Cloth Diapers: An Intro

This is the first of several posts on cloth diapers.

If there is something I swore I would never ever even consider doing but I do now, it is cloth diapering my child! As my awesome mother-in-law (not being sarcastic, fortunately) puts it, "babies make you eat your nevers"!

What took over me? I wanted to save money. And, for some reason, part of me felt like it would be kind of cool to cloth diaper Amor Chiquito! But, ultimately, I blame the ladies on the WebMD parenting boards! They talked me into it!

Disposable diapers are more convenient, so why cloth diapers? Below are several reasons:
If you care about the environment, disposable diapers filling our landfills…
If you don't want whatever chemicals are on disposable diapers on your child's skin…
If your child keeps getting a diaper rash…
If you want to save money, $500 easy, a lot more than that if you begin using them from day 1…
If you think they are cute as heck…!

Things to think about:

Cloth diapering definitely requires more time than using disposable diapers. You need to wash the diapers every 3 days.

It will take a few days for you and the other caregivers to get the hang of it, but, once you do, putting on a cloth diaper on a baby is a piece of cake.

Cloth diapers will seem quite pricey at first, but, do the math. There will be no need to buy diapers every few weeks.

So, if you can afford the one-time investment, if you are willing to wash diapers every 3 days, and if you are willing to go up the learning curve, it might be a good idea for your family for various reasons.

I will be honest; at first, my #1 reason to use cloth diapers with Amor Chiquito was to save money. I was pretty darn proud of having been able to save us hundreds of dollars because we never bought formula. Here was another opportunity to save! Have I mentioned that I am a bargain hunter? My joke with Geeky Entrepreneur was "whatever money I manage to save us by breastfeeding and doing cloth diapers goes towards a cruise"! Sadly, I just found out that our vacation money is going to lovely Uncle Sam, but that is a whole other topic!

As time goes on, the whole doing my part to save the environment thing is growing on me, but don't tell Geeky Entrepreneur I said that! I won't hear the end of it! He is still telling everybody how his wife bought all of us "Kleeen Kanteens with a K"!

Back to cloth diapers… There are several different types. It is overwhelming to figure out what will work best for you, but there are resources to make that process easier. Here are some suggestions:

Go to diaperpin.com for a cloth diaper dictionary and to find reviews on the different diapers.

Check out this website for frequently asked questions: http://www.cottonbabies.com/clothdiapers.php

Ask questions on parenting message boards. I learned a lot from the ladies on the WebMD parenting boards, for example.

This is where I got our cloth diapers: http://nickisdiapers.com/. Free shipping on many of their products. Good prices, when compared to other cloth diaper online stores. I did not have any negative experiences with this store.

Start by buying a few different types of diapers. Stuck up on your favorite. Reviews are beyond helpful, but what works for my child might not work for yours. Some diapers are better for tall kids; some are better for chubby kids.

More on cloth diapers later!