Cloth Diaper School: Finances And How to Choose Diapers

Whew.  Now that you've heard my voice FAR too much for your lifetime, you get to live through a post without my voice.  And no pictures.
Sigh.  Weep.  Gnash your teeth.
You'll survive, I guarantee you. 
(And I am looking forward to much less verbose posts...)


This post is probably the hardest of the three to write, because there is no "scientific" way to write it. In other words, I have no way to prevent my natural biases from becoming involved.


How to choose a cloth diaper
People choose cloth diapering for different reasons.  What kind of diaper is best for them depends on a few variables. 

• Finances.  Obviously AIO cloth diapers are more expensive than prefolds.  
• How much work you want to do to "prepare" each diaper.  Are you willing to fold prefolds and put covers around them?  Are you willing to stuff pocket diapers?  Or would you rather have your diaper all in one piece?
• How supportive is your spouse/partner/daycare provider about cloth diapering?  This is something that requires consideration, although I know many women who "solo" diaper with no help from their husbands.  
• Would you ever have two children of different ages in diapers at once?  If so, a one-size-fits-all diaper might be a good option.
• If you want the convenience of throwing all of your diapers in the dryer, prefolds might be the best option.  
• You don't have to be solely cloth diapered. One of my good friends uses cloth diaper during the day and disposable at night.
• Do you like snaps or velcro (we chose snaps, because we heard they last longer/are harder for babies to take off themselves.)

Things to consider if you're going to be un-biased about finances.

As far as financing diapers, there are a kazillion calculations.  Some will tell you that cloth diapers save you thousands per child.  Others will say that they don't really save you that much in the long run.  I think that each person who does calculations adds in certain things and leaves out certain things.  


Basically some things to consider when determining the financial difference between cloth and disposables are:


Trash service (disposables).
Water (cloth).
Electricity for dryer (cloth).
Cost of diapers. (both)
Laundry detergent. (Cloth)
Wipes (disposable).
Convenience fees (how easy you want either diaper experience to be...i.e. do you have a diaper sprayer, how many days of cloth diapers you would want to have in your stash.)
If you're a coupon addict or not.  (I'm not.)
The "second child" factor. (Reuse with later children or resale on craigslist.)


Here's how I do my non-scientific calculations: 
For our family---we used disposables for the first two months, due to a parasite that Million had.  We purchased the more expensive "name-brand" diapers, as we found that the store-brand cheap diapers could not hold in the stools as well.  Were we to continue using disposables, we likely would have continued using the more expensive brands even after the parasite issue resolved.  I am not a couponer by nature.  The diapers we used averaged about 23 cents per diaper. 


Moment of honesty, I was a little cloth-diaper happy in my shopping.  I have a very large diaper stash for one child (about 42 diapers).  15 of them were gifts.  For the other 27 diapers, a diaper sprayer, 2 diaper pail liners, a diaper pail, 50 cloth wipes that I also use as inserts, 3 wet bags, 2 swimming diapers, a wipe warmer, a spray bottle for his diaper bag, and lanolin for my wipe solution, I paid $235.  


Keep in mind, I had three years to watch sales, stalk craigslist, and pick up the wipes on a free rebate program at our local home improvement store, etc.  I do bargains.  


Since we were "out" $235, and the disposable diapers we used cost 23 cents a diaper, we knew that we had to use at least 1000 diapers to make up for the finances we had expended in our diaper purchasing.  This number does not account for the water that we use.  


Speaking of water and electricity costs, we have a high efficiency washer which can ration water used by weight of the load.  Our washer broke in January of 2010, and we already knew that we would be cloth diapering, so we chose one that would be the most cost-effective for diapering.  I don't have a water meter on our washer, so I can't divide up our water cost well.  However, it is running about the same amount that we're saving on using a much smaller garbage service (which we wouldn't be able to do if we were to use disposable diapers.)  We only use our dryer for the liners and wipes in the winter months.  We haven't seen a large increase in our electricity since we started drying them two months ago.


So according to my calculations, we have nearly paid for our "stash."  We will be able to reuse all of these diapers with a second child or sell some of them on craigslist.  (I made sure to get gender-neutral diapers with the exception of two "army" ones, not that any baby will care what color his diaper is.)


Craigslist & Cloth Diapering
One of the things that attracted me to cloth diapering was the ability to reuse them for second, third, fourth children, etc. (while knowing that some would need replacement over time.)  However, I was also attracted to the possibility of resale of diapers.  If you treat your cloth diapers correctly (washing with the right detergent, and sun-bleaching the stains, etc. like I talked about in my maintenance post today), you can resell your diapers on craigslist for almost purchase value, especially for brands like Bumgenius and Fuzzibunz.  


That being said, sometimes you can get really good deals on craigslist from really tired and stressed out first time moms who chose to use a different brand of diapers or to use disposables for various reasons.  I mentioned in my video that Bumgenius Elementals run about $25 brand new.  I got ten of them on craigslist for $10 a piece (after some bartering...) from a mom who just wanted to cloth diaper while her daughter was breastfeeding, and not afterwards.   


Conclusion:
I'm sure I'll remember some more details later on, but this was a good deal of what I could get down in one evening about diapers.  Please please PLEASE leave questions in the comments if you can think of any.  I'll try to do a followup post next week with any answers to questions I have.

Cloth Diaper School: Use and Maintenance of Diapers

Welcome back!
This post will be a little easier to write than the first or the third.
It's about the "how" instead of the "what."

First, here's a little tour of our diaper area, and then I'll post a few up close pictures of what I mentioned on the movie.

Above, the orange bag is one of our two diaper pail liners.  

I also show one of our wet bags.  Our diaper pail liners and our wet bags are Planet Wise brand, although I bought them from a retail shop on eBay.  

Our wipe warmer and cloth wipes (microfiber towels found in an automotive department that I got on free rebate.)

Bac-Out, the only chemical we use on our diapers (and we actually only use it on the soiled ones in the winter time.)  I also use home-made lotion and always apply some to Million's legs and tummy (his dry skin areas) during a diaper change.  We also use hand sterilizer even though we wash hands.  We're a little parasite-phobic at the moment, because we saw what parasites can do (even though it's all resolved.)  

Just two last pictures of the diaper pail and our whole changing table area. 

In the video above, I promised I'd include our wipe solution recipe.

Here is a link to a bunch of wipe solution recipes.  I currently use something between the lanolin & glycerin and "no measuring" recipes.  

Now to the nitty gritty details.

What do you do with the diapers when they're messy?

Option A) Just urine in the diaper.

I take the liners out, and put the liners and the pocket diaper or AIO  in the diaper pail.  Simple.

Option B) Stool in the diaper. 

Michael and I do this differently.  It doesn't really matter the order.  I take the liners out first, Michael takes them out last.  In any case, take the liners out when you put the diaper in the pail because you don't want to be un-lining the diapers at the washing machine.  Gross.  The aim is to not touch the diapers at all after you put them in the diaper pail.  

So back to the poopy diaper.  (That's a transition I doubt I'll ever use again.)  I bring it to the bathroom, spray off the stool (video below with no actual stool, since I didn't want you to lose your lunch), bring it back to the changing table, in the winter I spray Bac-Out on the cover where the stool was touching (to prevent bacteria and odor buildup), and then put it in the diaper pail.  If we're out in public we do have to end up swishing a diaper in the toilet, but it's fairly rare that we do this, maybe three times a month.

This is a really poor quality movie, taken during Million's bath-time so I couldn't zoom out, and you can see some of our post-Christmas chaos in this one.  

How do you wash your diapers?
Okay, so you've got the diapers in your diaper pail in a diaper pail liner that is washable.
Michael's here to tell you how to wash them.

But in case you don't catch it, details are  below.




We use a cloth-diaper (and eco-friendly) laundry detergent called "Country Save"---which you can purchase on amazon or some good food stores.

We wash one time on a cold setting.
Then we wash one time on a hot setting with a second rinse.
The total washing time, for our washer, is 2 hours, 10 minutes.
We air dry everything in the spring, summer, and fall.

We air-dry on a drying rack the AIO's, the pocket diaper covers, the wet bags, and the diaper pail liners in the winter.  We use our clothes dryer for the wipes and liners during winter months.

Two things about washing and drying that I have to note here, because there is really no other good place to put them.

• Line drying really does bleach out diaper stains.  They look brand new after each drying (although you notice from the picture I dry them with the stain side upward so as not to sun-bleach the colored part of the fabric.) I am so looking forward to spring for that reason.  It also prevents any bacteria. (Why we use the Bac-Out in the winter.) 
• If you choose to cloth diaper, really consider your laundry soaps.  Many common laundry soaps have softeners, scents, or coloring chemicals added, which will cause buildup in your diapers and make them less effective (read: leaky).  Same goes for diaper rash cream, although we've never had to use any with cloth diapers.  (I've heard that coconut oil works well as a diaper rash cream, and that would be cloth-diaper friendly.)  Cloth diaper laundry-appropriate laundry soap isn't that much more expensive, and like you saw in the video, you really don't use all that much of it. 

How many diapers should I have?
How often do you want to do laundry?
Those questions are linked.  I didn't want to be doing laundry every day, but I knew that doing it less than every other day could cause bacterial buildup.  So I settled on an every-other day regimen. That meant I needed diapers enough for two days.  Million came home at 16 months of age, so I really don't know that much of infant "statistics", although many websites say they go through 8 to 12 diapers a day.  Million's gone through anywhere between 7 to 12 diapers a day (the 12 was on some really bad days.)  He averages about 6 now.  (He's going to hate me for this some day...)  We started purchasing diapers before we knew if we were going to have one or two children, so we are ALWAYS the wrong people to ask this question, as we have, I think 42 diapers.
All of the cloth diapering websites that I know of say that you should have 12 to 36 diapers on average, for one child.

We'll see you back here later today for details about finances/how to choose a diaper.

Cloth Diaper School: What Are Cloth Diapers Like?

Here it is, Friday, and I had intended all week long to write up these cloth diaper posts.
Ummm hmmm.
That didn't happen.
Not my idea of a wild Friday night.
But Michael wanted me to watch one of my favorite movies with him...so I managed to get this done.
So this first post is "What Are Cloth Diapers Like?"  This will, by far, be the longest of the three posts.

By all means, if you have any questions at all, please post them in the comment section, and I'll try to do a followup post in a week from now!  (I already have one question about cloth diapering in apartment settings that I need to ask a couple friends and gather some replies on...)

You'll notice in my three series that I don't have a "why do I cloth diaper?" section.  That was intentional.

But first.
Let me play a little word association.

Cloth diapers.



What picture just came into your mind? For many people it was probably a combination of these three images...(And you all should give me extra bonus points for looking up pictures on google.  There were some very disturbing diaper pictures where I would look and say "Hey---that baby has pretty hairy legs.  Just KIDDING! It's a grown man in plastic panties!")

I don't blame you for thinking of those.  In fact, that's pretty much what I first thought of when we realized that we'd be requesting a baby instead of two toddlers.  Those cloth diapers and plastic panties and pins are very close to what I remember having around the house when I was a kid, although I think perhaps our pins were a little less cute and more functional.

To start, there are a couple different kinds of "modern" cloth diapers.

I mean... there are the diapers above (called prefolds), but most of you reading this were probably cloth diapered as a babe and can remember how it worked, since disposables didn't really come into mainstream popularity until the late '80s.  (If I have a silent audience from younger generations, welcome!)

There are four main types of cloth diapers.

1. Prefolds (above).  These require a cover of some sort (plastic panties, wool panties, etc.) and some sort of a snap/pin.  They're usually made out of cotton, hemp, birdseye, etc.  By far, these are what is considered the most "affordable" diaper option.  But they didn't appeal to me, so I won't be going into great detail about them.  For more information about prefolds, here are some links to families that blog about how prefolds work for them. 

Blog #1

Blog #2

2. Fitted diapers.  I don't own any fitted diapers, and I don't have any experience.  Essentially, they are like the snappy kind of diapers that I'll be showing you in the video below, but they aren't waterproof, so they need a cover.  Again, I don't have any experience with these, and I didn't want covers for my baby (an extra step), so I've posted some blog links below. 

Blog #1

Blog #2

Here we come to a brief intermission from reading, and you can listen to/watch  me blabbing about what kinds of diapers we have.  After the video's done, come back here, and I'll have more information for you.

Well, hello there! Welcome back!

3. All-in-one's/All-in-two's (henceforth referred to as (AIO's).  These do not require a cover or pins.  They are made out of material with at least one waterproof layer. The all-in-one's are just what they sound like, they're just one piece.  

In today's video, I believe I misspoke and said "essentials" instead of "elementals."  Bumgenius (a brand of diaper) renamed it's diapers since we bought our AIO diapers, and I'm still getting used to the name.  The Elementals  (when we bought them they were called "organic one-size all-in-ones") fit babies from 7 pounds to 35 pounds.  If you have a hard time seeing the differences on diapers that I show you in the video, please visit the links.  I was filming at night while Michael was home giving Million a bath (my time off), and so the lighting was pretty poor.  (***note: I'll get into this more in the third post today, but we did buy 10 of our Elementals off of craigslist used.)

4. Pocket diapers. There are a lot of different kinds of pocket diapers.  I showed you three kinds of pocket diapers in this post's video.  Essentially a pocket diaper is a diaper that has another layer of fabric sewn in such a way that an insert is able to be "pocketed" inside. 

The three types that I show you (in order of appearance) are:

• Fuzzibunz (size medium for 15-30 pounds)

• Kawaii Baby.  I have two of their kinds: this kind and this kind.  Kawaii one-size diapers fit from 8 to 36 pounds.

• Green Bees diapers.  I show some of the printed ones, but their solid color ones are cheaper.  I also have two of their minky diapers and am pleased with it as well.  (Minky is a kind of fabric.  I laughed too, when I first read it. It's the left one in the picture below.)  I just looked on their site, and I don't believe they publish weights that they're supposed to fit, but they're fitting Million the same way the other diapers do, so I would guess around 30+ pounds.

Okey dokey.  I went through the four kinds of cloth diapers.  In my next post I'll talk more about the use/maintenance of them.  

Cloth Diapers Posts Ahead (Warning)

We've had a lot of people asking about Million's diapers.
A lot.
And I've been so absentminded that each time someone e-mails me asking about them, I write a fresh e-mail.  It takes a lot of time to write out thoughts, methods, how to choose, how to wash, sizing, etc.
And I was doing it each and every time.
(slaps forehead.)

So here is fair warning.  Michael's next day off---Saturday, I'm going to put up a three-part series (likely all on the same day) about cloth diapers.
And I'll just e-mail people the links from now on.

My goal is not to convince you to cloth diaper.  It's just more for those who are asking for just general information.  I won't be posting links to how disposable diapers are killing the earth, etc.  I also will not be talking about the potential carcinogens in diapers.  I'm not a chemist or an ecologist.  I can't break down facts without some measure of bias involved.

If you're seriously not interested in cloth diapering, just tune out for that day.
But please come back afterwards! I appreciate each and every one of you who takes the time to read all of these little rambling thoughts of mine.

I'm thinking the posts will look like this:

What are cloth diapers like?
How do you wash/maintain them?
Finances of cloth diapers versus disposables/how to choose a diaper

I don't take myself too seriously, I'm just letting you know.
Cloth diapering works for us, but in no way am I advocating it for everyone everywhere at all times.
I have some friends who live in areas that are in droughts.
Obviously extra washing might not be a good idea for them
Many moms I know use daycares who are not cloth-diaper friendly.

One of the wisest things I've ever heard my mom say is that there are method people and principle people, and to choose to be a principle person.  Method people are hung up on HOW you're doing things and what you're doing. There are definite rights and wrongs for every decision in their lives.  Principle people are people who look at the underlying principle (in this case, that you keep your baby's bum clean, dry, and free from rash and infection) and just focus on that.  I've tried to be a principle person about a lot of our baby-rearing decisions, this one included.


***Special note: Michael had made this awesome movie where we actually changed Million (no parts showing) and showed how the diaper sprayer worked, and Million was cute and compliant, and Michael did what Michael does best----advertise products that he loves.

(those of you who know us might chuckle at this.)

Our computer ate the three segments of his movies about diapers.

And Million is not feeling very cute or compliant these days.  So I re-made the videos myself.  Something I'm not comfortable doing at all.
Hearing myself talk out loud about anything for any length of time is not the most comforting thing in the world.

(Those of you who know me well are nodding your heads.)

So it will be an exercise in humility for me to post the movies later this week (because one of them showcases a very "lived in" laundry room and a brief walk through our Christmas carnage from a few weeks ago.  (Our house is much cleaner now, I promise you.)