Cloth Diapers? Yes, CLOTH DIAPERS!

I thought I'd grab just a minute this morning to blog about my new interest - cloth diapering :-). I have a friend from college who I have remained in contact with through the wonderful world of facebook who uses cloth on her kiddos and even keeps a great cloth diapering blog. Out of curiosity, I began to check it out here and there but didn't really think it was something I wanted to do...that is until one day I found myself reaching into D's closet to open up another pack of disposable diapers (at $15.99 a pack!) so I could change another diaper and throw it into the silly diaper pail - which needed to be emptied AGAIN! (Which reminded me, I was just about out of the diaper pail liners and probably needed to run to Babies R  Us to pick up another pack of those too.... they are about $17)

Anyway, it got me thinking about how frequently I have to pick up a pack of diapers when I'm out and how often I have to empty the dreaded stinky diaper pail and throw them out into the outside garbage. Now, I typically buy the best diapers I can for D (I am a huge fan of the Pampers Swaddlers for newborns and Pampers Cruisers for older babies) because my theory is, if I can spend an extra $2-3 a pack on something that is going to be more comfortable and less plastic"y" on D's bottom, then it is worth it. To me, buying the cheaper store brands is not worth the red marks they may leave on his legs or the diaper rash he tends to get more often without Pamper's "cloth like weave" on the inside. So, I typically spend about $15.99 for a pack of 52 Pampers Cruisers - this makes it about $0.30 a diaper...that I eventually throw away.

I am not going to do all the math on here for how much I am spending on diapers monthly or on how much I will spend in the next 18-24 months of D's diapering life. It is A LOT though...there are plenty of websites that do the math for you -it is well OVER $2000 per child! 

All this got me thinking about using some cloth diapers. I read all over my friend's blog and then starting looking into some cloth diapering websites about what kids of diapers there are, how much they cost, how you wash them, etc...I decided to order a sample pack and give it a try. So far, I LOVE them. First of all, they are adorable and go on just like a disposable. The fabric up against D's bottom is so soft and whisks the urine right away into the microfiber super absorbent layer beneath it, so no real wetness stays against his skin. It is great! I found the detergent that works with cloth diapers at the commissary and it was pretty cheap too, yay!  Washing them hasn't been a hassle either - one short cold wash or rinse, one nice long hot wash (which includes an extra rinse) and I'm done. Anyway, the point of all this is that I think cloth diapering can be pretty great. I ordered two more of a different brand the other day and then bought two more off a woman in my neighborhood whose kids were potty trained and no longer needed their wonderful quality cloth diapers! There are several different kinds of cloth diapers, but so far I have only experimented with ones that are very similar to disposables. They have either velcro or snaps and have the absorbent part and the waterproof part are all attached. This eliminates the need for an additional waterproof cover. I would be happy to tell you all about the exact diapers I have and have just ordered if you care to know :-)

So, thats my new interest! So far, I am loving have something so soft on D's bottom and loving not having to buy nearly as many disposables (at the moment, I am still using them because I don't have a large enough cloth stash to go all day, haha), plus, I am doing something good for the environment and making purchases that I can use on subsequent children ;-) Yay!