How do I convince my husband to be open to cloth diapering? « Back to Group Discussions

[babychak]

He's totally disgusted by the idea of having diapers share our washing machine with our clothes/other stuff. This is our first baby, and I have to admit that the idea grosses me out a little, too, but it can't be THAT bad otherwise millions of people wouldn't do it! How do I convince him to at least be open to trying it out???

[finnegansmom]

The diapers comes out clean, therefore the machine is clean upon final rinse.  It really is.

And you can always spray the diapers into the toilet first if you want, or soak them in a pail and flush that water down the toilet if it's really an issue for him.

Even if you use disposables, it's a 100% guarantee that there is going to be baby poop and urine in your washing machine, unless you are going to toss every onsie and sleeper that encounters an accident.

[Bella Catalina]

Yeah, disposable diapers = lots of blowouts. Like out the legs, all the way up the back and even out the arms blowouts. Nasty. I had my fair share of those with DS1 before we switched to cloth at 3mths. So regardless, there will be poop in your washing machine, as Michelle said above.

Once the baby starts solids, you can usually shake those poops right off into the toilet anyway (fleece liners make this very easy), and a diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet is great, too.

Honestly, to convince my DH, I needed to hit him with the cost comparison--we spent about $300 on our stash (& could have gone cheaper but chose pockets over prefolds), and that was about 1/5 of what we'd send on sposies over diapering one baby (back in 2006). It's probably more expensive for sposies now.

The savings nudged him in the right direction, but it wasn't until I told him about the chemicals in sposies and the potential fertility issues later, among other things, that he really paid attention and got on board. Now he cannot stand the smell of sposies, even the "natural" ones.

[finnegansmom]

Originally Posted by Bella Catalina 

The savings nudged him in the right direction, but it wasn't until I told him about the chemicals in sposies and the potential fertility issues later, among other things, that he really paid attention and got on board. Now he cannot stand the smell of sposies, even the "natural" ones.

That was a big thing for us, maybe the most important.  I do try to save money over disposable but I have had gone through my lapses in self control where I am binging on wool and custom diapers.  With 3 kids now I'm so busy I don't have the freetime to spend drooling at hyenacart which is great for the wallet.  I will be buying one size diapers and will hopefully be able to use a lot of my current's baby's but since those are already hand me downs, some might not make it for another 3+ years.  But in all honestly, I probably could make it work (based on on PFs alone) and could seriously diaper this new baby for $0 just reusing ones we already have.  I think I'm going to end up buying 1-2 dozen OS diapers (bumgenius) and that's it.  Even spending $400 for diapers for 2-3 years is amazing IMO.

[sere234]

Originally Posted by finnegansmom 

Even spending $400 for diapers for 2-3 years is amazing IMO.

Totally agree!

[junebug1]

the diapers wash separately from other clothes, so there really isn't an issue.   we do a cold rinse first, then start the machine over for a full cycle (hot wash, cold rinse) w/soap.  by the time that has all finished, the machine is perfectly clean.  and, like the others have said, using a diaper sprayer gets rid of most of the solids before the diapers even hit the machine.

good luck.  we've got three in cloth diapers and love them.

[QMtwins]

The money thing really hit my DH. 

He and my sister both needed to be shown how to rinse them out in the toilet with the sprayer (which, seriously, you can't figure that out on your own?!!) but they are both fine now! 

Its jsut amazing how much pee and poop on your hands or your own clothes or anywhere else just isn't that big of a deal after a while!

Our washer has a sanitary cycle and so most washes of our diapers we don't even use soap.  Its jsut really hot water and the dryer.  We have a HE washer and it seems that since there is so little water being used, it doesn't rinse well and ends up with residue and stinkiness on the diapers. 

We were lucky enough to have lots of diapers loaned to us by friends so we tried a lot of styles out.  DH really liked pocket diapers and the AIOs, so we ended up using fuzzi bunz.  Once they are put together/stuffed they go on just like a disposable.  I think he found that pretty easy.

You could just get them and start using them...and see what he does!  Good luck! 

[babychak]

Has anyone used a diaper service? I'm thinking that could be a good happy medium for us. 

[Marissamom]

the cost thing is huge fore us. especially with multiple kids in diapers. we did disposables until our first was 9 months, so poop in the washer was totally not an issue by that point. with disposables you end up with poop all over their clothes all the time. DD used to have at least one blowout a day. if it's really an issue, you could consider hand-washing or using a camp-style washer made of a bucket and plunger. 

[Marissamom]

diaper services can be good or bad. some use large amounts of bleach, carting the diapers back and forth has a higher environmental cost, sometimes it ends up being close to as expensive as disposables, and since most only do pickup once a week your diaper pail will start to smell pretty bad. it all depends on what about cloth diapering is most important to you and how your service washes the diapers. 

[babychak]

I think I've convinced him to try it out - the cost savings was what did it for him, too (he's a financial analyst ;)).

[HoosierMusicMommy]

I'm working on convincing my DH too.  The biggest issue is that I really hate doing laundry, so he does most of it! :)  He doesn't want to be responsible for washing diapers, but I at least want to try it.  I think I might start with something really inexpensive (buying 2nd hands, prefolds with covers and Sunbaby OS) and just see how it goes during the newborn stage.   It's really not too much of an investment at least at that point.

The bigger issue is when I go back to work.  Has anyone had any success with a babysitter/daycare and cloth diapering?

[Bmorefarmgirl]

All-in-ones or all-in-twos are great for babysitters and daycare. I have gotten great deals on them at diaper swappers.com. We started out very cheaply with prefolds and 3 diaper covers that I hand-washed when they got dirty. Slowly built up my stash in the last year. My son is now 2 and we have about a dozen AIO/AI2. I wish that's all we had!

But yes, start off cheap, and build as you go. That way you can try different things for a very small investment.

[Bella Catalina]

I'm happy to hear he's willing to try it out :) 

You know, I try not to use bleach often (I do bleach my diapers once every month or so, though), but if he's really grossed out, you could always run an empty rinse cycle with a bit of bleach after a diaper load, too. Probably not incredibly environmentally conscious as far as water usage, but still much better than disposables sitting in a landfill...

Many daycares will use cloth--you may need to call around a little, though. And obviously the easier diapers are AIO's. Most babysitters don't have a problem with it, either, especially if you show them how to use them.

[nemrac917]

Our solution won't be any help.   The only way hubs would agree was to have a separate washer.  In a way it'll be nice, as we can use that one for animal stuff, too.  Plus, the washer that came with the house would be a PITA for a separate rinse cycle (it's a completely sep. cycle, so I'd have to set a timer and go downstairs to restart the washer), whereas my washer has the option to add extra rinse cycles to any of the regular cycles... much easier!!