Cloth Diapering

We started cloth diapering as an experiment to see if it actually helped us save money.

Our initial investment was less than 20 bucks. We bought two packs of prefold cd's and a package of pins. Later, we were gifted a package of plastic pants (3 pair per pack.) And i used these for nearly 2 months.

For a long while, i'd been researching the "Fancy" cd's trying to decide which i wanted to use. One day i just happened to stumble upon www.kellyscloset.com and found Mommy Touch Velcro cd's listed in the Sale/ Discontinued section for 8 (EIGHT!!) dollars each. I ordered 15 of them. It made the price high enough that i got free shipping. I made the mistake of not purchasing the stuffers so i have just stuffed them with folded prefolds. *shrugs* It works. We spent almost $150.00 on the Mommy's Touch.

Ofcourse, i learned quickly that an 8 week old wets and dirtys many more than 15 diapers in a single day. lol Especially a Breastfed baby that will have a bm after every feeding up untill she's about 4 months old. So i decided to beg to get another set to help out. It was tiresome having to wash diapers every night. Since Kelly's closet didn't have anything in the sale/discontinued section that looked tempting to me. i started looking other places. I absolutely can not see paying any more than 10 bucks for a diaper so i shop around. A lot. I finally found a store on Ebay (FlyLaser3721) where i could get 20 "BabyLand" cd's for $100.00. That's like 5 bucks a piece. And they're well made. I even like the snaps better than the velcro. They even came with the inserts (which are worth the extra money if you have to buy them seperately!!!) so that was great.

Now, i have 35 fancy cd's and a slew of prefolds. I have 3 cd's that i don't use daily. I think everyone has one or two out of their stash that they just don't like. Don't seem to fit right or work right or something just isn't right. I have 3 Red Mommy's Touch Velcro cd's that just seemingly leak every use. So ive decided we'll use them for Maggie to swim in.

with 35 cd's, i can usually got about 3 days inbetween washings. It's one extra load twice a week so the additional cost on water is minimal. We hang them out to dry, too, so there's no added cost there. Even using the dryer, you can dry the diapers and stuffers together just keep an idea of how long the diapers usually take to get dry and pull them out and leave the stuffers in to finish. It's still only one extra run through twice a week.

Now, i cheat sometimes and use disposables. When Maggie wasn't sleeping through the night, i would use cd's. Now that she only wakes once during the night (or even sleeps through sometimes!) i use a disposable. Having to change her sheets every morning got tiresome, too, but i kept it up untill she was sleeping through. I also use disposables when we go out to town. On average, we have spent around $12.00 A MONTH on disposables.

Maggie is only 10 months old, and even with the 250 dollar initial investment, we've spent les than 40 bucks a month on diapering. As she gets older and the initial investment spreads out, it'll become less and less. All my cd's are One size and should fit to 35lbs. I look foward to potty training with them. =)

Here's a post from a few months back covering storage and wash days. =)

· Today is a cloth diaper wash day. This happens about every 3rd day.

I have 2 seperate containers that i keep my cd's in untill wash day. These are kind of like normal diaper pails . I use storage containers with seal tight lids. I keep the ONLY wet's in one storage container. I keep the Dirty's in a different storage container that i have a small portion of water in to help them keep from staining. The water keeps the poops moist and so it doesnt set into the material. I don't flush any poops off ours before they go into the container because that would mean hiking up and down the stairs after every diaper change. Instead, on diaper wash day i take the dirty's out, dump the water into the drive way and rinse them thoroughly with the water hose. then i rinse the drive way. lol Rinse the container, refill with water and take it back into the house. Flushing is easier for most people, though.

then all the diapers and stuffers go into the wash together. I used to seperately wash the diapers from the stuffers when i had to dry them in the dryer. The diapers only take 10 mins (if that) to dry in the dryer. the stuffers, however, take a little longer and the diapers don't need to be in the dryer any longer than they absolutely have to be.

Anyway, since i line dry them now, i toss em in to wash all together. I use Cheer powder laundry soap. No bleach. no funny business. no softeners. just clean em. Every other wash i put in a table spoon of Dawn dish soap to strip the diapers of any kind of buildup. Since our machine has a seperate thing for "fabric softener" that can be added seperately during the wash, i just put the dawn in that. Simple.

Afterwards, i hang em to dry. Wait about an hour or two and collect my dry diapers. Shake, stuff, and set to use.

Easy as pie=) i love my life =)