...we are seriously considering cloth diapering the girls!I know, I know...it sounds certifiably IN.SANE.
I remember when I was pregnant with Henry, someone asked me if I was going to go cloth, and I thought to myself: "Are you crazy??? Why on EARTH would I do that to myself???!!!"
But now with two in diapers (and for a while we will have three in diapers!), I am thinking of trying it out. Apparently, cloth diapering is *really* popular with moms of multiples because of the sheer cost associated with two in disposable diapers. (Which, is the motivation behind this idea...not necessarily for the purposes of being "green"...in fact, there is huge debate over whether or not the additional water, electricity, gas and soap used in the laundering process is actually equivalent to the environmental impact of disposables. You can spend all day reading both sides of the argument, both of which swear that the other side is wrong and their data is skewed...go figure.) There are no laundering services nearby, so I'll be doing the laundry myself...which again, is supposedly not that bad. We'll see.
From everything I've read online about cloth diapering, this is the basic conclusion from moms who do it:
"Today's cloth diapering is NOTHING like what your grandma did. It is SUPER user friendly and they've made it about as simple as could be. It IS obviously more work than just throwing away a disposable, but it really isn't THAT much work and is significantly easier than you think it will be once you get the hang of it. And the cost savings is astronomical."
Either way, I think we are going to give it a shot. I'll buy all the gear and see how it goes. If it turns out that it's just way too much work, then I'll say I gave it the old college try and move on (and apparently I can sell all the stuff on ebay). But, I figure that it's worth it to give it a shot. We won't be cloth diapering Henry...it's just not worth it to do it for him at this point (although it might be a good way to hasten the potty training process???).
Unfortunately, cloth diapers don't really work for tiny newborns...so we'll stick with disposables for the newborn stage (which, ironically, is when they will use the most diapers). I haven't decided on which brands/styles/types we'll go with. I'll use some of my maternity time off to really do the research on that side of things...I have a feeling that will take HOURS.
I figure that we'll try it out...if it works, great. If not, then I won't beat myself up over it. I just think that it's worth it to give it a go and then we will have made an educated decision.
I'll keep you posted on how it works out.
9 comments:
I have a good friend who cloth diapers, her name is Jenna http://lainaslaundry.blogspot.com/
She has a lot of links on her site to questions about cloth diapers. She uses pre-folds with covers, which in the cheapest way to go. She really makes it look easy. Too much laundry for me though!
when i realized i'd have to deal with the ammonia smell (or try a million things to figure out which one worked just right with my child's pH to get rid of the ammonia smell), i decided to forget the endeavor. i've got a particularly sensitive nose!
oh, but i do hope it works for you! because buying all those disposables... yikes!
Kristen-
which type of cloth did you end up deciding on? or did you never make the final decision? if you did, are you selling the stuff you didn't use?
you go girl! i did have 3 in diapers for a long time. it was a lot of diapers. :)
BUT i was just not at a place in life where i could take on cloth.
i hope it works out! i think you end up succeeding at all your endeavors so no doubt this'll be great too!!!
Brianna-
I don't blame you for not dealing with cloth...you had bigger fish to fry! And for as long as you had three in diapers, at least you got to skip the first 18 months with the boys! I hope it works out, I'd like it to, but I won't do it at the expense of my sanity.
yes true i did get to 16 months of their diaper-lives. (though i DID have two-in-diapers-while-they-had-parasites...that was no picnic either! :) they use a lot of cloth diapers at the orphanage for money reasons...i can't imagine!)
a lot of my friends here use cloth. if i just had one baby i might try it--though probably not to be green, it would be to save money. :)
(the laundry thing seems overwhelming to me. will you do a clothesline??? and seriously i know you'll make it work!)
I know a lot of singleton mom's who use cloth. They seem to use cloth at home and disposable on the go (out and about or at daycare)! Maybe if cloth doesn't work 100% of the time it will work like that and save you a little cash?!? It cracks me up. They all swear by fuzzy buns (not sure if that is the right spelling.)
Jeannett - with Andy I had diaper service (which was cloth I didn't have to wash). When we moved, there was no service in Crestline, so I went with cloth at home and disposables on the go and it did work well for me. Both Andy and Duncan got rashes from disposables anyway. You get in a routine. The only bad times I had were when the drier broke down!
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