers, and 12 inserts and that usually gets us through an entire day for both kids.
(I would also recommend buying gender neutral colors for the diapers if you plan on having more children so that the diapers can be handed down between all children.) We typically wash the diapers and inserts once a day and it has just become part of our nightly routine, like brushing teeth. For the trial period, I intentionally waited until we were almost out of disposable diapers in the house. I knew if they were around, my husband would be too tempted to go the easy way (disposable) instead of cloth (they really aren't any harder once you get the hang of things). It took me less than a week to realize that cloth was definitely the way to go for us, and we were committed for the long haul. I felt good about knowing how much less impact I was having on our land fills, I liked spending that much less a month on diapers, and I think there is just nothing cuter than a baby in a bright colorful cloth diaper! I will say though, that we do disposable diapers at night lined with one of the disposable gdiapers inserts because the cloth ones always leaked through over night. So, we now end up buying one large pack of disposable diapers a month at diapers.com for $32.99 for night time diapering, and use the cloth diapers for all day time diapering. That saves us a whopping $267 a month on diapers alone!! And, once we were regularly doing the cloth diapers, I realized, why not go all the way and do cloth wipes as well.

For those, I was at a loss on what to do so asked a friend who'd also been cloth diapering. She turned me onto diaper lotion potion (http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=703) which is AMAZING stuff! It can be used two ways; either as a spray directly onto the bum then wiped with cloth wipes, OR, you can use it as a liquid to soak your wipes in while storing them in a wipes warmer. Each to their own. We use the spray and wipe with a dry wipe. I can say that this stuff is wonderful for keeping the skin well hydrated, and it smells nice too! As far as I can tell, one bottle will most likely last us at least a year which makes it super cost effective. It also has all natural ingredients. Whatever stuff was in the disposable wipes had made the skin on all of my fingers begin to peel off (seriously) and since we've switched to the cloth wipes and the diaper lotion potion, my fingers are all better! Extra bonus. For those of you who want to do the wipes warmer, most any Prince Lionheart warmer will work (http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Lionheart-Warmies-Bamboo-Warmer/dp/B001QIN6ME/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266792260&sr=8-2) as long as you have the Prince Lionheart wipes warmerever fresh sponge in it (http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Lionheart-Warmies-Bamboo-Warmer/dp/B001QIN6ME/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1266792260&sr=8-2). There is a warmer that is made just for cloth wipes, but I've tried it with a disposable wipes warmer and it worked fine.

What cloth wipes to use? I think that is a matter of personal preference. In the beginning I felt really compelled to use wipes that were "meant" for the purpose of cloth diapering so started off with bumgenious flannel wipes (http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=110&products_id=104) which were again, recommended by a friend. While we waited for them to come in the mail I began using our regular ole baby washclothes, and in the end I think they both work equally well. Before switching to the cloth wipes, we were going through two boxes of Kirkland Signature wipes at $60 a month. We still use disposable wipes when we're out of the house, but now only spend $30 every other month. That's approximately $45 a month savings! So, in total, we now save $312 a month!

One last thing that is handy to have when cloth diapering are these things called wet bags (http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=1769). These are just glorified bags that can be used to store wet diapers in when out in public. They come in lots of CUTE differen patterns, and three different sizes. I've found the small to work fine for me. We had been using the plastic bags you get from the grocery store that are used to put selected fruits and vegetables in. These worked ok, but tore easily, sometimes came un wound, and, I wasn't comfortable with justifying using those bags at the grocery store when they really aren't needed. The wet bags zip up, can be thrown in the wash, and work great for storing wet diapers, and any dirty clothes too. We just keep our wet bag in our diaper bag all the time now.

Cloth diapering has a lot of up front cost, and there is a learning curve. But, in the end, I would say it is well worth it. Some studies show that cloth diapers lead to earlier potty training. I can say that my 17 month old is already holding it through 3 hour naps, and wakes up dry. Whether or not that is due to cloth diapers, I truely can't say and only time will tell when he's ready to actually be potty trained.