If you don't use cloth, why not?

[kriket]

I'm in the middle of writing a piece on cloth diapers and I wanted to address the other side. Real reasons/problems/etc against cloth. The more specific you could be that would be great. I'm aware of the biggies, like laundry, pins, plastic pants.

I would love to hear about your experiences if you tried cloth and then switched.

Thanks mamas!

[KweenKrunch]

We tried cloth with my first but switched to EC. Love it!

[kristi96]

Plain and simple I don't have the time, energy, or desire to use cloth.

[indie]

I used cloth for my first two children and for the first 4 months for my third. Since then I've been using disposables because they are easier and leak less and many of my cloth diapers got to the point where they were worn out and I didn't want to reinvest in more. The kids nighttime diapers were really difficult to get absorbent enough so we switched to disposables at night and it was too tempting to grab them during the day too, especially for my husband.

[kriket]

Originally Posted by KweenKrunch

We tried cloth with my first but switched to EC. Love it!

ECers don't count. Let me tackle one subject at a time!

we part time EC We both WOH FT but are trying!

[oceanbaby]

I've used both, mainly cloth. I love cloth diapers. But the biggest issue I ran into was the bulkiness of my diaper bag if I was going to be out for most of the day. It made me kind of crazy. 3 or 4 diapers and I am carrying a suitcase around. Those days I was very tempted to just grab a few disposables.

Also, if were going to be in area/situation where I wouldn't be able to change as often or pack around a dirty diaper I would grab sposies.

But the bulkiness of the diaper bag was the biggest downside for me.

[jewelsJZ]

i only use cloth when i have one child in diapers at a time. when it's two kids at once, it is just too overwhelming and we switch to disposables. i wish i had the time and energy to have two in cloth at once but i just don't.

[kriket]

Originally Posted by kristi96

Plain and simple I don't have the time, energy, or desire to use cloth.

can you elaborate? what is your lack of desire like? Do you think cloth is too crunchy? Over hyped? Hard to get into? What kind of time and energy do you think goes into it? (I know tone is hard to read and this could come off as snarky, but I really am just trying to get some actual talking points from the 'other side'. I am totally blinded by the fluffy fever! My piece would be horrible lopsided verging on the point of unbelievable if I didn't have your thoughts to hit on!)

[mama_lola]

We used cloth exclusively from the time our LO was 6 months until she was about 18 months. I just got sick of changing her diaper every 20 minutes. She drinks a ton of water, and it was making me crazy! She would wake up 3-4 times a night because of leaking. I got tired of the stress and the issues over DIAPERS. It was wonderful while it lasted!

[LiLStar]

I'm hardcore cloth to the extreme.. to the extent of packing an entire extra suitcase when we travel, just for diapers :

anyway, one thing I can think of that might turn lots of people off is how much research has to go into it! Theres SO many brands and types. prefolds, covers, fitteds, contours, aios, pockets, one size, pocket aios... then plain and simple, some work well, some don't work well. some are expensive, some are pretty cheap. they all have such vastly different fits and different babies are going to fit better in differen't ones. hook/loop, snaps, side snaps.. and wet bags, liners, inserts, doublers, snappis, washing routines, detergent, repelling, stinky build up, stripping.. rash creams that are safe for cloth, night time solutions that work for a heavy wetter, wool, wool wash, lanolizing!!! For us experienced cloth users, its pretty easy to keep it all straight, but I can see how the learning curve might intimidate less adventurous newbies who might find it easier to simply choose between huggies and pampers!!

[LemonPie]

I got into CD with my second baby when she was 10 months old and fully planned to CD my third.

Except that my newborn HATED cloth and would freak out and wake up any time she wet it. With 2 other young kids to take care of, it just wasn't worth it to me. I've tried again from time to time and she just doesn't do well with it. I'd rather have a baby who sleeps.

So I'm in the process of getting ready to sell my stash. I don't think I'll even bother if we have a 4th.

[octobermom]

We ended up doing both if that counts any? Around about a year my DD got a horrible yeast type diaper rash (it happens) but sadly it got worse and warped into a staph infection. After that she seemed extrememly prone to rashes more so than ever before. We went on a quest to find the perfect nighttime diaper as that was our problem area leaks no but rash wise.. Thats when we discovered her new super sensitive skin meant no more poly fabrics fleece and such seemed to just cut right through her skin... So after a long trail and error we finially found a sposie at night and cloth (prefolds and cotton fitted) by day was our best combo. She jsut needed the ultra dry effect sposies gave when I couldn't change her 12 times a night.
For personal reasons we actually plan to see if this system will work on our next baby right from the start. In the end it was for us the simplist and best of both worlds.

Deanna

[meemee]

living in an apt and having to use a laundromate.

plus my then dh didnt want to use cloth. too much trouble for him. we tried a diaper service. but it was a hassle for him.

so ended up using sposies.

[holothuroidea]

They just don't fit. DD is very petite and was from birth. She has skinny little legs and extremely narrow hips. To give you an idea of how narrow, she is now 12 months but is wearing size 3mo pants (as shorts, lol).

I planned on using cloth from early on, did tons of research, and I invested a lot of money ($300) into a good stash. I was really dissapointed when she was born and I put the diapers on her, they litterally made her lay lopsided no matter how I folded them. So, we went out and got some disposables hoping she would grow into the ones we have. She hasn't.

We've tried different kinds but I have not found a cloth diaper that doesnt make her look like she's wearing an innertube.

[lilyka]

the year was 1996 -

Cloth can be very expensive. I didn't have the money to get a stash going before she came and I certainly didn't have any money after she came.

There is a lot of cloth snobbery I encountered. and the crazy amount of hype. all the stuff people think you need to research. its like if they make it crazy complicated it makes them that much better. I don't know. people spending $200 on A diaper was such a turn off to me. I was really proud of myself for using cloth and then people started talking down about gerber dipes and plastic pants (which worked just fine on all my children thankyouverymuch). Good heavens even my pins weren't up to par because they weren't dritz. and for the record my $.99 diaper pins lasted through 3 kids, stayed sharp, and never ever bent going in. they were far and away my favorites. it was seriously equated with abuse to use less than whatever the diaper de jour was. so I stopped for a while. I didn't want to hurt my kids with using evil pants and I didn't want to be associated with "those" people. it was so much craziness. The excitement and uppitiness and constant hashing out of details creeped me out. they were poop catchers for crying out loud. no need to get obsessive about it.

I hated the bulk. it was hard to find clothes that fit and I wanted my baby to be cute.


then came baby number 2.....it was the year 2000.

Screw everyone and their criticism. I was comfortable in my prefolds and plastic pants. and cheap pins. my friend tried to get me to use mother-ease but really $20 for a diaper and cover - scandalous. I couldn't do it. and she really made me feel bad about using my gerbers but I marched on. She could say what she wanted. I actually used cloth all the time. she petted hers and bragged about hers and put sposies on her baby.

but I didn't use disposables on her hardly at all. she was a really complicated baby who hated having her diaper changed from the day she was born until the day she potty trained so sometimes I would just get over whelmed and take diaper vacations. a week here or there with sposies. otherwise 100% cloth. but I don't care what anyone says. sposies are easier. so much easier in every way.

third baby came along - 2002 -
If the child felt the slightest drip of wetness she would wake up screaming. didn't care when she was awake. didn't care when she was potty training : but it was decidedly the end of the world if she was sleeping. so she wore disposables while she was sleeping.

I won't lie. I loooovvvveed the smell of pampers......loved it. its still like heaven to me.

Oh yeah and around a year she was walking funny. we thought one of her legs was decidedly shorter than the other. so we put her in disposables for the night once but a water pipe broke and while we were hanging out in the hallway of the hotel we noticed she was walking just fine. so we kept her in sposies for a while until she was walking a little better. the cautiously went back to cloth.



so three different kids. three different times. lots of different reasons for using disposables.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

Let me preface this by saying that I used cloth with DS1 for 18 months. We switched to sposies when he outgrew the diapering system that we were using (gDiaper covers with cloth inserts) and made the decision when we got pregnant with DS2 (1 month later) that we would not go back to cloth with him. It was for several reasons, mostly related to time. Time wasn't much of an issue with DS1, because I was a SAHM. Although I stay home now, we are transitioning me to being a full-time student (trying to get into pharmacy school). Time is a precious commodity ATM.

-With cloth, I was chaging diapers ~20 times a day (I can't let a kid sit in a wet diaper that *feels* wet). Sposies need to be changed way less often. This is the main reason. With two in diapers and nursing, that is ALL I would be doing all day. Nurse. Change diaper. Repeat.

-It takes longer to change a cloth diaper (the ones we had, anyway). We had to stuff the new diaper, wet down the cloth wipe, swish poopy dipes in the toilet. With sposies, I just put the thing on.

-We live in an apartment, and we don't use paper towels. So we already have a ton of laundry. At this point, I just can't add any more (or hog the machine any more).

-Like a PP mentioned, I hated having to haul what amounted to a suitcase if I wanted to run errands in order to contain all of the CDs. Eventually, I started using sposies when out, even with DS1.

-Another thing that a PP mentioned that drove me away - the bulk. I love buying cute kids' clothes, and when DS was past the age where onesies and babylegs were cute, sposies started to look a lot better. I couldn't fit cloth under jeans. I felt like I was restricting his movement and making him miserable.

I would love to be able to do cloth, but right now, it would just be one more thing. And in order to do school with a family and a DH that works two jobs, I have to eliminate some of the "one more things."

[hempmama]

I don't like to admit all these on here, but in the name of research, here you go:

I have 3 kids. With the first we used mostly cloth. Plastic when travelling, out, or she was sick.

My second got horrible rashes in cloth, not as much in plastic. So we went entirely with plastic with him.

With my third, we use cloth sometimes. We are out a lot of the day very often, and I don't like carrying dirty diapers around half the day. If we'll be mostly in, or only out for a couple of hours, then she gets cloth. You'd think the extra laundry would just feel like a drop in the bucket (it did with my second, no big deal), but I am just so drowning in it that it's kind of beyond me to take on the extra laundry that a full time CD regime would entail. I hate hate hate laundry. But part time. We can do part time. Sometimes.

I also really hate nursing poops with CDs. I find the whole process a lot easier and less annoying once they are mostly on solid foods. CDs also leak more than plastic(except for 7th generation- the plastic I mean are the hardcore Pampers, etc). They can get pretty good, but there's really no getting as good as those super engineered plastic things. Philosophically I really like CDing, but it's not always worth the trade offs in our family.

[SpiderMum]

We've taken a break from cloth at the moment because we don't have a washing machine and having to drag diapers to my aunt's house to wash was majorly stressing me out.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

Originally Posted by lilyka

and I won't lie. I loooovvvveed the smell of pampers......loved it. its still like heaven to me.

Pampers smell *just* like Cabbage Patch dolls. I love it, too.

[NursingStudent]

I use cloth now, with my second. With my DD1 I used a service for almost a year, and then we moved to a different state with no service. I was really excited about washing my own, but wasn't very exposed to it so I didn't know what I was doing. Bought some cheap (but pretty well made) flannel fitteds off of Ebay. I was combining disposables and cloth, and it didn't take too long before I ruined all of the diapers I had just purchased by leaving the pail too long. I don't want to go into too much detail, but they were ruined. I tried really hard to save them with crazy washing and bleach and it was a total failure. I felt foolish and out of money and
So I quit and went to sposies for the rest of her diapering days.
Now with DD2 I had service for 1 month, then did combo of prefolds and sposies, and then I found the diaper lust, and it's crazy, and I use cloth exclusively now.

And now I am, like you:

Originally Posted by kriket

I am totally blinded by the fluffy fever! My piece would be horrible lopsided verging on the point of unbelievable if I didn't have your thoughts to hit on!)

So to answer your original question I didn't because of lack of knowledge about washing techniques and lack of exposure to the awesome and cute stuff that is available. I think if one person had even asked why I didn't use cloth I would have thought about it and... started again.
Good luck with your paper. I am interested in the cloth from a business perspective as well so let me know when it's done so I can read it.
Thanks!