If you don't use cloth, why not? - Page 4

[bandgeek]

I only use cloth about half the time....does my response count?

We use disposables because they are easier, plain and simple. I've got a lot going on in my life and a DD with a SN and medical problems. It makes it easier when I take her out. An quite frankly, she's FTT and skeletal looking and a cloth diaper under her clothes just looks horrible, making her weight loss more noticeable. Yeah, silly reason I know. But I hate people staring and it's just a small way to help her blend in a bit.

Also, I can only wash 1-2 times a week because I don't have a W/D and I use my DBF's. So having huge amounts of diapers to wash is super annoying, especially when they won't fit in one load.

There ya go. Not the best reasons. I could certainly do cloth 100% of the time if I really wanted to. I don't feel like it...I'm lazy.

[Violet2]

1. Overwhelmed by the choices and unable to figure out what was a good brand or how to identify quality diapers.

2. Giant baby. By the time I started really considering cloth DD was big enough for the largest sizes and we still had a year or more of diapers ahead of us. I did order one Fuzzi Bun aio and it fit, on the last snap. So not cost effective for the investment.

3. Didn't know about the liners that make clean up easier.

4.Didn't know anyone who used cloth, had never seen it modeled.

5.Cloth uses a lot of water--extra rinsing, stripping etc... A lot of water. I'm not sure I buy that they are so much lighter on the earth. EC is probably the best green option.

6.Most people end up using disposables too along with cloth, which I didn't find an endorsement of cloth. If cloth is so great, why do people need disposables at all?

V

[crl]

Originally Posted by 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!

I did not use cloth for our first. I meant to. I even bought a few diapers to try out. Then DS came home. He was 14 months--adopted. He needed to held ALL THE TIME. Our w/d were in the non-child proofable section of our basement. Laundry was nearly impossible to do. So, basically laundry as you mentioned.

I am seriously conidering trying again for our second--if that ever happens. Our w/d set up is much more accessible now.

Catherine

[mamaofthree]

can i ask where you all live that there is a cd community that is snobby and even gives a hoot what you put on your child? the homeschool group we belonged too had lots of cd families and everyone used different stuff and no one said a thing ever about who used what. we even traded with each other if someone out grew something to help each other out. no one said "I won't use pins and prefolds" . it seems so strange to me... just wondering.

h

[NiteNicole]

The more research I did on cloth, the more confusing it became. I was just overwhelmed. Cloth diapers come with their own language. Everyone has an opinion and they're all conflicting. The initial investment can be quite big (as opposed to spending a little at a time with disposables) and you can very easily invest in the wrong kid that's not the best fit for your kid and life, or at least that is the impression. My rational mind thinks, come on, there are only so many ways to wad up a hunk of fabric to catch pee, just pick something and buy it! Then this person swears that diaper changed her life and that person swears the same one led to endless rashes for her child.

I don't know anyone in real life who uses cloth so I didn't have much going on in the "trusted friend who had been there and done that" area to at least talk me through it. Everytime I mentioned it in front of older relatives who had used cloth (my mother, my grandmother, my aunts and great aunts) everyone acted disgusted, like I had just proposed washing them by hand on a rock in the river. I tried explaining that cloth had come a long way and why someone might want to use cloth but then I was so overwhelmed and swamped with info it's not like I put up a very convincing argument.

It was, in the end, less confusing to just go to Target and buy Pampers. My daughter came almost a month early and I still hadn't decided or ordered anything. I kept thinking that I would just keep researching and switch because she was going to spend a few years in diapers, I had time. Then we spent so much time going back and forth to the doctor (small health issues) and in the car and she never slept, puked constantly, and cried round the clock. Honestly, I was glad not to have one more thing to worry about.

Should we have another, I'll make another go at choosing cloth. I don't think I'd ever use cloth full time because of the bulky diapers and having to carry um, used ones around with me but at home it would be nice to use cloth. I'm still a little unsure as to whether the water useage with cloth doesn't outweigh the landfill issue with disposables but...I have plenty of time to think about it.

[JavaJunkie]

I used cloth for a time with my first. The laundry was overwhelming for me, and that was with only one child and dh and me! I'm not good at keeping up with laundry, and cloth sends me over the edge.

[Dera]

I used cloth with my first for 6 months or so but when I was late in pregnancy with my second and got that pubis disorder thing, I was overwhelmed. The number one that did it for me was how hands on you have to be with poop. Everyone told me that once they are toddlers, you just roll it off into the toilet but it never worked that way. His poop was always smooshy so I would have to scrape it off with tp, it would be stuck to the cloth wipes, the liners were gross and didn't work. When it was solid enough to roll off, it splashed the water into my face. Vomit. Poop smelling laundry. Then I got ppd (and still struggle with it) and it was all just too much for me. With how much laundry I was doing, I couldn't believe it was better for the environment. Filling landfills sucks, but we are also in danger of running out of clean water. So I chose the evil that wouldn't make me nuts in the process and decided to not feel bad about it. I miss how cute they are though. Oh and they cost a fortune. I get dipes at Costco and we just don't spend that much on them.

[KirstenMary]

working 60 hours/ week + baby + laundry for five people = sposies

[LauraN]

With my first two, I was working full time, the daycare would not have been able to handle cloth. With my third, I bought the diapers, but the laundry was overwhelming. Way too much. I was doing laundry all the time. I couldn't believe that was in any way better for the environment that sposies. So I tried, couldn't do it, switched to sposies and have never looked back. I'm gentle to the environment in so many other ways, but this one was just insurmountable to me.

[Sierra]

I really feel for people who get into cloth and find it confusing. If I hadn't come from a cloth diapering family myself, and recently cared for my younger God-sister who was in cloth, I fear I might have given up trying to navigate all the choices and systems and language, etc.

Thank goodness also for cloth diaper service! Though we only used them for the first half year of ds' life, they really gave us a foot in the door.

I did do cloth, and actually *had* to do cloth for a while for financial reasons, but I never managed to do it 100% of the time. We always used disposables at night because:

1. With ds, he peed TONS at night...he was a frequent peer. We would have been up all night changing him to keep him dry and avoid leaks. The brand of disposables we tried to a fantastic job at both keeping him dry and preventing leaks. We decided sleep and thus sanity, in addition to our son's comfort had to weigh more heavily in that case.

2. With dfd, she got rashes using cloth overnight, even when she hadn't peed. I'm not sure what it was. We were at that time using a cloth system that had been given to us, and I didn't have the money to invest in other systems to see if something else would have stopped the rashes.

We also sometimes put disposables on the kids when we were going to be out of the house through more than a single change. I wasn't as attached to doing that, but dw felt that lugging around the cloth, etc. was among factors that discouraged her from going out...and she really *needed* to go out. Also, if you put the dirty diaper cloth in a plastic bag-- albeit a reused one-- you have to throw that bag away afterward, and that has its own environmental issues (plastic bags are a HUGE problem environmentally).

And finally, we sometimes took a month or two off here and there. Like when we were moving cross country. We had enough going on with the packing up our lives to add even a little extra laundry on top of that.

My kids (who are eleven months apart, BTW), are 3 and 4 now, and out of diapers...dd as of earlier this summer. They each graduated directly out of cloth, not out of disposables or an in-between option such as plastic training pants. We briefly entertained the idea of doing EC back when the kids were babes, but it just didn't work out.

[Sierra]

P.S. Even though we couldn't afford it by then, anyway, I should note that when we moved we went from a community that had two or three diaper service companies to choose from to a community with no diaper service at all.

I am a true believer in diaper service for folks who can swing it (and it really isn't that much more expensive than disposables), as I think it gets folks past the barrier or the laundry.

I know some cloth advocates say, "it isn't that much more laundry than I already had with the baby," but when you are already overwhelmed by laundry, adding on diapers can truly push it over the edge.

[EFmom]

There were lots of reasons. I work full time out of the home. My non-work time is precious, and I wanted to spend it with the kids, not doing more laundry. I've been around people who cloth diaper and it is more work and more laundry.

My day care provider would not have been enthusiastic about cloth, and frankly, in her position, I don't blame her. It didn't make any sense to me to invest a wad in cloth diapers that I couldn't use half the time.

[Grace and Granola]

I tried cloth when my first son was about 5 months. I used MDC as my research tool. I bought what I thought was the most highly recommended, which was fitteds with inserts + covers. I was excited about it. They totally leaked! So then I tried Fuzzi Buns with exta padding, and they totally leaked. So, I gave up. I felt like I tried...either I was doing something wrong, or my ds's pee-ing style was so unusual that cloth diapers would not work for us!!

[Right of Passage]

I'll do it the math way too!

coin-op washer
+
low flow water to said washer
+
needing multiple washes to remove most of the stink but never all of it
+
horrific bleeding diaper rash that changed baby's ability to sleep through the night
=
Sposies!

In the end sposies have been cheaper where I'm at because of my only washer option. I was spending $10+ a week on washing my diapers. That's as much as I spend on our normal laundry! DS2 slept through the night from day 1 until our landlord changed our washing machine and the diaper rash began. It hurt so bad he couldn't sleep. Everytime he pee'd he would wake up screaming. The day we switched to sposies, his diaper rash started to clear, and he slowly started to sleep all night again.

[mouthcave]

I am easily confused for one thing, haha. I feel overwhelmed every time I look at information on cloth diapers. I don't know anyone in real life that uses them. In fact, everyone was very negative and rude any time I mentioned wanting to try cloth!
The start up was too expensive. I asked for them as baby shower gifts but no one bought any! People are still giving us disposables though. I tried to learn to sew just so I could make some cheap but I don't know anyone that sews either! I felt overwhelmed by that too, haha.
I don't mind doing tons of laundry for some reason, so that is not an issue.

[Norasmomma]

Originally Posted by kristi96

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

I actually have the desire, I don't have the funds to invest right now, I also can barely keep up with laundry as it is. Also for me if I had bought them with DD I would have been happy to do cloth, now I am expecting baby #2 and am done after this, so the investment seems a like a bit of a waste.

I also have bought a bunch of diapers for pennies a piece due to my couponing and sales shopping, I seriously have nearly enough diapers for the baby's first year for way less than I would spend on cloth. I'm actually saving money. Plus I also practiced the 12 month window EC and she was out of diapers by 20 months, so I guess I am ok with it.

[funkymamajoy]

Originally Posted by UptownZoo

You know, I CD'd all three of my kids, but I have to agree with those who mentioned snobbery as a turn-off. When I had my first two in 1993 and 1995, there was no internet and I didn't know anyone who CD'd (though my mom and all her friends had of course used cloth), so I didn't know any different than to go out and buy a stack of pre-folds, some pins, and vinyl pants. Worked fabulous, no problems every. Yes, my kids looked weird when double (and then later triple) diapered for bedtime, but they didn't care, so I didn't either.

Until Gerber switched to PEVA, I used the same system. I love prefolds and pins. There's nothing better for the "take diaper off and pee on the floor" stage.

[~Boudicca~]

I didn't cloth diaper kid#1, because it wasn't even on my radar yet so we used sposies. This was before I came to MDC and then I became a total hippie.

With DD2 we used Bummis wraps, Proraps, and prefolds. The prefolds worked great for a long time so when she got much bigger I decided to stick with them but use wool covers and longies. So I had ordered a bunch in toddler size to take us through to potty training.

Well...around 18 months when she started eating much more solid food, her bum became so irritated. Her pee burned her so bad and the prefolds just rubbed her raw, so we switched to sposies to give her hiney a break. And then I took most of the advice I read here in the diapering forums and tried troubleshooting (playing musical detergents, boiling, liners, etc) and after about a month of that I said to hell with it and we have used sposies ever since. I also didn't have a lump of money to drop on a new stash of Fuzzibuni or whatever. In July when money started to become really tight I tried switching her back to the cloth because I figured she was wearing underwear and potty training for the most part so the time that she would be in a diaper would be pretty limited, but the second I put them on her and she peed in them she got a raging diaper rash.

As she got bigger I was also annoyed with how I couldn't fit pants over her diapers, she was kind of chunky to begin with. I could only do the cloth with baby legs for so long because I could barely get the baby legs over her thighs by the time she was a year old.

So here we are.

[lara1828]

I just couldn't stand the idea of those wet, smelly things in my house and my washing machine. Yuck.

[ollyoxenfree]

Baby #1 - I had a long, government-supported parental leave with additional employer-supported benefits. Lots of time and energy to deal with cloth diapers and keep up with all the laundry. We used disposables for traveling - both grandparents lived about 2 hours away, and we were on the highway a fair amount that first year.

Baby #2 - I had gone back to university. She was born between finishing a post-graduate degree and starting an internship, with no parental leave benefits (i.e. no money). I had a 3 y.o., a newborn, an intensely demanding and competitive job that required 60 to 80 hours per week. DH picked up the slack in a big way at home - luckily his job was more flexible, but he was still working a 40 hr. week. She wore disposables almost always. I can't say I felt hugely guilty about it either - you do what you have to do.