Brynn in her "wild" cloth diaper taken 3 months ago!
We started using cloth on Brynn at about 3 weeks of age. Prior to then she was too small to comfortably fit as we use one-size diapers that should fit up to 35lbs. And she was too big for the extra small diapers we made. To be fair we still only use cloth during the day and switch to disposable or paper diapers as I like to call them at night or when we travel.
Oma and I sewed all of her diapers and we have about 21 diapers and 40 bamboo inserts (which I purchase through a co-op).
Using cloth (even part time) has a number of benefits.
1. Cost. Even though there is a "start-up" cost making your own significantly reduces this. After the initial cost we rarely have to put purchase paper diapers. They "say" babies will have 10-12 dirty/wet diapers a day in the beginning and 6-8 as they get older but the truth is you go through a lot more diapers than just 6-8. There are many times I use at least 2 diapers per change (I think the record is 4!) because she'll pee as she's being changed or poop immediately after.. And since no parent is going to knowingly let their baby have a dirty diaper.. you change them again and the cycle continues. Thus 6-8 diapers turns into 10+ very quickly.
2. Rashes. Brynn has only had three diaper rashes and both came after sleeping in dirty paper diapers. Both rashes cleared up in about a day with Earth Momma Angel Baby diaper cream and only using cloth. The cream is expensive but worth it.
3. Cuteness. Cloth diapers are so much cuter than paper!
4. Environmental cost. Paper diapers don't breakdown in the landfill for a guesstimated 250 years. I always feel guilty bringing my bag of dirty diapers to the garbage can! Even though cloth diapers use energy to clean the cost is only about $1.40 (taken from a cloth diaper website) per load and in the summer I used the sun to dry the diapers so the cost is only about $0.45.
5. Potty Training. Kids who use cloth diapers potty train quicker because they are used to the feeling is being wet vs the dry feeling paper diapers give them.
The biggest deterrent for people to use cloth is having to clean them. You can get a service to clean your diaper but then you have to use a type of diaper called covers and pre-folds which we don't use.
I find cleaning diaper to not be a big deal at all! All I have to do is throw them in the wash (we have an commercial grade top loader which came with the duplex which is actually better than front loaders to wash dipes) with a cold cycle then a hot cycle with County Save soap then hang them to dry. The diapers dry in a few hours and the inserts take about 24 hours which is fine because I have double the amount I need. When I was using my clothes line outside everything dried in hours and the sun bleached all the stains away. Easy. It can't take more than 5 minutes of my time.
If anyone ever has any questions about cloth diapers (or wants me to make them a few!) ask away.
