Advice About Cloth AIO or Pocket Diapers

A.,
I prefer AIO's... but that could be because I make them :). I found that I had a hard time stuffing pockets and that if I didn't unstuff them to wash that I couldn't get the inner liner all the way clean. Since I use fleece as an inner layer on my AIO's and my liners snap in, they are quick drying, the absorbancy is customizeable and I don't have to stuff or unstuff anything... I don't even unsnap the liner to wash or dry them.

I have not used any of the brands you are considering but I have heard good things about all of them.

If you want to email me for more information/to ask more questions about cloth my email is : ____@____.com

Hope switching to cloth goes well for you... I love it!

A.

It's very surprising that people would try to talk you out of this decision. Research does not show that disposables are more friendly than cloth. Companies who manufacture disposables funded these studies! ANyway, we like Fuzzi Bunz and Bumgenius.... I think I like Fuzzi Bunz better. I haven't tried the others you mentioned.

We use FuzziBuns and prefolds with covers.

We tried gDiapers but found them difficult.

I have 2 children (young adults now)and I used cloth diapers through "Diatey Services." I don't know if they are still around, but each of my children experienced 1 diaper rash. It can be a little work with using cloth diapers, because you have to dispose of the poop and rinse the diaper, have a container, etc. But, when we went out I used disposable. I thought it was well worth it and I was a working mom! I hope this information helps.

J. R

BumGenius is what we are using for our 3 month old, based on recommendation from my sister-in-law who uses these and HappyH's for her 1 year old. She thought we should start with BG's while we are doing a lot of changes, and then maybe add a few HH's into the rotation for longer nights as he gets older since these are supposed to absorb more. I don't remember the reasoning, but so far this has been working for us. Really dirty diapers require some hand scrubbing and/or bleach, which must have some adverse environmental impacts (!), but it's really the only way to get new-baby poop out. We're not at the stage where poop "shakes off" easily into the toilet, so we use an old sink in the basement. Plain old urine diapers are easy -- just pop them into a washing machine rinse cycle with others, then wash. For just-urine diapers we often even skip the rinse cycle. Since this is the only diaper system we've ever used, it's not that big of a deal. And we do use disposable when traveling, or when expecting a big/long over-due poop...

I wonder if the first reply took the water/energy/raw materials used in the manufacture of disposables in her research? You are supposed to shake the poop out of disposables - read the package.

here is a link to a (pro-cloth) article. http://www.diaperpin.com/clothdiapers/article_diaperdrama...

We use BumGenius and love them. Also know of a few moms who love fuzzibunz, but you'll need different sized of those (so a bigger investment up front.) We have saved a lot of $ by using cloth, in addition to the enviro savvy aspect.

You do need to be careful about washing and selecting a laundry soap. The wrong soap can build up on your dipes and cause them to leak.

Today's cloth dipes are so easy and are a great chioce for the health of your baby, your budget and Earth. Good luck.

Hi A.,

It has been a long time since I have had to decide on diapers. I just wanted to let you know of a "go Green" company that has excellent detergents that are not harmful to you and or your children! I use the detergent, which does not have the harsh fillers, and they also have a whitening agent, that does not contain bleach. They have a great variety of products. Check it out. www.melaleuca.com. You will see two prices, the (pc) price is for preferred customers and at a great savings. If you would like to enroll in this store as a preferred customer, let me know, I can hook you up. Thanks, a good luck!
G.

We have used BumGenius for 2 years now with great success. They are convenient in that the baby can wear them out in public and they are easy to keep clean. We have had 12 that have lasted a year and a half. BumGenius is also a great company in that when we had a problem with the elastic wearing out in a couple of our older diapers they were replaced for free. We use the same diapers for both our 2 year old and 2 month old because they are sizeable.

Hi A.,

My kids are all grown now (early 20's), but I used cloth diapers as well as disposable. I just felt that my babies were more comfortable having cloth against them rather that the other. I used disposables when we were away from home. You have to change the cloth diapers more, but I always enjoyed making my babies smell good and feel comfortable. As far as cleaning them, sometimes I rinsed them out myself with some good soapy water (baby friendly), but the best thing I ever did was to have a diaper service pick them up weekly. It was no more cost that paying for disposables. And I felt like I kept some of the waste out of our landfills.

As far as the brand, I was gifted with most of mine; so I used what I had. The babies didn't seem to mind.

I have such sweet memories of sitting on my couch folding freshly laundered, warm diapers! And I still have my old diaper pins that I've placed in their baby books!

u can buy Allen soap or Charlie s soap on line. just like where u buy the cloth diaper online :o)

i use walmart's brand (parent's choice) organic diaper wipes.. it is 100% biodegradable. and cheaper too.

Just wanted to note after seeing the first response that for every year a baby is in disposable diapers a half ton of waste is added to landfills...every year, for one baby! I too felt great concern over this and I AM one of those earth-cruchies who KNOWS how damaging the pollution from landfills truely is. There are other options. There are tons of natural biodegradable detergents out there, energy saving washers and techniques...you just have to look into it! There are also some great new disposables out there that claim to be biodegradable and compostable (Nature Babycare, Tushies: both available at 1800Diapers.com). They are more expensive than traditional disposables, but so are cloth. Either way, it's great that you are doing something to better the environment for all babies! Good luck!

Just some food for thought... I did all the research when my daughter was young. Believe it or not, if you add up all the chemicals and hot water (grey water back into the ground, the processing of it, etc. included), heating of the hot water, etc., etc., that it takes to clean and maintain cloth diapers, disposables are actually more green!

Have you considered trying to find a "greener" disposable?