diaper service or no?

[Mariposa40]

Hi, I am expecting my first baby in a couple of weeks and we are planning on cloth diapering. My parents have offered to give us a diaper service for the first couple of months, and that sounds great -- except . . . . that we are looking at paying for our home birth out of pocket (because our insurance company is stupid and evil, that's why) and we have a lot of other new baby expenses, and I'm tempted to thank them graciously for their offer but to suggest that it would be even more helpful for them to spend that money on something else that we need for the baby and that we would still have after the first couple of months.

Then again, if the diaper service allows us to still have our sanity (or some of it) after the first couple of months, that will be pretty priceless.

So, I'm looking for opinions. Have people found diaper services to be extremely useful? Useful enough to justify the expense when there are other things we need and when we do have a washer and dryer?

Thanks for your input.

Donna

[lalemma]

My in-laws were so kind as to buy us diaper service. I've enjoyed not having to do diaper laundry, but ultimately I think your analysis is right: doing your own laundry is just not that big of a hassle. And I found the diaper service actually pretty expensive: it seemed to me that by using a diaper service, you were basically back to the cost of disposables, but that probably varies per service/area.

[cocoanib]

We haven't done it yet, because baby is not born, but we decided against diaper service. I grew up seeing my Mom and sisters use cloth diapers, so it seems second nature to me.
We even thought about doing it for the first month, but decided against it. May as well save money and jump right in!

[momoftworedheads]

I would pick out the cloth diapers that you like and ask them to buy them for you. It is really easy to wash cloth dipes and much cheaper to buy them yourself. A service is expensive and then you'll still have to buy dipes anyway.

Good luck and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy,

Jen

[Pinoikoi]

My area just recently got a diaper service up and running. It is like $25 a week.. that seems pretty cheap to me really. I spent WAY MORE than that on my newborn and small stash that really didn't fit for all that long.. If I had to do it over again I would have gotten the diaper service until my babies could fit in medium/petite/onesize diapers and then home laundered from that point. Tiny dipes are so temporary.

That said, it doesn't make sense for me to do a service at this point since I already own all my tiny dipes.. (kept them from three kids ago).. my money was already invested then.

[Mariposa40]

Thanks everyone. One more question . . . how long will infant sized pre-fold last? I know one mom who told me that she is still using them on her 18 month old, but if I have a large baby (a distinct possibility -- I was 9 lbs 15 oz when I was born (granted I was also a month late), and everything seems to indicate that this little one may not be all that little), then will the infant prefolds that I have quickly become too small? Or is it mainly the diaper covers that I'll have to replace?

Donna

[changingseasons]

I loved having a diaper service for the first few months after DD was born. It was so easy to just throw the diapers in the bucket and not have to worry about it. Plus, it got DP used to the idea of cloth diapers and really saved us both a lot of time and energy that we needed learning the other 10,000,000 things that you learn with your first new baby.

I think the infant prefolds only lasted us a couple months (but DD was a pretty big baby), and then we moved into smalls. But yeah- the covers are the more important part- you can always add an extra infant prefold or a cloth insert if the babe is soaking through one of them.

[Pinoikoi]

Infant prefolds can last quite a while.. I think it is the newborn/preemie ones that are used for such a short time.. so yeah the covers would be changed out pretty quickly...

Infant prefolds can fit in both small and medium covers. They might be a bit bulky for newborn covers, depending.

[Ola_]

For me it would depend on how much the diaper service would cost and how many diapers you could buy for that amount (since you could use those for any future kiddos too). The prices seem to vary quite a bit from what I've read on here.

[Mariposa40]

Well, the only diaper service around here would cost about $80/month, and my parents are offering it for two months, so that would be $160. And that wouldn't include any diaper covers, so I'd have to get more of those, and a assume I'd have to wash them myself. So, the question is would $160 be better spent on some diapers and covers, or would I just end up spending that money (or more) and diapers that the baby would grow out of after a couple of months, and then still have to get more diapers later?

[Pinoikoi]

Originally Posted by Mariposa40

So, the question is would $160 be better spent on some diapers and covers, or would I just end up spending that money (or more) and diapers that the baby would grow out of after a couple of months, and then still have to get more diapers later?

Well, this newborn set up http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/packages.htm including covers is $181. A used set would be cheaper, but prefolds are heavy so probably not the big price difference that one would assume since shipping costs a bunch for them.

It is mostly newborn size prefolds- so then you would need to move up in size both the prefolds and the covers.

The cost savings of home washing imho is that you can save the diapers for the next baby (which is why I have a huge stash- I added more with each kiddo).. but I know lots of moms that resell each size to help them buy the next size up.

I would definitely have used a service had it been around for my first cd'd kiddo.. but once I invested the money in a stash it didn't make fiscal sense for me to use the service.

[Ola_]

Originally Posted by Mariposa40

Well, the only diaper service around here would cost about $80/month, and my parents are offering it for two months, so that would be $160. And that wouldn't include any diaper covers, so I'd have to get more of those, and a assume I'd have to wash them myself. So, the question is would $160 be better spent on some diapers and covers, or would I just end up spending that money (or more) and diapers that the baby would grow out of after a couple of months, and then still have to get more diapers later?

Personally I think that would be better spent on your own diapers, but it depends on how much you want to avoid washing. Not only can you use your own diapers for future babies, but the newborn ones make great doublers once baby is bigger.

Green Mountain prefolds are awesome and have those custom sizes. But I expect that a diaper service would just have standard "infant" prefolds. So if that is what you want to get, I'd recommend Little Lions to keep prices low (check out their seconds too): http://www.little-lions.com/ They have packages too, but if you choose seconds I think you can get a better price.

[Ellien C]

The only question I'd like to add to the mix is how convenient is your washer and dryer? Mine is "deep" in the basement of an old house -like down the stairs and through 2 areas. It's hard for me to get laundry done on a regular basis (main floor laundry is SUCH a good idea).

I did not walk up and down stairs well for the first month after giving birth so I'm not sure how I would have washed dipes. My mother was here for a couple of weeks after the birth and did all of our laundry (and she was like over 70) and I just remember DH and I looking at each other and wondering how it was going to get done.

So - for sure, with this baby, I will have a diaper service @ about $17/week. They have a $75 minimum order, so how ever long that lasts me. After that we'll assess. I only used cloth part-time after my first baby was a year old, so I'm really only covered for larger sizes. And even then, I think I was running home from work at lunch to "progress" laundry because I just couldn't get downstairs in the evenings when I had the baby. It was just nurse, eat dinner, nurse, pass out!

[Mariposa40]

[QUOTE/] Green Mountain prefolds are awesome and have those custom sizes. But I expect that a diaper service would just have standard "infant" prefolds. So if that is what you want to get, I'd recommend Little Lions to keep prices low (check out their seconds too): http://www.little-lions.com/ They have packages too, but if you choose seconds I think you can get a better price.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, all. I am definitely leaning towards just asking them to spend the money on cloth diapers. Have people had good luck with Little Lions? What about the seconds, have they basically been good quality?

[Addie]

I agree with the PPs that their money would be better spent on diapers. We've never used a diaper service. Something about it seems wasteful to me, and I like the idea of knowing where my diapers are and how they're being washed. I've been surprised that washing diapers at home is not a hassle at all.

We did almost all prefolds/covers when DS was a newborn. We used infant-sized unbleached Indian prefolds, and they were so cheap (we paid about $2/each) that we just bought a whole bunch. We have a big baby - born at 8 lbs 9 oz and has been in the 90-98th percentile ever since - and we had to upgrade to the premium size at about 2.5 months. But now they make great burp cloths!