Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Why I Love Cloth Diapers

We did it! We made the switch about five weeks ago from all disposable to all cloth diapers! We lucked out completely in our timing to purchase and saved a bunch of money, too.

We asked around to get as much information as we could to make an informed decision and settled on the BumGenius diapers. There are other brands with names just as cutsie, we just chose these based on recommendations. The BumGenius grow with your child from birth to 35 pounds, which means that we buy them now and potty train before we buy bigger diapers. They just released the 3.0 version, and we stocked up on the 2.0 diapers while they were being clearanced out.

I will admit that I was the reason that we did not start out in cloth. Anny told me that they are not like what I was thinking, but she never made me look at them. Part of the reason behind my not looking is that stores do not carry them prevalently. (There are specialty shops, but not close to our house) I wanted to be as far away from pins and pee as possible.

As it turns out, cloth diapers are almost easier than disposables! Yes, we have to put more effort in by washing a load of diapers every other day, but that's nothing. We take turns and are sure to notice when it's time so that we have enough clean at the right time.

Reasons we switched (not in any order):
Money - We've spent only about $400 for our diapers, trash can and can liner. We have already spent about $300 on disposables.
Environmental - Yes, we used to be tree huggers and are getting closer again. We've done lots of other things to do our part and this seemed like a logical step.
Ease - Honestly, they're simple now!
Daycare - Our incredible daycare got better when we talked to them about going cloth. Their regulations really are where our issues came in, but those were easily figured out. We had to buy them a trashcan that locks and a bag. We do all of the cleaning, but they have had no problems at all.

If you're considering it we would certainly encourage it! It can sound intimidating, but the advantages sure seem to outweigh the downsides!

(This is the first of what I envision will be many posts under the Label of "Baby STUFF." There are a lot of things out there that we have tried, and a lot that we have looked at and not tried. Heck, there are things we have tried, like disposables, and decided later to go away from. Feel free to offer other suggestions or add any information that you would like to!)

2 comments:

natalie said...

Hooray for cloth! So glad that it's working out well for y'all!

Anonymous said...

Hooray for cloth! We love it! Although, with solids in the picture, washing is now so much more frightening for us..