All in Cloth - Blogged by JME

Every time I tell anyone that I am using cloth diapers, they give me a look as if I had told them that I like putting frog legs on my pizza - like it is the most disgusting thing they've heard all day and how could I even joke about such a thing.  But the thing is . . . I'm not joking.  I really do use cloth diapers.  My sister-in-law, Pookie, used them with her kids and I saw how well they worked and how easy they are.  These aren't the kind of diapers our parents used, ladies and gentlemen.  These are the new, and improved, cloth diapers. 

We bought our diapers from Sunbaby.  It is a company in China.  I know a lot of people frown on buying things from China, in fact, N8 even questioned it and wondered if our child was going to get lead poisoning by using these diapers.  She hasn't yet, by the way. 

We have 24 diapers that we bought for $120.  Not bad when you do the math.  We figured that if we bought Pampers or Huggies, which are about $10/40 diapers, we would have spent $120 in the first 2 months of our babies life.  The thing of it is, these diapers will last June Bug from now until she is potty trained.  Pretty nice.  Another thing, and this is the tree-hugger in me, the disposable diapers we've used for our baby will probably still be around when she is 100 years old.  Pretty sad!!!

So, doing the cloth diapers is great on our budget and also works really well for preserving the world for my child to enjoy when she is older.  It's a win, win situation.  But wait . . . there is another positive to using these diapers.  We used disposable diapers on June Bug for the first little while of her life and she had an awful rash, so bad that she would bleed.  I took her to the doctor and he told me to rotate Bacitracin, Nystatin, Desitin mixed with mylanta, and Vaseline between each diaper change.  What a pain!  Plus, it didn't get better with disposables.  However, it is remarkably improved with the cloth.  It's still here, but almost gone.   

They are really easy to use.  Both N8 and I use them without problems.  Here is how they work:  First you have a shell made of strong absorbent material on the inside and PUL (polyurethane laminate) on the outside so that the diaper won't leak.  Notice the snaps.  These snaps are there to adjust the diaper so there is a snug fit around the waist and thighs.  It will also fold over and snap so that the diaper isn't too high. 

The diaper has a pocket on the inside to fit the inserts in.  There are different kinds of inserts.  We have microfiber ones that we ordered with the diapers through Sunbaby.  They also sell bamboo inserts for night time use, but Pookie had some hemp ones that she wasn't using anymore and gave them to us.  The hemp works really well. I'm not sure how well the bamboo works as I've never tried them.

 

 

The insert fits inside the diaper.  Once the diaper is soiled, the insert does not have to be taken out again.  I really don't handle the soiled diaper any more than someone would handle a soiled disposable diaper.  All I do when I change her is take the diaper off, throw it in a bag, and when I have enough dirty diapers I just toss them in the wash.  That's all.  I don't have to rinse it off first or anything.  The inserts come out of the shell in the wash.  Of course, when she is on solids, I may have to dump the contents of the diaper in the toilet when she is done doing her duty, and then again, it just goes in the laundry to be washed.  The hardest part is hanging them out to dry, but it takes five minutes and gives me some time to myself.  It's kind of nice. 

These are the snaps on the front.  The three buttons going up and down on the diaper are to adjust the height.  The second row adjusts the diaper around baby's thighs, and the top line is for adjusting the diaper around the waist. 

Another fun thing about these diapers, is all the cute designs/colors you can order.  She is always stylin' in her Sunbaby diapers. 

 

They do make her bum puffy and as a result she's inherited a bunch of new nicknames, such as Tweedle-Dee, Oompa Loompa, Stink, Donald Duck, and Daffy Duck. It's been a great experience using these diapers so far and nice to not have the added expense of buying the disposables especially since I'm not working full time anymore.