Chronicles of one Cheap and Dirty Cloth Diapering Mom: Chapter 1

Many of you know of my recent foray into the world of cloth diapering. Well, I think I have finally found the method I plan to use, and am going to stick with it.

I am not cloth diapering because I am worried about the millions of diapers piling up in our landfills, or because I am "Go Green", or because I don't want chemical jelly weirdness on my kid's butt. I am cheap with a capital, bolded, italicized and red C. When I was pregnant, the reality of two kids in diapers hit me in the gut every time I went to Costco and shelled out $40 for about a month's worth of diapers. Soon it would be $80 a month to be pooped on and then thrown in the trash!

So, I started trying things out on the 2 year old Monkey Boy. (I hope someday he will turn into a real boy.) Here is the Low Down, or Down Low, or 411, or whatever kids are calling it these days.

Cheapest

Gerber Plastic Pants - 2 pack for $3.89 - You can get by with 6ish of these. As long as they didn't get "solids" on them, you can rinse them off and re-use. So you would use 2 a day and rotate them.

Flat Fold Diapers - I made mine (Tutorial to follow in another post someday) My mom found the diaper flannel at her local Cheap and Dirty Extravaganza, aka Wal-mart for about $2-3 / yard. I honestly think you could use any flannel or other absorbant fabric too. The Gerber flat folds I bought were crap!

Pros - It is cheap! The diapers dry fast and I think they get cleaner too because there aren't a bunch of layers.

Cons - Takes time to fold them and you either have to pull them out of the dryer right away or press them. They are hard to fold when they are all wrinkly. Getting them on the kid takes more time and skill because you have to pin or Snappi them. (I haven't tried Snappis)

Still Pretty Cheap

Fitted Diapers - I made these too. They take a little more time and are a little more costly because you have to have elastic and velcro, but you could make them out of anything, old T-shirts, old towels for the soaker. Here is one I made for Monkey Boy. I tried to make it more like training pants (Pull-Ups). I need to make adjustments, but it works pretty well.



You still have to have plastic pants over the top or some other kind of diaper cover.

Pros - no need to fold, more user friendly because they go on like a regular diaper.

Cons - take alot more time in the washer and dryer


Affordable-ish

Cool Diaper Covers -

I tried a Bumkins diaper cover ($12.75/ each) on the monkey. Kind of nice because it is made so you don't have to pin the diaper on the baby. Monkey boy hated it. I am not sure if it was because it was too small or the diaper kept shifting around.


Thirsties Duo Wrap - $12.25/ each I heard these are cool. I haven't tried them. The nice thing is they are adjustable and the nicer thing is that they come in 2 sizes because, honestly, there is no way you can make a one size diaper that will fit a new born and a 2 year old.

There are a bazillion other brands. Again you only need like 6ish of them because you can re-use them like the plastic pants. Still you are looking at more than $70 and you have to buy bigger ones as your baby grows.

For all those Trendy Go Greeners who can afford to save the environment, buy locallly grown organic, and drive Hybrids

All in Ones or for those of you down with the lingo, AIO's - Damn cool, but also damn price.

Bumgenius - $18/ each I did buy a 2 pack of these in the beginning. They are awesome. Soft, beautiful, they go on like a regular diaper. The outer layer is water proof and you insert a nice cooshy soaker in kind of a pocket. They claim to be one size, but Monkey Boy's big hinder didn't fit in them at all. They are working pretty well on Little One. He is probably in the 9 lb range.

Again there are alot of different brand options here. They are made with all sorts of organic, environment friendly renewable resources like Bamboo and stuff.

Pros - Convenient and cool. Good for dads who are skeptical of their crazy wives cloth diapering notions.

Cons - You can't re-use them so, you would have to have at least 2 days worth if you did laundry every day. At 18 bucks a piece, holy poop, that is a lot of money.

A Few Other Details

Liners - I haven't purchased these yet because Monkey Boy poops on a schedule. I have been using Disposables when I know a poop is coming, but now that I am going to switch completely over to cloth, I think it is well worth the few extra bucks.

Washing - I have read that you can keep your diapers in a pail with water and Borax to prevent stink. Also, throwing some Borax in with the laundry soap is supposed to remove pee smell. Going to try that as soon as I can get the courage to haul 2 monsters and an angel baby to the grocery store.

I have been using 2 wash cycles and an extra rinse at the end to wash diapers, but I think with flat folds only you could just wash once on the "Heavy Soil" cycle. I don't put any of the diaper covers in the dryer.

So there it is. Most of what I know about cloth diapering. I will post more information as I go. Also I will post some "How To's" on folding and sewing.

Have courage and tell your husbands to suck it up and deal!