Babble

Anyone else here use cloth? We used all disposable with the girl and started with disposables with the boy and at about 3 months switched to cloth. We launder our own,m instead of using a service.

Most people I know in my super-crunchy area use cloth and the people who use disposables almost appologise for it, but most of the US uses disposables and think cloth is kinda masochististic! I love it though, most especially because then I can control what chemicals go next to my kid's butt (have you see how Huggies leave those weird little crystals behind? Uck).

Anyway just seeing if there are any fellow travelers on here!
 

 

I've used them with all three kids so far. I love it for so many reasons(cost, health, aesthetics). And we both work full time out of the house.  It only amounts to 2 extra loads a week.

 I am the antithesis of crunchy, though.

We considered cloth diapering, but our daughter was in daycare from 3 months of age and daycares around here don't deal with cloth diapers. We figured between wanting to use disposables while out and about and using disposables at daycare, there wouldn't be a whole lot of point in cloth diapering.

I think it would be cool to cloth diaper, though. Maybe if we have an au pair with the next child (if there is one), we'll cloth diaper.

No one has ever given me a hard time about using disposables. Maybe it's a regional thing.

We ordered cloth diapers for our twins when they turned 1. With twins it was costing us quite a bit each month for disposables. For a one-time fee of just over a hundred dollars the investment was well worth it. I launder the diapers nightly so what you save out of pocket you give back in utility bills.

yep!  We use cloth here.  Love it.  In fact I have a few packs of disposables newborn size (presents and from birthing unit) that I just can't bring myself to use. 

 for everything you could possibly want to know about Modern Cloth Nappies (Diapers) check out www.thenappynetwork.org.nz  I've spent way too much time on that site, but think i'm outgrowing it now my first boy is toilet trained (woohoo!). 

 

Since we live in an apartment without a washer/dryer unit inside our home, cloth wasn't really a viable option for us. I have, however, found a good alternative. Gdiapers (www.gdiaper.com) are the best compromise between cloth and disposable that I've been able to find on the market.

Wow, i am impressed. I can't imagine using cloth. I have a pretty rough time with the minimal exposure i have to our son's poop during disposable diaper changes. I also have been interested to read that some analysis suggets that hot water consumption in cleaning cloth diapers (which in turn uses electricity or gas which at the end of the day negatively effects the environment) is arguably worse in its environmental impact than disposable. and there are other studies that show the opposite. check out the Babble heath and development section on this -- it provides a pretty good summary. But if it saves you money and you think it better for the child, than i guess its the right choice for you.

We use cloth, disposable, and flushable. Whatever's easiest at the time, cloth at home, disposable on the road, flushables when they're on sale. I use Seventh Generation diapers, they have the gel style absorbency, but they're unbleached. 

I thought about using cloth diapers, but after talking to some seasoned parents who basically laughed in my face and told me I was nuts, we went the disposable route.  Even my one friend, who is a total earth-mama-vegan-crunchy-lady said she lasted all of three weeks with the cloth diapers before she was just overwhelmed.  Given that I am a giant lazy ass, the amount of work involved lost over my need to sleep occasionally.

Cost-wise, we do okay.  We did our homework and found that the per-diaper cost of Target diapers is the best.  Also in the plus column for Target nappies: they don't smell.  They are relatively leak-free.  They do have the Care Bears on them, but I can deal with that because at least it's not Elmo or [shudder] Barney.  So, rock on Target diapers.

I second 44ounce on the stench of the Pampers.  We got a pack of them as a gift and I couldn't use them up fast enough.  They smell vaguely vanilla-ish, and then you mix that with pee and poopoo and you get Poo Cookie smell.  That's possibly the least pleasant smell in the universe, and I have a cat who sleeps with his butt as close to my face as he can get it (he's weird).

We do try to make up for our environmental sins in other ways.  We walk everywhere we possibly can.  We use re-usable grocery bags and recycle everything in sight.  We have low-flow showers and toilets and, like I said, I'm lazy as hell so the dishwasher never gets run until we run out of dishes and I only do laundry when I run out of underwear.  Consider that when I was in college, it was cheaper to go to Kmart and buy more underwear than it was to do laundry and we're looking at six weeks or so between laundry extravaganzas.

Seventh Generation's diapers are bleached, although not with chlorine. (Except for the paper liner, which is bleached with a process which uses a chlorine-based molecule but not pure elemental chlorine.) Whole Foods' new 365-brand diapers are apparently entirely chlorine free, although they're actually totally white, which I found somehow unappealing after the natural-fiber-seeming Seventh Generation colors.

Anyway, from everything I've seen, in general, the environmental impact from diapers is pretty small compared to other things you can do (like, say, ditching your car), and the *margin* of difference is almost negligable. Avoiding chlorine bleach seems like a good thing for the world, so we do that.

By the way, the crystals someone mentioned are "super-absorbent polymer", which is non-toxic and generally non-reactive -- except it can absorb 10x its starting size in liquid, so it's not a good idea to, y'know, eat a bunch of it.

Thank you for the link BrooklynMama.

Friends of ours tried out cloth diapers, and their daughter had bleeding diaper rash...so they stopped.

My mom really wanted us to try out cloth diapers, likely because of some desire to be environmentally friendly.  But her experience of disposable diapers was 35 years old, and as soon as she actually saw how good modern disposables are, she dropped her complaints.

As much as I hate throwing away all those disposable diapers, they're just so good these days that it's hard to suggest using anything but.
 

My husband and I have been using cloth diapers for our son for a year now.  We launder ourselves with an energy-efficient washer.  We use a combination of traditional pre-fold and pocket diapers.  Our son is in a toddler program at a Montessori school and they have accepted the pocket diapers from day one.  We received most of our initial diaper supply as gifts from our registry at a local store and have only invested about $150 more to upgrade sizes.  We also use cloth wipes and a concentrate solution that I mix with water.  We both work full-time jobs and find the time to launder the diapers every other evening.  We're not a typical 'granola' family but felt strongly about not having our son produce a ton of landfill waste by the time he was potty trained.

give it up. Disposables are the only way to go. Tried the other, what a headache. Change often and you won't find any crystals. Your kid's but has more acid against it if he sits in a wet cloth diaper for more that 5 minutes.

Our compromise is using both- cloth at home and disposable on the road, for the most part.   One thing I like about cloth (other than environmental benfits) is that it forces you to change the diaper more often.  With two kids under 2, it's tempting to let the disposable diaper stay on for quite a while (obviously, as long as there's only pee in it).  We do have a diaper service, which is wonderful.   Regarding the argument that the water and energy required to launder cloth diapers defeats the conservation effort, I also have read that the water and energy used to create a disposable diaper is greater, so who knows.   Another thing to consider is that, technically, human waste is not to be disposed of in the garbage, where it will not be treated.  We all should be emptying the waste into the toilet where it will be properly treated, so you should be "dealing" with the poop with cloth or disposable (though I realize that many people just toss the disposables without emptying).