Never say never! This could not ring more true than with cloth diapering. I never ever ever EVER would have imagined that I would be that mama who would use cloth, but here I am in all my crunchy glory.
Prior to Bigfoot's birth, I had a few friends dabbling in cloth. So, these lovely ladies are the ones who struck my curiosity. Not to mention, their littles and their fluffy bums were so adorable! I couldn't say no just yet. I started looking into cloth on my own and thought I would at least give it a try since there was a whole cloth diapering community that swore by these cute diapers.
So, here are a few of the reasons I fell for these cute fluffs for my boys.
1. Our budget and cloth are buddies. We bought our little diaper stash prior to Bigfoot's debut and we still use those bad-boys today. They grew with him from infancy to toddlerhood. I have never known what it feels like to buy diapers weekly or bi-monthly, which plays nice with my personality. Early on we set aside some of the baby gift money we had received and TADA! We were set!
All together I think we have spent close to $550 for diapers. This includes everything we got for Bigfoot and the dozen more we have gotten for Linus. I think that's a pretty good deal for going on diapering two littles two and under. Our actual overall out of pocket is really around $175 since we used money that was gifted to us. Pretty sweet! Check out this site and this one too for cost breakdown visuals.
2. Easy Peasy. Now, I know not everyone thinks so, but they were for us! Maybe it's because we started with one-sizes and moved into pre-folds/covers? Or, maybe cloth and I were just meant to be? Haha. Regardless, cloth diapering has worked for us and easily thus far. Sure, we've had some occasions where troubleshooting was necessary, but a little research at any cloth diaper forum/blog and I've found a multitude of lovely people who have been there, done that, and have lived to share.
3. Husband approved! In fact, my husband prefers cloth diapers. At first, he was hesitant, but loved the money-saving factor. He was on-board to start for that reason alone. And, for the most part, he can handle his own in the cloth world. Honestly, the handful of times we've used sposies GeekMan has always said something that has hinted towards missing our cloth stash .
And, not only is he a fan of our cloth stash; he is majorly a fan of cloth wipes.
Cloth forthewin for the GeekMan in my life!
3. Poopsplosions and/or leaks have been RARE. Throughout the two years that I have been cloth-diapering, I can just about count poopsplosions on both my hands. That is awesome! And leaks are a close second with about another two-three hands. Normally, if either of these problems happen, a little troubleshooting on how the diapers are fitting, maybe they need a strip, or something else of the like needs to be fixed. Look it up, fix the problem, and ON-CLOTH-WARD!
I know a good deal of people think of POO when they think of cloth, but I honestly haven't touched so much poop as I have when dealing with poopsplosions/leaks from sposies (the same sposies that have a note explaining that all poo should be dumped in toilets and not in trash - see, there is some poo-handling with sposies too, or should be.).
When it comes to "disposing" of the diaper, breastfed infant poo is water-soluble so I just dump those stinkers straight in our dirty bin, whole-like. As for big boy poo's, I dump those bad boys in the toilet, and then proceed to dump the dipe in our dirty-diaper bin. Done! No poo touched or at least no more than sposies IMHO.
4. They are CUTE!
See what I'm talkin' about?? SO CUTE!
5. I'm saving the planet! {Insert my SuperMama ego here} Well not really, but sort of! At the end of the day, cloth is cloth. You know what you're getting. No surprises. No chemicals. No landfills being filled. I've never been one to stress about landfills and chemicals and such (I know, I'm horrible), but since starting our cloth journey, I've been a smidge more thoughtful about it all.
For instance, because we are using cloth, regular diaper creams are not our friend. In turn, I learned the awesomeness of a few specific essential oils and coconut/olive oil! Now, Bum cream = au natural! I know that's just something small, but learning about the essential oils helped when we had our bad case of Thrush (with both boys!), works well in laundry, awesome for a cloth wipe solution, and a few other small home to-dos.
So, there you have it friends, we cloth diaper! Head on over to Moxie Wife to see some other wonderful favorites!
1. Our budget and cloth are buddies. We bought our little diaper stash prior to Bigfoot's debut and we still use those bad-boys today. They grew with him from infancy to toddlerhood. I have never known what it feels like to buy diapers weekly or bi-monthly, which plays nice with my personality. Early on we set aside some of the baby gift money we had received and TADA! We were set!
All together I think we have spent close to $550 for diapers. This includes everything we got for Bigfoot and the dozen more we have gotten for Linus. I think that's a pretty good deal for going on diapering two littles two and under. Our actual overall out of pocket is really around $175 since we used money that was gifted to us. Pretty sweet! Check out this site and this one too for cost breakdown visuals.
2. Easy Peasy. Now, I know not everyone thinks so, but they were for us! Maybe it's because we started with one-sizes and moved into pre-folds/covers? Or, maybe cloth and I were just meant to be? Haha. Regardless, cloth diapering has worked for us and easily thus far. Sure, we've had some occasions where troubleshooting was necessary, but a little research at any cloth diaper forum/blog and I've found a multitude of lovely people who have been there, done that, and have lived to share.
3. Husband approved! In fact, my husband prefers cloth diapers. At first, he was hesitant, but loved the money-saving factor. He was on-board to start for that reason alone. And, for the most part, he can handle his own in the cloth world. Honestly, the handful of times we've used sposies GeekMan has always said something that has hinted towards missing our cloth stash .
And, not only is he a fan of our cloth stash; he is majorly a fan of cloth wipes.
Cloth forthewin for the GeekMan in my life!
3. Poopsplosions and/or leaks have been RARE. Throughout the two years that I have been cloth-diapering, I can just about count poopsplosions on both my hands. That is awesome! And leaks are a close second with about another two-three hands. Normally, if either of these problems happen, a little troubleshooting on how the diapers are fitting, maybe they need a strip, or something else of the like needs to be fixed. Look it up, fix the problem, and ON-CLOTH-WARD!
I know a good deal of people think of POO when they think of cloth, but I honestly haven't touched so much poop as I have when dealing with poopsplosions/leaks from sposies (the same sposies that have a note explaining that all poo should be dumped in toilets and not in trash - see, there is some poo-handling with sposies too, or should be.).
When it comes to "disposing" of the diaper, breastfed infant poo is water-soluble so I just dump those stinkers straight in our dirty bin, whole-like. As for big boy poo's, I dump those bad boys in the toilet, and then proceed to dump the dipe in our dirty-diaper bin. Done! No poo touched or at least no more than sposies IMHO.
4. They are CUTE!
5. I'm saving the planet! {Insert my SuperMama ego here} Well not really, but sort of! At the end of the day, cloth is cloth. You know what you're getting. No surprises. No chemicals. No landfills being filled. I've never been one to stress about landfills and chemicals and such (I know, I'm horrible), but since starting our cloth journey, I've been a smidge more thoughtful about it all.
For instance, because we are using cloth, regular diaper creams are not our friend. In turn, I learned the awesomeness of a few specific essential oils and coconut/olive oil! Now, Bum cream = au natural! I know that's just something small, but learning about the essential oils helped when we had our bad case of Thrush (with both boys!), works well in laundry, awesome for a cloth wipe solution, and a few other small home to-dos.
So, there you have it friends, we cloth diaper! Head on over to Moxie Wife to see some other wonderful favorites!
My husband is so funny about cloth diapers since we started more than 4 years ago - he's so disdainful of disposable diapers and doesn't understand why anyone uses them! Gotta love the daddy converts :)
ReplyDeleteRosie, thanks for visiting!
ReplyDeleteMy husband is the same way! He gets easily irritated when using disposable wipes (especially) and diapers (literally have only used them in the first month for both boys to go through gifted diapers, once while we were having baby #2, and maybe twice for travel). He's a big efficiency guy, so he finds them to be uber wasteful. I do love daddy support!
Also, just have to say, you are a mama-hero! Four kiddos, four and under, with twins!? I feel like I'm still in survival mode with my 2 that are two and under! Prayers for a great weekend!