July 21, 2011

Cloth Diapers

I use cloth diapers most of the time on my baby.
I use the disposable at night time, and when we go out.

I guess I can be considered "green" in today's term, but I'm just stingy.
I didn't want to spend so much money on something you throw away.

When I was pregnant with my first born, I did some research.
Is it worth it?
The research showed that, if you're to use it only on one kid, it's really not worth it.
Cloth diapers are not cheap. Diaper cover alone cost about $20-30.
Especially if the baby is to be toilet trained soon, you only need diapers for two or three years.
You also factor in the electricity & water cost to wash these diapers.

I still decided to go with cloth diapers, because we knew we wanted more than one kid, plus if it costs about the same, why not go green way?

People say it's too much work to use cloth diapers...
but I didn't feel it's that bad.
First of all, I don't recommend using cloths diaper for the first month or two, because the baby poops almost every diaper change, so it would be time consuming to wash it every time, when you're still recovering from giving birth.
(And you have to hand wash it if it's poop!)
Luckily we got so much disposable diapers as baby shower gifts, so we didn't start using cloths until about late 2 months, and by then the baby only poops once or twice a day.
If it's just pee, I just rinse it real quick, and keep it in the bucket with detergent, and wash it all when I do the laundry (I wash clothes everyday).
I bought diaper covers and some cloths diapers from Japan.
Unlike some of the American ones that diaper & cover are together, they're like feminine pad, that you put it the diaper cover, and you can only change the cloth.
http://www.baby-angel.net/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=23&osCsid=f54537d44b57f8796923cdefc9c75d0a
Here's what I thought about them.

Diaper cover - Make sure it's not too thin & frimsy.
I bought 2 or 3 thin ones because they were so much cheaper, but the pee goes through so fast that I had to change it along with the cloths diaper.

Diapers - There're two types.
The "original" just a cloth that you fold, and the "new" diaper that many layers of cloths are already stitched together.
Good and bad for both.
You need to fold the original ones after every wash, but after laundry, it dries up so fast! Sometimes it dried in an hour or two. (we live in the very dry area)
The new ones are ready to go, so it's easy to use, but it takes longer to dry.
It normally doesn't dry until the next day.
(Oh, I forgot to mention that we hang dry our clothes...
I guess it doesn't matter if you wash & use dryer to dry.)

After using it on two kids, I just love cloth diapers...
It seems so much softer on them, and you can change them as soon as they go, without worrying about the cost (well, once you buy them in the beginning).

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