Is it worth it financially to start cloth-diapering a one-year old?

Vilate - posted on 04/21/2009

i use only wool for my baby's pants and shorts and soakers for under sleepers. I have 4 longies and a couple pair of shorties and then 2 soakers for night use. my little one loves her woolies and doesn't want to wear the jeans we have for her. Hope this helps!

Sierra - posted on 04/20/2009

Well i have only ever had between three and five covers total. three was just fine for me! with wool you don't need to wash it very often (it's so cool! not smelly at all). I hadn't washed mine in a week but my son's poo-splosion tonight changed that! but when you are using fitteds in general, except for the occasional blowout, you can pretty much use the same PUL cover all day and wool all week because the fitted keeps poo in so only pee touches the cover! and wool works some magic with pee and tada no smell!

Anne-Odile - posted on 04/20/2009

Thank you all for the info. This is very helpful. If I go with some bamboo diapers, which I want to try, how many covers do you need? Especially if you choose wool covers.



Thanks.

Rachelle - posted on 04/15/2009

I think it is totally worth it!! You will save money in the long run.  Make sure you rinse those diapers clean and give it a go.  I agree with starting with a few and I would recomend natural fibers rather than synthetic. 

Good Luck

Vilate - posted on 04/14/2009

I think that it would be, like the previous post says you will spend like $1,000 + with disposables.  But my MIL said she heard the other day that they did some # crunching and said the the difference is more than that.  she heard that you will spend abt. $500 on CD's with the detergent and water you use and over $2000 on disposable diapers.  That is a ton huh? 

With your babies sensitive skin though I would suggest a couple things.  First I would find a fitted, not an AIO or a PUL cover.  they don't let the babies skin breath enough and she will get rashes.  A fitted is totally breathable.  Then, because they need a cover I would go wool the wool is amazing and naturally breathable.  The more air flow to your babies bum the better.  the less moisture that is trapped against her skin the worse the rashes will be.  Then I would make sure you are using a detergent that doesn't have any enzymes in it.  The enzymes are made to "eat" the bacteria to clean the clothes, but the enzymes don't know the difference between the bacteria on the clothes and the bacteria on the baby's bum, so it will literally "eat" the baby's bum, creating a terrible rash.  I have a list of enzyme free and CD safe detergents on my web page.  http://www.niftynappybyvilate.weebly.com

you will also find more info on types of diapers and wool too.  good luck and let us know what you decide.

Sierra - posted on 04/14/2009

i don't want to contradict Anna but i have heard that in rare cases Charlies causes severe rashes but you can read about it and see a big list of detergents to use here:

http://pinstripesandpolkadots.com/deterg...

Sierra - posted on 04/14/2009

i don't want to contradict Anna but i have heard that in rare cases Charlies causes severe rashes but you can read about it and see a big list of detergents to use here:

http://pinstripesandpolkadots.com/deterg...

Anna - posted on 04/14/2009

We use Fuzzi Bunz and by my calculations, buying 24 (enough to last us about 3 days between washing) was equal to buying about 4-5 months worth of disposables. So you would definitely recoup your costs and save money in the end. I would be willing to guess that 7th generation diapers cost more, so your payoff would come even sooner. Try Charlie's Soap (popular natural detergent that a lot of cloth diaper stores carry) for washing the diapers. Maybe that will help with your daughter's rashes. Also, make sure the diapers are rinsed REALLY well so there isn't soap residue that is irritating her skin. Good luck!

Sierra - posted on 04/14/2009

oh and bum genuis makes a bamboo fitted and since your baby's already one you may only need to buy one size (med is 15-22 lbs and L is 22-30lbs) and be done with it. you can see them here:

http://wildflowerdiapers.com/store/pc/vi...

and if you're not sure you want to use fitteds let me assure you they re just as easy as pockets. my stash is about 50 50 pockets and fitteds and i love both!

Good luck!!

Sierra - posted on 04/14/2009

Financially I think you could still make it work for you as you still have another year (and close to $1000, especially if you're using 7th gen) or so to go. And since your baby is prone to rashes even with disposables i would like to recommend that you try bamboo. It is the most gentle material and parents who have exhausted every other type of material find that Bamboo is the only one that doesnt' cause irritation on very sensitive babies. If you bought a set of one sized fitted diapers that would be all you need. they are a little more pricey but i think you'll find it's worth it for baby! The other thing i wanted to stress is that diapers have a REALLY high resale value so you don't have to make a huge commitment if you're not sure yet. i would just buy a few bamboo fitteds and a Thirsties diaper cover and see if you like them.  if not resell them on craigslist, myuseddiapers.com, or diaperswappers.com.

Take a look at some bamboo diapers:

http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info...

http://www.kellyscloset.com/Baby-BeeHind...

Karen - posted on 04/14/2009

You could start slow - no need to buy a whole stash at once. Just add one or two and cut down a little on the number of disposable. And as Lisa said CDs are supposed to have a good resale value, so you may be able to recoup some of the cost.... I have no personal experience with that and have no idea how I'd go about it!

Another alternative would be a diaper service if there is one in your area.... that might work out better for you.

Lisa - posted on 04/14/2009

For me it was... I had wanted to cd my oldest, but husband wasn't on board and didn't relent until our third. By then I had my oldest in Goodnite's,  a 19 month old and a 5 month old who was very sensitive to disposables so switching to cloths saved us  $100 a month which as you know adds up to quite a bit over  years time and got rid of my baby's rash.  Now, only have my youngest  is in diapers and once he is potty trained (hopefully soon) I intend to keep my favorites and sell off the rest of my stash and get back a good portion of what I put into it!!! So it was definitely worth it for me... Good luck!!