07 February 2013

Cloth Diapering // The FINAL Review

I have been engaged in some sort of cloth diapering for roughly five years. That's a lot of years of hauling dirty diapers downstairs to wash. A lot of years of soaking stinky poopy diapers in the toilet. A lot of years of leaky diapers and wet clothes.

BUT, despite my negative attitude lately, I loved cloth diapering my kids. They looked adorable in cloth diapers. We saved money. We threw away less trash. And for all of those things, I am thankful. I wrote a series of posts about cloth diapering awhile ago focusing on the benefits and the drawbacks.

Although I know cloth diapering isn't for everyone, I'm glad the re-usable diapers have made a come back in recent years. Five and a half years ago, a handful of companies made cloth diapering systems - the most popular of which was Fuzi Bunz. We bought 18 medium-sized diapers and a pale. For the first three months after Benny was born, we used a diapering service since the diapers we bought didn't fit (we didn't want to invest in small diapers since he would only be in them for a few months). We followed the same plan for Lila.

Now there are hundreds of cloth diapering systems - all of which are probably better than the diapers we used.

With Benny, we noticed that he leaked a lot when he slept in the cloth diapers, so we used disposable at night. We also used disposable while traveling. Since our night-time and travelling system worked well for us, we did the same thing with Lila. It's not that we're completely opposed to disposables, but we used far less than we would have otherwise.


I would recommend cloth diapers to any new parents. I used them when I stayed at home with the kids and when I worked full-time. Other than the whole "handling human waste" issue, the positives outweigh the negatives!

2 comments:

arodeofamily said...

I am using cloth diapers with Whitney. Wished I would have used them with my older two girls. I also love them! Do you have a good stripping method?? My diapers seem to have developed an ordor even with clean. Any advice??

life's a bear said...

Glad you're liking them! Yes, to strip, you just need to rinse in a hot water cycle several times. Rinse until there are no suds in the water. It usually took me 3 or 4 rinses. I stripped the diapers every 3-6 months, depending on the stink factor. Stripping also helps with absorption. Love reading about your family!