Sunday, November 22, 2009

Cloth Diaper Update

I've been thinking about making some additional comments on our experience with cloth diapers for a while now. I finally decided that now would be the time to provide an update. Nate is about 4.5 months old and we've been using cloth diapers for about four months now.

From previous post, we had decided to try a mix of cloth diapers from Bum Genius and FuzziBunz. Overall, I would say we are very happy with the cloth diapers and would do it all over again if we had to make the decision again today.

Overall Thoughts on Cloth Diapering

Cost - We really are seeing a nice cost savings. Except for the first couple weeks where Nate would not fit into the cloth diapers we had bought (Nate was early and weighed 6lb when we brought him home) we've used almost all cloth diapers. We have some disposables for when we are out or traveling. So after going through the large stash we brought home from the hospital we've spent a grand total of $45 on disposable diapers (the cloth diapers were a significant investment) and most of that was spent in the first few weeks where he was too small for our cloth diapers or while we were using disposables at night. There an extra time investment to clean and prepare cloth diapers as well as an extra wash load or two every week.

Ease of use - These are not our parents cloth diapers. I was raised in cloth diapers and my parents are impressed on how easy the cloth diapers we purchased are to use. The are certainly as easy as disposables to use. There are no pins or complicated fasteners.

Cleaning/Washing - We have not started giving Nate solid foods and he currently 100% breastfed so we don't have to deal with solids we need to dump in toilet or even the strong odors that we know are coming as his diet changes. It certainly does take more time to save each diaper and wash them, but the amount of trash we have to take out is certainly far reduced. Certainly there is a cost to washing all the diapers, but I certainly haven't seen a significant increase in water or electricity bill.

Other thoughts - Nate has yet to have any diaper rash. We'll see if that continues. We believe that the cloth diapers are better than disposables at keeping solids in, but may be a little more susceptible to leaking.

Thoughts on the different cloth diapers

BumGenius 3.0 (one size) - These have been our favorite diapers. They are very easy to use with the flexible tabs and velcro closures. I do have some worries that they may not hold up as well over time as we can see some places where they seem rather worn. Also, you must be very diligent with the velcro. If you don't clean the velcro out regularly they will get more difficult to use and velcro tabs curl up. The velcro seems seems to be a magnet for any threads or hair even when attached to appropriate pads.

FuzziBunz One Size - Would be a close second. They adjust more than the BumGenius which is nice as Nate grows. The snaps are easy to close and they have worked out very well.

FuzziBunz Perfect Size Small - We've been slightly disappointed here. They are still great diapers, but they are more susceptible to leaking and with only two snaps and less adjustments they don't seem to fit Nate as well as the others. Finally, pretty soon Nate will grow out of these as they are supposed to be for approximately 8 - 22 pounds.

At some point I'll make some additional comments around our cloth diaper experience.

1 comment:

  1. Good job sticking with it... for cloth diapering was something we wanted to try but chickened out, lol... maybe for the next one we'll give it a shot.

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