Taking The Leap-Cloth Diapers

  CLOTH DIAPERS
I'm really committed at this point.

 

        I'm sure most of you have heard of cloth diapers...it's not exactly a new concept, but like me, you may feel uninformed and puzzled about the whole idea. I had seen people use cloth diapers and apparently they were pretty successful and happy about it, but I just wasn't too sure about whether this was something for our family or not.
         Well, I decided today that since I am faced with the quickly approaching deadline of BABY BEING BORN and all that it was time to stop hemming and hawing about which type of diapers we were going to use and just spend the afternoon doing some research.
                                         
                              (spoiler alert: I bought twelve newborn cloth diapers today)

        

              I started my search on Pinterest, because I knew that I had pinned some information about cloth diapers to read later, and I stumbled upon a pretty helpful article:

                                       http://thecrunchymoose.com/cloth-diapers/

I liked this article because she took if from the very basics of cloth diapering and answered all of my questions, including some numbers that really helped to convince the hubs later on. The first and major argument for cloth diapers is that they are so much less expensive! The average cost for disposables from birth to potty training is about $2,000-2,500. I am looking at spending around $600 on all of my cloth diapering gear, and that includes making my own wet wipes, which I will address in another post. The coolest part is, when baby # 2 comes along (God willing!) I won't have to buy any more supplies if I take care of the diapers I have now. Another cool fact is they are already basically swim diapers so there is no need to buy any of those. Also, babies who wear cloth diapers generally don't get diaper rash. Like at all. Here's what anyone needs to get started:

•   Cloth Diapers- there are so many different types and styles! I read a great article about distinguishing between them: http://www.hellobee.com/2013/01/08/diaper-styles/ and decided that the "AIO" Or "All In One" style by bumGenius would work best for me. It's closest in style to a disposable, you don't have to stick in any inserts (they're sewn in) which means you can just throw it in the diaper bag when it's soiled, and they're not as bulky as other cloth diapers which is nice.
• A working washer/dryer: The way to get these clean is simple. Too simple. So when you take the poopy diaper off of the baby, you take it over to the toilet and you use a sprayer attachment like the one made by bumGenius and you spray it with water until its basically clean. Then, it goes into the diaper bag. When the diaper bag is full (or you are about to run out of diapers) you wash them in the washing machine. You run them through a cycle of cold and then a cycle of hot with a baby safe laundry detergent and then one more rinse cycle to get all the extra detergent out. Then tumble dry. That's it.
• Sprayer Attachment
• Wet Diaper Bag

And then they have additional inserts that you can put inside of the diapers as your little one gets bigger and is holding more in their bladder and even attachable snaps in case the diapers are getting to small. Basically, I'm sold. So I bought a dozen newborn diapers and put 24 or so regular sized diapers (which will last from newborn to toddler) on my registry at Amazon.com (just search Kali Carpenter) I wanted to see if people would gift them to me before I bought anymore. And since a single cloth diaper costs about as much as a box of diapers, I may have a cloth diaper raffle at my shower. Who knows?