Saturday, February 25, 2012

fluffy bottom {the basics}

back when we first learned i was pregnant i had gotten the idea stuck in my head to cloth diaper. i am not 100% sure why i was stuck on this, but i was. so i started to look into cloth diapering options.

as a child i remember having a billion old cloth diapers in our home that we used as rags. my mom explained that she cloth diapered me. over the years i slowly got more of the stories. my mom decided to cloth diaper me thanks to horrible diaper rash i was having from disposables, thanks to an allergy. yes i have a very sensitive rear end, still do. my mom told me that originally she used a diaper service, but after a little time she decided to do it herself. figured why pay someone to wash them when she could easily do it herself. i heard stories of the plastic pants that she put over the cloth, how horrible they were. some days she would let me run around in just the cloth so my bottom could breath. i have heard horror stories about the pins, thankfully my mom never stuck me. lastly, apparently i was potty trained before i was even close to being two years old! which my mom thinks is because i hated being wet, cloth does not let you feel dry all.

well as i did my research the idea became a better and better option to me. the biggest reason, the money we would save over the two years you typically diaper a child. secondly, i was fearful our child would have my sensitive skin and cloth seemed to be a better route for that. i really was not sure what i was getting into, but i quickly realized the days of diapering like my mom did with me are over. cloth diapering has come a long way in the 25+ years. no more plastic pants and no more scary diaper pins. we are now in the days of cute diaper covers and a neat little invention called the "snappi." as well as aio diapers, pocket diapers, hybrids & prefolds. all of which were very foreign to me. well now adays there are several methods to cloth diapering. i ended up meeting a friend one afternoon at the local cloth diaper store, zoolikins, to find out more and see the diapers in person.

aio diapers: are the easiest and most simple form of cloth diapering. they are all-in-one. so put on just like a disposable, then just put in the wash as is. easy.


pocket diapers: are similar to the AIO, only they have an absorbant insert that you remove. makes it so you can change how absorbant the diaper is. and in turn makes for faster drying since you are taking out the insert when cleaning.


hybrids: have a reusable cover, but a disposable absorbant insert, usually flushable. there are now serval brands that are fairly common. flip diapers & g diapers are two examples. these also take a reusable insert, if you so choose. {i do not own any of these, check out the links above for more info}

prefolds & diaper covers: this is the closest method to what my mother did with me. it is a two step diaper. the first is the flat prefold diaper that you fold around childs bottom and use a snappi to hold in place. next you place a diaper cover on top.

 

well after all my information gathering to go the route of the prefold and covers. why? because it is the cheapest method of cloth diapering and for me the main reason for cloth diapering was the cost savings. so far i am a month in and i am loving it! i have not looked back to the world of disposables and doubt that i will.


plus little man does not seem to mind that he sports the fluffy bottom look!

3 comments:

Cari said...

I love this thanks for sharing. I tried the cloth diaper route with Matthew but fail miserably. I think if I would have had this info I know I would have a tried harder.

Randi@SowderingAbout said...

I am still having issues with the prefolds which sucks because I have a million of them.

Maybe in the near future I will just take a full day and practice.

Thanks for sharing!!!

Molly said...

Cool! We have tried CDing with our kid who wets the bed, but it is so much easier if he can take care of his own diapers. But, we will definitely cloth diaper if we have a little one in diapers in the future!