I love fluff! I love talking about it, getting it in the mail, and of course buying it. I am of course talking about cloth diapers. I always knew I would use cloth diapers. My mom used them on all of us. I helped her with my brother many times and felt important carrying that dirty diaper to the bathroom.
My mom though did not really do it out of the idea that she needed to save the planet but out of necessity. I realized though as it got closer and closer to the boys coming my reasoning was twofold. I love being eco-friendly but, if you ever have had children you know what I am about to talk about, the expense. On average we probley would have spent a minimum of $2000 for 2yrs period for one child. Add another baby in diapers and it would have been a whooping minimum of $4000 in two years! Yikes.
That’s a lot of money when you think about it. With the cloth when finally finish getting what we need probably have spent about $500 for both boys for approximately two years. Now that is a deal! So I know there are some out there that will argue how it is saving money when you have to use energy to wash them, and dry them. We have dealt with this by taking steps to reduce our energy usage elsewhere. We turn off lights when we leave a room, hang the diapers to dry instead of running the dryer, (this is actually better for cloth diapers anyways), turning off the air when it is nice out and much more.
When I first looked at cloth diapers I was just going to get the old-fashioned plastic pants and pins. That’s what my mom and grandma used so I felt it was good enough for me. I decided to look online and see what was available. Wow. Cloth diapers are definitely not the same as they used to be. I started with prefolds, flats, and yes those noisy plastic pants. Then switched to prefolds and covers, but now I finally have found what works for us. Ok really that means what is the easiest for Tony to figure out. Besides that he was afraid of sticking the kids with the safety pin.
What we use now is mostly pocket diapers. They have snaps on them and a liner that you stuff into the diaper for absorbency. Some of mine are one size so they will fit from around 7pds to 35pds. Then when you change the diaper you knock any solids into the toilet (you can get a diaper sprayer to) and pull out the insert and throw them into a pail. Then every few days I wash. I ended up switching to cloth wipes to because it was just easier to throw them in the wash with the diapers.
I am glad we are cloth diapering not only because of the high cost of disposables but because of the impact on the environment. I am including a few links below. Some of the links will show what kind of cloth diapers are available to. I have also included a link to a friend’s Facebook page where we talk and discuss cloth diapering and much more. If you have questions please let me know.
ClothDiaper MommaFriends Facebook Page:
All about Cloth diapers: (Including the dangers to humans and the enviroment)
These last two will give you an idea of what is out there how to wash them etc.:
