new cloth diapers

It's been a little over five years since I bought 36 premium size prefolds, which were our first cloth diapers. Since then we've used them on all three of our kids and they've been in constant use other than vacations, some bad diaper rash cases, and a few times when I didn't feel like using cloth for a few days. Unfortunately they're getting so worn out now that there are holes in them, so I decided it was time to invest in some new ones and I bought 24 premiums from Cotton Babies. I think the old prefolds came already shrunk because when I saw our new ones I almost freaked out because they were so big they would fit an adult. I knew they are supposed to shrink after being washed a few times, but I had to email Cotton Babies for reassurance that they would shrink enough. I ended up pre-washing only half of them because I wanted to make sure that if they didn't shrink enough I could at least return the other package. After six washes/rounds in the dryer, the new prefolds are maybe four inches shorter and they're much more quilty/puffy. In the picture below you can see one of the washed prefolds compared to the ones I haven't opened yet. They probably shrunk three or four inches, which is pretty interesting. They're also much softer than our old prefolds ever were. I know cloth diapering isn't for everyone, but by this point we've saved a few thousand dollars using them, and when you're living on a graduate student's stipend that's a big deal.

[I was looking through my drafts and found this one that I apparently didn't publish.]

Heidi will be eight months old next week. She has found some new vocalizations. She can do the Indian sound by bouncing her hand on her mouth, and she will say "Bababababa." She also will look at you and say, "Hah," then pause, then repeat, several times. I guess Ryan also won the race, because she's taken to saying Dadadadada. Her first tooth just barely started popping through on Tuesday. She waves her hands in excitement when she sees someone she loves.

She loves eating solid foods, although she still doesn't eat a lot quantity-wise, mainly because I'm so busy chasing Kevin that I don't think about giving her food. She figured out the whole chewing  food up thing pretty quickly, so we haven't done a lot of pureed food except for applesauce. At dinner time I just give her small pieces of things like cooked carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, and bananas. She's even figuring out how to do pincer grabbing, which means no crumbs on the floor go unnoticed (or untasted!). One day I was mortified to find her happily chewing on one of my old laptop keys.

Heidi has also for the most part converted to a full-on crawl, and she's already pretty fast. I don't think she'll be walking within the next week, but I think it will likely happen within the next couple of months.  She can balance for a few seconds on her feet without help, but once she realizes what she's doing she sits down or leans forward so you'll catch her.

We used disposable diapers last weekend to try to get rid of some awful diaper rashes. We put all the prefolds through several rinse cycles without water. I don't know if it's soap build-up or if diaper rash germs get caught in the prefolds, but there have been a few times (in over two years of cloth diapering--so not too bad) where this has happened, and doing several rinses was what seemed to fix it. On the one hand, I quickly realized that's it's sort of nice to be able to just fold up the disposable diaper and stick it in the trash. Sometimes dunking soiled diapers is kind of a pain, even if our diaper sprayer makes it a little easier. But I think the convenience is outweighed by the fact that the trash can fills up really fast (dumpster trips with Kevin in tow generally take about an hour), and the packages of diapers also disappeared really quickly. I think we'd be spending about $15 a week just on diapers if we weren't doing cloth. I expect that our prefolds will last through several children and we'll only have to replace covers, so if we get twelve covers per child then that would be less than $200 for diapering one child until they're potty trained. So it was nice to get a reminder that the small amount of extra work actually is saving us some money. But then, I don't mind doing laundry too much. And I don't have to wash my diapers by hand.

This week I had two tests. Then Ryan got sick, then Heidi and I got sick. On Friday we decided to just order a pizza. It took me a while to get over the fact that I was giving up and ordering a pizza instead of making dinner, but then when it occurred to me that this was the first time I've done that since we got married, I decided we're not doing too bad. While Kevin and Ryan picked up the pizza, I made some pretty good headway in getting everything else cleaned up.

I am enjoying both of my classes. In my history class, we write two papers, take a midterm and an exam (which are also actually papers), and read seven books, which we discuss in recitation sections. It has actually been a blessing to have reading books incorporated into school, because normally I don't have much time to read books during the semester. So far I've enjoyed all the books, and I appreciate the new views they have given me about recent world history.

Look what I made last night.

Before K was born I started making some washable changing pads (which I also posted about here). I had one more left to do, but Kevin was born and I never got around to finishing it. Ten months later, I finally did it. It was a lot easier to make it without having to maneuver around a large belly. I think it turned out to be pretty cute.

I have also been intending to make a wet bag for our diapers. We have been using an old pillowcase, but it doesn't quite fit around the top of the diaper trash can, so we were hooking it around three of the corners, which was getting a little annoying because it would fall sometimes. This is much better.

my take on cloth diapering

I think I should explain before I begin that I am very wary of anything that sounds like extreme environmentalism. I do think it's a good idea to manage our resources wisely, and Ryan and I do a lot of basic things like recycling and trying not to waste food, paper, or power. But many people have gotten really extreme about environmental things, and I just don't feel good about that. When I read statistics that are supposed to make me feel guilty about the footprint I'm leaving on this earth, I feel confused and almost dark, which is not the same thing I feel when something motivates me to do something good. I do think God gave us the responsibility to take care of the earth as well as we can, but I also think that we need to remember what is said in D&C 104:7: "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves." God gave us our agency so we could choose how we use this earth, but He prepared it, and He made the earth so that there would be plenty of all the things our mortal bodies would need. I think there are some people who have gotten so extreme in trying to save the planet that they start to convince themselves that it's a bad thing that humans are on the earth, and that is not true. The earth was specially prepared for us as a place for us to have bodies and learn and grow. We are the reason the earth was formed. So when we get so concerned about preserving the environment that we get distracted from those sacred truths, that's a problem.

That's why I was initially turned off from cloth diapering. Yes, people still do cloth diapering, and it's actually becoming quite trendy. I did some research into it to figure out what it would cost and what kind of work it would involve, and I discovered what Ryan and I call The Church of the Holy Cloth Diaper. It's doctrines include such "facts" (which may or may not be true--but I didn't see a lot of citation or good proof in the things I read) as: Each baby will add about two tons of diapers to the landfills (we calculated this and it actually seems about right), disposable diapers have all sorts of toxic and harmful ingredients that are bad for the environment and your baby's skin and lungs, the dirty diapers in landfills are polluting our groundwater, it takes several hundred years for a disposable diaper to decompose (don't know how they figured that one out), and so on. Like I said, I don't know if these things are true or not. It's probably a mixture of truth and falsehoods (made up, discovered from bad science, spread and distorted by word of mouth . . . who knows?). But I didn't like the feeling that all these people are trying to make good mothers feel guilty about something as minor as what they use to cover their babies' bottoms--there are so many other things that are infinitely more important in good mothering. Then I saw the prices for some of the cloth diapers that are available, and I decided that somebody is cheating people in the name of saving the environment. One BumGenius diaper is $17.95. Yes, they're really nice cloth diapers with everything built in and they will fit the baby all throughout their diapering days, but I'm still not sure if they're worth quite that much. And you can get other diapers that are even more expensive that are supposed to be even more "environmentally friendly." Maybe I'm just cheap, but that was my impression. So that was why at first I decided not to do cloth diapering--I felt that a lot of people were getting pretty extreme, and since that made me uncomfortable, I didn't want to support it or get involved. I'm not saying that it's wrong to use cloth diapers as a way to protect the environment--I'm saying that if you get so religious about it that you forget about doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ, then there's a problem.

By the way, washing and drying cloth diapers does take a lot of energy and water. It seems to me that it's hard to tell whether disposable diapers filling up landfills is better or worse than polluting the atmosphere and using lots of water.

That being said, we did ultimately decide to start using cloth diapers. But I am NOT a member of The Church of the Holy Cloth Diaper. We only did it to save money. We have been using cloth diapers for Kevin since mid-December. And I actually really like it. We calculated that about the time of Kevin's first birthday, the cloth diapers will have paid for themselves, and after that we will be making money. Plus, I don't have to haul sacks of dirty disposable diapers all the way to the dumpster (which is a bit of a distance from our apartment . . . yes, I'm lazy). I would much rather do a little laundry than be constantly carrying smelly sacks to the dumpster.

Speaking of "all that laundry," I don't think it's that bad. We wash diapers about every other day, so that's 3-4 times per week. I do a rinse cycle and then a regular wash cycle. It takes less than a minute to put the dirty diapers in the washing machine and start the rinse, 15 seconds to add soap and start the regular wash cycle, about a minute to transfer the diapers to the dryer and hang up the covers, and about five minutes to sort it all out and put it away after the dryer is finished. So I would guess I spend at the most half an hour per week washing diapers, and I haven't noticed the missing half hour. It's not like I have to stay there the whole time they're washing. Laundry isn't really a chore for me, though. I rather enjoy it. If I had to slap my diapers on rocks to wash them and then ring them out and hang them out on the line to dry, I would say no, it is definitely not worth it to do cloth diapering. I have no idea how the pioneer mothers did it. But with a washer and dryer to do it all for me, it's not so bad.

Yes, the soiled diapers are disgusting. It's hard to not touch dirty toilet water when you're dunking a dirty diaper. But I bought some rubber gloves for $0.82 and now it's not that bad. And the first rinse cycle in the washer gets off whatever doesn't come off easily. P.S. If you're worried about the smell, well, you have to deal with smelly diapers whether you do cloth or disposable diapers. I haven't smelled a difference.

Some people rave about how you get fewer diaper rashes with cloth. That hasn't been my experience. Maybe it's because I'm using prefolds instead of fancy BumGenius diapers (to save a couple hundred dollars). But we never saw the trace of a rash until we started using cloth. I think it's because disposable diapers are built to pull the moisture into the diaper and away from the baby's skin, and since prefolds are just cloth, they don't do that, so the moisture stays against Kevin's skin. I started using A&D (the kind with zinc oxide) before I put him to bed for the night, and that seems to keep the rashes away for the most part. As an experiment, I stopped using the A&D for a couple of days to see if a rash would appear, and he did get a rash (obviously, I would have to do more tests to make this a reliable experiment). I imagine it depends on the baby and a lot of different factors.

Oh, and in my experience, cloth diapers don't usually leak. With disposable diapers, we had to deal with at least one leak per day, and more than that when he was very small .

You really can save money by using cloth diapers, as long as you don't get too crazy with all the extras or try to collect all different kinds of diapers and if you're careful with shipping costs. There are things like wipe warmers, special cloth baby wipe solution (you can make your own for pennies), expensive "natural" detergents (you do have to be careful about which detergent you use because some cause buildup on the diapers, but there are cheap brands that work just fine), diaper doublers (again, you could probably make your own), and other things that might not really be necessary, although if they make life nicer for you then feel free to use them. You also have to factor in the cost of using the washer and dryer more often. Our energy and water are a flat rate, so the cost of those hasn't increased for us. I'd be interested to hear if it's still worthwhile from someone whose utilities depend on amount of usage. Here is a breakdown of what we have paid for diapers:

1. 36 premium size prefolds (factory seconds from clothdiaper.com): $57.03
   
2. Several flat diapers that my mom made but never used: $0 (or several hundred dollars if you count the plane trip : ) )
   
3. 4 Thirsties size 2 Duo diaper covers (bought from a local store, so no shipping costs involved): $54.95
   
4. 2 yards of flannel to make 25 two-layer cloth wipes: $8.07
5. Squirt bottle for squirting wipe solution on wipes: $1
6. Baby oil and baby wash for wipe solution: $0 (I got a lot of those at the baby shower)
   
7. Trash can for holding dirty diapers: $8.99
8. Rubber gloves: $0.82
9. Old pillowcase for wetbag: $0 (I'm going to make something better when I have the time, though.)
   

Total: $130.86. And we don't have to buy anything else for the duration of K's diapering days. We calculated that we would have spent $410 on diapers from the time we started cloth diapering to the time K is potty trained if we continued with disposables. This is assuming about five diapers a day and $0.15 per diaper (because we used Kroger brand, which is just as good as Huggies), for 18 more months. We also estimated that we would spend $180 more on baby wipes in the same time period because we went through three boxes of Kirkland baby wipes (about $20 per box) in about six months. So we would have spent almost $600 on diapers and wipes before K is toilet trained, which means we saved about $470. That estimate might be a little low. Other people might save more or less if they use more expensive disposable diapers or if they choose to use more expensive kinds of cloth diapers.

To explain what kind of diapers we use: Prefolds are basically several layers of cotton stitched together, with more layers in the middle than on the sides. Flat diapers are a big piece of cloth that you fold into a diaper shape--this actually isn't that hard, and sometimes I prefer flats because they are less bulky than prefolds, which means K can wear some of his older pairs of pants. The Thirsties diaper covers are kind of like the plastic pants of my babyhood, except they are made of nicer plastic that's not so rustly and they are shaped like a disposable diaper with elastic around the legs and velcro to fasten them. They come in two sizes and have snaps so that you can adjust the size as the baby grows, which means you only have to buy two sets of covers--one for when they're small, and one for when they're big. I don't use any pins. I just lay the diaper in the cover and fasten it with the velcro, tucking in any loose fabric from the cloth part when I'm done. The covers can usually be used several times before needing to be washed. The prefolds will definitely last for more than one child. I'm not sure about the covers. They might wear out. They are starting to pill a little bit at the legs.

Here's what K looks like in his cloth diapers:





Pretty cute, huh? I think cloth diapers are cuter than disposable diapers. I was never much of a fan of the v-shaped, saturated disposable diaper look. Kevin does look kind of like a pear sometimes when his clothes cover the diaper, though--they are a lot more bulky than disposable diapers.

Oh, and I have nothing against BumGenius diapers. The only reason we chose prefolds and covers was because it was a slightly cheaper option. BumGenius seem to be really great diapers.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my thoughts because they're a little different than what most people who write about it seem to think. There are a lot of good reasons to use cloth diapers, and there are also plenty of valid reasons to not use cloth diapers, and I wouldn't want anyone to think I don't respect them because of the kind of diaper they use.