Pro's:
It's so much cheaper in the end to buy a stash of 12-14 diapers than it is to buy a new box of diapers every 2 weeks. They are also nice because they grow with your kid, so you won't have to worry about buying new diapers as he grows out of the old ones. *Note: get diapers with velcro, not snaps. You can adjust the size of the waist with the velcro ones. The snaps may not meet exactly where your baby needs them to*
They are reusable. I know this is sort of redundant, but I love the fact that they are reusable. I hate throwing things away that I've paid good money for. It's satisfying knowing that I'm not filling up a landfill with disposables. Also, they are SO reusable that I can use them on FUTURE children. This is why I really recommend it for parents who are starting out on having kids, because they can get some serious mileage on those cloth diapers!
They are cuter. It's not really THAT much of a pro, but it is one, so I'll add it. I was boring and bought off white ones so that they wouldn't show through her clothes...but they have some ADORABLE designs!
They don't have chemicals in them. Some babies are super sensitive to the chemicals contained in regular diapers which can cause some super nasty rashes. Elliott seems to get rashes in both disposables and cloth diapers, so I don't think she's particularly allergic to the chemicals in the disposables....I think that rashes just happen sometimes! I don't feel like her rashes ever get very bad while she's in cloth diapers though - they seem to go away fairly quickly. I'll also admit, if it's a bad rash, I'll tend to slap on some Triple Paste diaper rash cream (the best stuff *ever*) and use disposables for a day or two until the rash is gone. If it's just a normal rash, I use my special cloth diaper rash cream (GroVia sells some and it's made of natural ingredients) and keep her in her cloth diapers. *Another note: when you use cloth diapers, you have to use diaper rash cream specially formulated for cloth diapers. The regular creams will permeate the cloth and will make it resistant to absorption.
I love hanging diapers out to dry on a line. It makes me feel like a good mom. I love seeing them out there flapping in the wind.
Garbage bags of disposable diapers are heavy and super nasty gross.
Cloth diapers are no where near as easy as disposables, but it is a satisfying way to take care of your kid, your check book and the earth. And they really are so much easier than you can fathom right now. It's really not THAT much harder to use cloth over disposables. It just involves more laundry.
It's so much cheaper in the end to buy a stash of 12-14 diapers than it is to buy a new box of diapers every 2 weeks. They are also nice because they grow with your kid, so you won't have to worry about buying new diapers as he grows out of the old ones. *Note: get diapers with velcro, not snaps. You can adjust the size of the waist with the velcro ones. The snaps may not meet exactly where your baby needs them to*
They are reusable. I know this is sort of redundant, but I love the fact that they are reusable. I hate throwing things away that I've paid good money for. It's satisfying knowing that I'm not filling up a landfill with disposables. Also, they are SO reusable that I can use them on FUTURE children. This is why I really recommend it for parents who are starting out on having kids, because they can get some serious mileage on those cloth diapers!
They are cuter. It's not really THAT much of a pro, but it is one, so I'll add it. I was boring and bought off white ones so that they wouldn't show through her clothes...but they have some ADORABLE designs!
They don't have chemicals in them. Some babies are super sensitive to the chemicals contained in regular diapers which can cause some super nasty rashes. Elliott seems to get rashes in both disposables and cloth diapers, so I don't think she's particularly allergic to the chemicals in the disposables....I think that rashes just happen sometimes! I don't feel like her rashes ever get very bad while she's in cloth diapers though - they seem to go away fairly quickly. I'll also admit, if it's a bad rash, I'll tend to slap on some Triple Paste diaper rash cream (the best stuff *ever*) and use disposables for a day or two until the rash is gone. If it's just a normal rash, I use my special cloth diaper rash cream (GroVia sells some and it's made of natural ingredients) and keep her in her cloth diapers. *Another note: when you use cloth diapers, you have to use diaper rash cream specially formulated for cloth diapers. The regular creams will permeate the cloth and will make it resistant to absorption.
I love hanging diapers out to dry on a line. It makes me feel like a good mom. I love seeing them out there flapping in the wind.
Garbage bags of disposable diapers are heavy and super nasty gross.
Cloth diapers are no where near as easy as disposables, but it is a satisfying way to take care of your kid, your check book and the earth. And they really are so much easier than you can fathom right now. It's really not THAT much harder to use cloth over disposables. It just involves more laundry.
Cons:
You WILL touch poop. You just need to come to terms with that. Dealing with poop isn't that hard though. You have a few options... They sell disposable cloth diaper liners that you can put inside the diaper and it catches the hard "matter" and you throw that away. Again, I hate buying things that I just end up throwing away, so once the liners that were gifted to me were gone, I stopped using them. I did buy a sprayer that attaches to the toilet. When I have a poopy diaper to deal with, I just rinse it off in the toilet. Sometimes poop gets splattered onto the toilet, but I just rinse that off too. I tried to be hardcore and just rinse it off directly in the toilet, but even I can't handle having my hands in poopy toilet water *gag*
Cloth diapers can develop a certain aroma. This can be eradicated with a good soak in Funk Rock and by using good detergent - all the cloth diapering mamas I know use Rockin' Green. A side effect of this is that sometimes you will have diapers swimming in your tub (unless you buy a special tub just for your diapers).
Your baby's bum will be large. Some cloth diapers are thinner than others (supposedly). I chose GroVia because it was supposed to be thinner - but honestly, I don't think there's much of a difference. I will say that prefolds are definitely much thicker than the AI1 or AI2's. Also, because your baby's bum will be large, you'll have to buy larger clothes to cover it.
Some people say that Elliott isn't as mobile because she's wearing cloth diapers, but I disagree. She rolled over for the first time while wearing one and just doesn't seem to want to go anywhere else. I'm not sure how quickly Liam started moving about, but you could always query Michelle about it - she's the one to got me turned on to cloth diapers in the first place!
You WILL touch poop. You just need to come to terms with that. Dealing with poop isn't that hard though. You have a few options... They sell disposable cloth diaper liners that you can put inside the diaper and it catches the hard "matter" and you throw that away. Again, I hate buying things that I just end up throwing away, so once the liners that were gifted to me were gone, I stopped using them. I did buy a sprayer that attaches to the toilet. When I have a poopy diaper to deal with, I just rinse it off in the toilet. Sometimes poop gets splattered onto the toilet, but I just rinse that off too. I tried to be hardcore and just rinse it off directly in the toilet, but even I can't handle having my hands in poopy toilet water *gag*
Cloth diapers can develop a certain aroma. This can be eradicated with a good soak in Funk Rock and by using good detergent - all the cloth diapering mamas I know use Rockin' Green. A side effect of this is that sometimes you will have diapers swimming in your tub (unless you buy a special tub just for your diapers).
Your baby's bum will be large. Some cloth diapers are thinner than others (supposedly). I chose GroVia because it was supposed to be thinner - but honestly, I don't think there's much of a difference. I will say that prefolds are definitely much thicker than the AI1 or AI2's. Also, because your baby's bum will be large, you'll have to buy larger clothes to cover it.
Some people say that Elliott isn't as mobile because she's wearing cloth diapers, but I disagree. She rolled over for the first time while wearing one and just doesn't seem to want to go anywhere else. I'm not sure how quickly Liam started moving about, but you could always query Michelle about it - she's the one to got me turned on to cloth diapers in the first place!
You will need to do laundry a bit more. I have a stash of 12 diapers (i think) and I do a load every 2 days or so.
They are not fun to use while on the go or on vacation. Which is why I use disposables when I'm not at home. GroVia has biodegradable disposable inserts that fit inside their covers, but I just never use them...so much easier to grab a disposable and go!
Disposables are easier. You just throw them away. There's no rinsing or unsnapping the liner from the cover. There is no (well, very little) poop touching.
You will need to buy special detergent and diaper rash cream.
Additional Notes:
I don't think it matters which brand of diaper you buy as long as you're happy with it. The GroVia's I have are AI2's (which means that the liner separates from the cover and the cover can be reused), but if I had to do it over again I wouldn't mind AI1's (the liner and cover are sewn together). I initially chose the GroVia because they had the option of the disposable insert - which I have consequently used NEVER! BumGenius are supposed to be good diapers too. Ultimately, they catch pee and poop. As long as they do that well and they are easy, they are good! I will say that my AI2's are SUPER easy to clean. THe cover and the liner separate and I am able to line dry them separately. They may dry quicker than AI1's since they aren't stuck together.... That's the only real benefit. Also, I can reuse the covers sometimes (somehow I have fewer covers than inserts....don't ask me how).
They are not fun to use while on the go or on vacation. Which is why I use disposables when I'm not at home. GroVia has biodegradable disposable inserts that fit inside their covers, but I just never use them...so much easier to grab a disposable and go!
Disposables are easier. You just throw them away. There's no rinsing or unsnapping the liner from the cover. There is no (well, very little) poop touching.
You will need to buy special detergent and diaper rash cream.
Additional Notes:
I don't think it matters which brand of diaper you buy as long as you're happy with it. The GroVia's I have are AI2's (which means that the liner separates from the cover and the cover can be reused), but if I had to do it over again I wouldn't mind AI1's (the liner and cover are sewn together). I initially chose the GroVia because they had the option of the disposable insert - which I have consequently used NEVER! BumGenius are supposed to be good diapers too. Ultimately, they catch pee and poop. As long as they do that well and they are easy, they are good! I will say that my AI2's are SUPER easy to clean. THe cover and the liner separate and I am able to line dry them separately. They may dry quicker than AI1's since they aren't stuck together.... That's the only real benefit. Also, I can reuse the covers sometimes (somehow I have fewer covers than inserts....don't ask me how).
Dry pails are recommended over wetbags. These can get very smelly. A friend of mine recommends dousing a couple cotton balls in essential oils and putting it in the bottom of the pail to help with odor. Another friend keeps her diaper pail outside on a porch so that it doesn't get in to the house. This being said, disposables are also rank (unless you use a DiaperGenie - but who wants to keep paying for the plastic stuff to keep that working?). I use a wetbag - I bought one before I found out that people dont' recommend it. I like it though... It gets pretty stinky, but seems to do okay when I wash it with my diaper load. I bought a large one and it will hold all of my diapers.
Michelle recommended not to start cloth diapering until one is past the "newborn" phase and I tend to agree. Those first few months are hard and you're getting used to a whole bunch of new stuff. I liked starting cloth diapering around 3 months because I finally had some kind of routine down and it wasn't that hard to add a new element of diaper changing to my life.
I'm going to post this on my blog in the hopes that some other cloth diapering parents will chime in and give you more info. There are a lot of good resources out there. My favorite site is diaperjunction.com. They sell all the products that I use and they also have a great blog about cloth diapering. Everyone who works there is a mom who cloth diapers and is passionate about it.
My recommendation would be to set some money aside that would pay for a whole stash of cloth diapers and hold on to it until you're closer to the 3 month mark. Then buy 2 or 3 and start rotating it in with your regular diapers. Some of the cloth diaper companies sell Trial Packs. Here is GroVia's - not sure if BumGenius does or not! https://www.gro-via.com/hybrid/curiouskit.html
Hope this helps!! Ultimately it's about what works best for you and your family.
I'm going to post this on my blog in the hopes that some other cloth diapering parents will chime in and give you more info. There are a lot of good resources out there. My favorite site is diaperjunction.com. They sell all the products that I use and they also have a great blog about cloth diapering. Everyone who works there is a mom who cloth diapers and is passionate about it.
My recommendation would be to set some money aside that would pay for a whole stash of cloth diapers and hold on to it until you're closer to the 3 month mark. Then buy 2 or 3 and start rotating it in with your regular diapers. Some of the cloth diaper companies sell Trial Packs. Here is GroVia's - not sure if BumGenius does or not! https://www.gro-via.com/hybrid/curiouskit.html
Hope this helps!! Ultimately it's about what works best for you and your family.
