Benefits of Cloth Diapering? - Page 2

[*Amy*]

You guys are so awesome! I am definitely leaning strongly toward CDing after reading all of your experiences. I hadn't talked to my best friend about it (she has a 4-year old, who used sposies) but she said this today:

I read online that there has been an increase in male infertility and
one theory is disposable diapers. They did some test where they checked
the temperature of boy's testes and they were warmer in disposable
diapers that had plastic/elastic around the thighs to keep it
snug.

Dang! She said she does plan to use CD's with her next child (she's TTC) but not til the baby is around 3 months old because infant poo is so messy and explosive, and she thinks sposies may work better. I told her that y'all found that CD's are actually better at containing the toxic waste. Is this true even with newborns?

Guess I need to start introducing myself over on the diapering forums.

[*Amy*]

Alison, do you have any friends, or even acquaintences who have washing machines in their home? Maybe you could offer to pay them a set amount of money each week to do a couple of loads at their house?

[bec]

Hi, Amy. I haven't read the replies yet, but wanted to chime in. I have cloth diapered with both of my kids, and plan to with this one as well.

With my first, I used a diaper service for about 9 months until I got my feet under me. Then I got my own dipes, and never looked back.

I like that it is much more environmentally friendly. I'm using cloth wipes as well, so I'm not adding anything to the landfills.

Also, although it is a large initial investment (although it can be somewhat mitigated if you use prefolds and 2nds, or buy second hand or find someone who will pass their old dipes on to you), it is still far cheaper than disposables in the long run. My SIL and I passed the same diapers and covers back and forth between 5 babies before some of them wore out! Also, if you plan on having more than one baby, you will not have to buy new diapers for the second.

The down side of cloth diapers is that it makes for a lot of laundry. I try to wash diapers every day or every other day. It's just a lot of schlepping up and down stairs (now if I had my washer at the changing table, I'd be set! :LOL ).


Bec

[crayon]

Hi- I am from the March board, but thought I would tell you about my CDing

We have 2 DD's and both have been totally cloth diapered from birth. For clothing a newborn you need to have lots of dipers, because they pee all the time :LOL We like wool in my house but I have been using plastic type covers- pull ups and wraps for my newest baby (12 days old). She is a huge peer and seems to soak my wool like crazy. My older DD is 2 and she wears wool 100% of the time. If you have the money I think as a new mama unsure of cloth diapering I would go with a good fitting fitted or AIO- one that will keep the newborn runny poop in the dipe- I have found that prefolds are not the best at this for a newborn stage. You can get good prices on used fitted and AIOs on the TP or on ebay.

We cloth because it is easy, cheap and healthy. We could never put those chemicals next to our girls genitals. We are on the road a lot, and move across the country 2 times and our older daughter has never had a disposable diaper on- our newest daughter has never either, and never will- however we have never traveled with her yet. We are planning on a trip 10 hours away next month and we are bring all our cloth.

Also my friend just moved 600 miles away from where she was living and for the car ride she got a pack of sposies and she said she hated them and so did her son- he was very fussy when she changed him and he is never like that. So, I guess that shows how much they itch and get hot and are just not comfy on a soft little butt.

The way I think of it is- would I want to wear depends for 2-3 years everyday or have cotton on my butt??

[liliesandliars]

*timidly raises hand* Where are the cloth diapering forums that you ladies were talking about?

[BethHG]

I use cd 3/4 of the time with my 2yo, at least. I may not use them when I'm not feeling well (flu season), trips, bedtime, am behind in laundry, or going out for more than a couple of hours. My ds sometimes still pees right through his diapers, so I have to use sposies for my own sanity so that I don't have to change his clothes all the time. He is starting to grow out of that stage, so we do use cd most of the time now. We really need some other diapers which is another reason why we use the sposies sometimes, and we just don't have the money for any more cds right now. We do get by with what we have though.

My ds does develop a rash if we put sposies on him too much, so we try to keep it minimal.