M&J

 There are so many decisions to make when you have a baby. Most people don't really think about diapers. My generation really thinks that store bought plastic diapers are their only option. They might have seen someone putting a cloth diaper on a baby in a old movie, or seen the baby mouse take a safety pin out of his diaper in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Not many even consider it for their own children. I don't remember why I seriously looked into cloth diapering when I got pregnant. I am always looking for the cheapest and most convenient way to do things, weighing my options of time and effort vs. cost.

      More and more information is becoming available online. Everyone has their own opinion on this, trust me, I watched so many videos, read so many posts. Absolutely everything having to do with being pregnant and giving birth, varies from person to person. Every question I had from start to finish has so many different answers. So, lucky you, here is another opinion, mine. I will have to say that I will give you all my reasons and background information behind all my decisions.

     First thing, cloth diapering is not difficult. It may seem a little difficult and time consuming, but don't let the unknown scare you away. When I started researching this, I was perplexed at the amount of brands of cloth diapers. I haven't even had the child yet, and these diapers are $15 to $30 each. I was not ready to invest in a product that I have not even seen in real life yet. Not to mention everyone seemed to think I was crazy when I brought it up.

     The conclusion of my preliminary research was that cloth diapering was better than plastic diapers. Babies use $3,000 to $4,000 in plastic diapers from birth to potty training. Cloth diapering you can invest anywhere from $200 to $500 in diapers during that same period of time. Cost is the by far winner. The next factor, environmental impact, cloth will win it again. A plastic diaper will not even decompose during your child's lifetime and makes up a very large percentage of what is put in landfills. Cloth diapers are made out of cotton for the absorbent part, and PUL (polyurethane laminated fabric) on the cover. I bought ten diapers, so at the worst, only ten diapers will go into a landfill. Chances are I will keep them in case I have another baby or give them to a friend. Some places even let you sell them back to the company to be resold as used. (I wasn't into using someone's used diapers, but to each his own) The cotton inserts I use can be used for cleaning after they serve their diaper purpose.

     So now I have effectively convinced you to use, or at least try, cloth diapers. Now comes the daunting task of choosing a brand. There are so many out there. Different materials and configurations can make it hard when you have never even changed a baby's diaper before. I chose bumGenius, flip diapers, and econobum. They are actually made by the same company and all sold at cottonbabies.com. (I have no affiliation with this company and am not getting paid for this opinion) For me the whole point of cloth diapering, other than cost, was to not have plastic on my baby's most sensitive parts all the time, so I eliminated all diapers made with polyester from my list. BumGenius makes a organic cotton diaper that has the absorbent part sewn in. ($30) Yes, the outside is still plastic, but that is not the part that is on his privates. I bought six of these. The flip diapers were just the outside cover with the inserts sold separately, I got four of them. ($15) The econobums are also just covers and I bought two.  ($10) I bought all brands made with snaps and not Velcro. In my opinion it is a pain to wash things with Velcro because it sticks to other items and doesn't seem to hold up. The snaps are quite easy once you get used to it.

     BumGenuis: great for quick changes. You don't have to mess with the inserts. Great quality, they wash up really well. I wash them with hot water and line dry. One size, so you don't have to keep buying diapers as your baby grows. The only downside for me is that they take a while to dry. I only bought six, so unless you are willing to invest more money, you will want to have another option while you wait for them to dry.

     Flip: still pretty quick to change. Same great quality and wash the same. These are almost dry when you take them out of the washer and are completely dry in a few minutes on the line. Also one size.

     Econobum: just like the flip, but more cheaply made. Less snaps, but it is their economy line. I'm glad I only bought two. I still use them on a regular basis. They do seem to leak a little more.

     If I knew what I know now I would have gotten three bumGenius and fifteen flip diapers for the same price. I also did not get the inserts from the company. I bought twenty four cotton prefolds at Babies-r-us on sale for $12. I figured if they didn't work well I could always order the inserts, but they have been working great. They wash well and dry fast.

     I also wash all my diapers with my regular laundry. At first I was a little wary of washing poopie diapers with my clothes, but everything comes out clean and smelling fresh. Doing this also does not impact my water and energy consumption because I am doing the same amount of laundry I was doing before. I also have started line drying all my laundry now, so my energy use has gone down even more. I have to note that my baby is breast fed so the makeup up his poo would be different from a formula fed baby which may or may not impact the wash ability of the diapers.

     When line drying diapers the sun is also very helpful. I was a little worried about how clean my diapers were when a few of the big poopie ones left a stain behind after washing. They smelled clean, but left a orange tint behind. All you have to do to fix that is hang the diapers stain side out in the sun, and like magic it disappears! It is also a good trick for any laundry.

     The final bit of advice I have has to do with the final factor of cloth diapering, storage. What do you do with the dirty diapers fresh off your babies bum? No one wants smelly diapers hanging around. This is where I had to get creative. In my research there are lots of options, none of them sounding to great to me. Bins with soapy water sounded disgusting and a lot of work to clean and maintain, not to mention what would happen if you knocked it over! There are plenty of bags on the market, but none of them seamed to meet my needs in design and size. So I started to design and sew my own. I made it the perfect size to fit a full day of diapers in and easy to open while holding a dirty diaper. I plan on writing another piece on the advantages of the bag I made, so keep an eye out. I also sell them at etsy.com/shop/MandJ34

     I hope you seriously look into cloth diapering. Save yourself some serious money and be kind to the environment at the same time. What could be better. Keep in mind that you can always keep disposable diapers on hand. I still use them in a pinch if I forgot to do enough laundry or I run out of cloth ones while we are out and about. You don't have to be completely committed to cloth so much that you make yourself crazy. Go with the flow, especially in the beginning. I used a lot more disposable diapers in the beginning just trying to adjust to being a new mom. Getting sleep is more important than stressing about diapers. Not to mention you have all those diapers from the baby shower.

     Enjoy!