Rocky Mountain Mama so awesomely agreed to write a guest post for me while I was on vacation! Check out her blog over at Rocky Mountain Mama.
What I Learned About Cloth Diapering
What I Learned About Cloth Diapering
One of the big deciding factors about cloth diapering my
first (at least for my husband) was the cost factor. The great thing about
cloth is that we would also be able to cloth diaper our second and possibly
third with the same diapers. Totally cost effective, right? We cloth diapered
Christopher for 2.5 years. At the end of his diapering years, the cloth diapers
definitely showed some wear and tear.
There are a few things I learned and would do differently if
I could go back and do it again.
1. Buy Snaps: We originally purchased diapers with hook
& loop closures for ease of use. After a year of use, they just didn’t hold
the same. I ended up converting all of our BumGenius diapers to snaps. That was
a large chore. After my son had worn the diapers for another year, I started
replacing the elastic on the BumGenius diapers. That was an even bigger chore.
2. Be Gentle With Your Diapers: I used to strip the heck out
of our diapers with bleach with our first. I wanted to get that smell out of
our diapers. You know what I’m talking about. And then I just got into the
habit of adding a little bleach almost every load. Bad, bad, bad habit. It definitely
wore out our diapers a lot quicker than they should have. Not only that, I
would throw all the covered in the dryer. All of this caused the elastic to
wear quickly. Of course, at some point, you will have to replace your elastic,
but being gentle with your diapers will serve you well in the long run.
3. You Can Never Have Too Many Diapers: The husband may
disagree with me on this one, but I believe you can never have enough cloth
diapers. There are pros and cons to every diaper and sometimes certain diapers
work for certain occasions. With my son, I thought, “Oh, if we ever end up
having a girl, she can totally rock the blue diapers.” True. And she does, but
she also needed a few “girly” colors. I think it’s great to have a selection of
several different diapers.
Our current stash (not including newborn diapers):
- 7 prefolds
- 2 Thirsties covers
- 12 BumGenius AIO
- 1 Charlie Banana
- 3 BumGenius OS in each size
- 3 Rumparooz
- 2 Flip covers + 4 inserts
- 2 Bumbaroo
Now that we are cloth diapering our second child, I am so
glad that we went with cloth. We are using all the diapers we used with my son,
with a few additions. But, overall, we have saved hundreds of dollars over the
years.
